itaps-parallel Overloading entity-set functions

[Tim Tautges]

Devine, Karen D wrote:
> At bootcamp and in subsequent email, we discussed the idea of overloading
> the entity set handle in many ITAPS functions with a part handle.  In light
> of our recent decision to augment the interface with Carl's 16 functions,
> do you think this overloading capability is still needed?   Talking points:
> 
> -  Carl's 16 functions accomplish many of the same capabilities when the
> entity set passed to them is the root set.  If we did not allow the
> overloading, would we need additional functions beyond Carl's sixteen?
> 

I presume so, since Carl's additions applied to the intersection between 
queries to the part and set arguments to the functions.

> -  If we pass part handles in place of entity set handles, do we also need
> to pass partition handles in place of mesh instances?  Or would parts "know"
> which partition they belong to?   (I raised this question before, thinking
> that parts would be uniquely identified by a (partition_handle, part_handle)
> pair, just as entities are identified by a (mesh_instance, entity_handle)
> pair.  But maybe the pairing isn't necessary or is too inconvenient for
> parts?)
> 

I don't think we do.  The Part handle is still linked to the iMesh 
instance, which still contains the actual data in the part.

> -  Do all iMesh functions require the mesh instance as the first argument?
> (Seems so for the multiplexer.)  Or could a substituted partition handle
> "know" which mesh instance to use?  When creating a partition handle, we do
> pass it a mesh instance and a communicator, so a partition handle could
> "know" which mesh instance to use.
> 

Keeping an iMesh instance as the first argument to every function is 
desirable for preserving the mapping back to the SIDL interface, which 
is still (I think) an interface worth preserving.  If you replaced it 
with a partition handle, then either we'd have to interpret that 
argument as the interface instance in the mapping to the SIDL-based 
interface, or we'd have the interpretation of the first argument vary 
depending whether it's the serial or parallel interface.  I think it's 
best to keep the notion of interface instance and partition/part/set 
distinct.

- tim

> Karen
> 
> 
> 

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              Tim Tautges            Argonne National Laboratory
          (tautges at mcs.anl.gov)      (telecommuting from UW-Madison)
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