[petsc-dev] New Year's renaming: DMComplex

[Tim Tautges]

Too late to matter, but I wonder why there's such aversion to longer names.  Going from DMComplex to DMPlex goes from 
misleading to neutral/useless.  If you had to field questions about DMComplex, I don't think DMPlex is going to get rid 
of those questions much.  To me, DMCellComplex is the clear choice, or if you just can't bear the extra few characters, 
then DMMesh would be almost as good.

- tim

On 01/01/2013 04:02 PM, Jed Brown wrote:
> DM means "da mediator" [1] ;-)
>
> It is an interface that has been around for a long time and I'm not sure that a longer descriptive name would help.
> DMComplex, on the other hand was new in 3.3 and not really ready for use at that time. It's still young enough that a
> name change won't cause much pain, but we have to do it soon.
>
> Are there any serious objections to me renaming it to DMPlex?
>
> [1] "discretization module/manager" is an alternate backronym.
>
> On Jan 1, 2013 8:36 AM, "Karl Rupp" <rupp at mcs.anl.gov <mailto:rupp at mcs.anl.gov>> wrote:
>
>     Hi,
>
>         Can DMComplex also be used with real numbers?   ;-)
>
>         Yes, still the most commonly-asked question, and not likely to be fixed
>         by popularity. The new year sounds like a good excuse to fix this
>         confusion. Possible suggestions to fight the confusion:
>
>         * DMPlex - short and pronounceable
>
>
>     I prefer this name over the two others.
>
>
>         * DMCC - "Cell Complex"
>
>         * DMCW - from "CW Complex"
>
>
>         Matt, can we choose something and do the batch rename soon (before
>         petsc-3.4)? I'll make you an auto-generated deprecated compatibility
>         header if you want that.
>
>         I'm sick of needlessly confusing users.
>
>
>     Other suggestions:
>
>     * DMCellComplex - a bit lengthy, but expressive. Four additional letters
>
>     * DMCellSpace - a CW complex is a class of spaces, but a user usually refers to a particular space. It's only two
>     more letters than DMComplex.
>
>     Furthermore, is 'DM' sufficiently expressive? I know that there is a whole family of DM*-functionality, but if we
>     change the name of something as fundamental as DMComplex, then one can also think about adjusting the prefix as well
>     (if required)...
>
>     Best regards and happy new year,
>     Karli
>
>

-- 
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              Tim Tautges            Adjunct Professor, Engr. Physics
          (tautges at engr.wisc.edu)    University of Wisconsin-Madison
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