[MOAB-dev] Confusion between classes and executables in tools dir

[Tim Tautges]

Hi all,
   In the current source layout, the tools subdir contains a mix of runtime utilities, like mbsize and mbconvert, and 
tool classes like Coupler and Zoltan.  Tool classes end up being put in their own libraries, like libmbcoupler.a and 
libmbzoltan.a.  I think that's confusing, and a nuisance, because moab.make doesn't put those extra libraries in 
MOAB_LIBS_LINK (I'd call the latter a bug, actually).  We could do a number of things to fix this:

a) create a separate top-level directory next to tools, named maybe runutils, to contain programs like mbsize, 
mbconvert, etc., and put the tool classes into another library named libMOABtools, the contents of which would depend on 
configuration
b) make a top-level directory runutils as in a), but move tools down to src/tools, and put the tool classes in libMOAB

Option b) would beg the further question of whether we should move the core classes down to a subdir as well.  I think 
that would make the source better structured, but I'm reluctant to go any further because I find it difficult to work 
with deep, sparsely-populated directory structures.

Thoughts?

- tim

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