[petsc-dev] KSPAddOptionsChecker() needed?

[Jed Brown]

On Thu, 24 Jun 2010 21:35:06 -0500, Barry Smith <bsmith at mcs.anl.gov> wrote:
> 
>    This brings up a "why the heck are we writing PETSc in C anyways" question
> 
>    We have
> 
>      KSPSetOptionsPrefix(), PC, SNES etc. AND PetscObjectSetOptionsPrefix() all do the same thing
> 
>      KSPSetFromOptions(), Vec, Mat, PC etc but NO PetscObjectSetFromOptions()
> 
>      PetscObjectSetName() but NO KSPSetName() etc
> 
>     If we have a XXXSetOptionsPrefix() for each separate class then why not a XXXAddOptionsHandler() for each separate class? Or should we remove all the XXXSetOptionsPrefix() but if we remove all of them why not remove all the XXXSetFromOptions() and just always call a PetscObjectSetFromOptions()

XXXSetFromOptions is a "beginner" level function, I don't like the
(PetscObject) cast in this context.  Also, the manual page for the
specific version still has relevant information in a reasonable location
so I wouldn't be too eager to remove it in favor of always calling
PetscObjectSetFromOptions.

Jed