[petsc-dev] Adding support memkind allocators in PETSc

[Barry Smith]

> On Jun 3, 2015, at 10:28 PM, Jed Brown <jed at jedbrown.org> wrote:
> 
> Barry Smith <bsmith at mcs.anl.gov> writes:
>>  Sure but the super high-end (DOE LCF centers) focus allows (actually
>>  loves) the need for "super brittle" stuff.  
> 
> Job security.
> 
>>  It is not the bread and butter of PETSc but if they (silly ASCR) are
>>  willing to foot our bills to do our bread and butter by pandering to
>>  the "super brittle" high-end what's the harm in pandering (aside
>>  from our souls) since we are not actually doing the work :-)
> 
> I have ethical objections to ruining the careers of scientists capable
> of doing important things.

  You are not, the few unethical bastards who have hitched their train to exascale will do their stuff regardless of whether you exist or not, meanwhile the vast majority who have not hitched their train to exascale benefit from the work you do that they can utilize to do science. The poor unfortunately souls who  are told "you must use x, y or z because of X, Y, or Z" and get screwed are not screwed by you, they are screwed by the snake oil salesman and all you can do is warn them about the snake oil salesman, which you do. Better to use a little bit of the exascale money to push it in a better direction then to allow all of that money to move things in the wrong direction; just because you can't FIX exascale doesn't mean it is unethical to use some of the money to move it slightly in a better direction.