[MOAB-dev] Q on initializing MOAB iMesh interface

[Tim Tautges]

Hi all,
   Currently in MOAB's iMesh implementation, the class structure looks like:

class MBiMesh : public Core
{...}

It's done this way because the iMesh implementation needs to keep some member data that Core doesn't need.  However, it 
also makes it impossible to construct an iMesh object from an existing Core object.  I'd like to change that.  What I'd 
like to do is change MBiMesh from "isA" to "hasA", i.e. to make MBiMesh point to an Interface object.  The MBiMesh 
object would keep track of whether it constructed MOAB or was passed one, so it would know whether it could destroy it 
in iMesh_dtor.  I'd also like to enable the Interface::query_interface method to return an iMesh instance, consistent 
with other interfaces it already handles.  The net effect of all this would that applications could gain access to an 
iMesh interface on a transient basis, e.g. if they wanted to call a service implemented in iMesh but not MOAB.

Does anybody see any problem with this approach, or think I should do it differently?

- tim

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              Tim Tautges            Argonne National Laboratory
          (tautges at mcs.anl.gov)      (telecommuting from UW-Madison)
          phone: (608) 263-8485      1500 Engineering Dr.
            fax: (608) 263-4499      Madison, WI 53706