[Mpi-comments] More on "MPI-3.0 public draft and call for comments"

[Richard Graham]

Fernando,
  First, thanks a lot for responding to the request for information - we really appreciate this.
  Comments in line.

Thanks,
Rich

-----Original Message-----
From: mpi-comments-bounces at lists.mpi-forum.org [mailto:mpi-comments-bounces at lists.mpi-forum.org] On Behalf Of Fernando G. Tinetti
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2012 9:53 AM
To: mpi-comments at mpi-forum.org
Subject: [Mpi-comments] More on "MPI-3.0 public draft and call for comments"

Hi, I'm commenting/suggesting some details about

http://meetings.mpi-forum.org/mpi3.0_draft_2.pdf

because I received the e-mail from
"
Rolf Rabenseifner <rabenseifner at hlrs.de>
to: 	fernando at info.unlp.edu.ar
subject: 	 MPI-3.0 public draft and call for comments
"

However, I did not receive any reply to my previous comment/question.
Anyway, I'll make some extra comments, including the previous one:

1) I read at the end of page ii:
"
c 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2008, 2009, 2012 University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee. Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted, provided the University of Tennessee copyright notice and the title of this document appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the University of Tennessee.
"

Is it right? If so, could you give a short explanation (or a link
to) about the reason/s?

[rich] For historical reasons.  The first copyright was owned by the University of Tennessee, as it helped start the forum in the first place, with Professor Dongarra being co-chair of the MPI-1 effort.


2) Given that of the "MPI: A Message-Passing Interface Standard"
    is from the "Message Passing Interface Forum" (page i in the .pdf)
    a minimum explanation of what the forum is and how it has evolved
    is in order. There are some explanations in pages iii-iv, references
    to MPI Forum, MPI-2 Forum (pp. iii, xxi, xxiv), and MPI-3 Forum
    (p. xxix) and I think it is not clear how those forums are made up
    e.g. the meeting itself is the Forum? The text at page 2
    "These meetings and the email discussion together constituted the
     MPI Forum, membership of which has been open to all members of the
     high performance computing community."
    is clear about the 1993 decision, but I did not see a clear reference
    to the current Forum definition, Forum (committee/s) members, etc. I
    would like to see an informal MPI Forum evolution such as that given
    for MPI in pp. iii-iv.
[rich] Look at meetings.mpi-forum.org - the current structure is described there.  Membership and voting rights ebb and flow, as this is a voluntary organization, with organizational voting rights determined solely by participation at the Forum meetings.


3) I suggest a minor change in the text in p. 1 from "
The goal of the Message-Passing Interface simply stated is to develop a widely used standard for writing message-passing programs. As such the interface should establish a practical, portable, e
fficient, and flexible standard for message passing.

A complete list of goals follows.
"

    to

"
The goal of the Message-Passing Interface simply stated is to develop a widely used standard for writing message-passing programs. As such the interface should establish a practical, portable, e
fficient, and flexible standard for message passing. A complete list of goals follows.
"

    since I think the complete list is part of the paragraph defining
    goals of MPI.

[rich]  Thanks for the suggestion.  In general, we try to avoid such sweeping statements, unless they add things to the standard that are not present in other parts of the document.  We have found that with such a large document, when the standard moves forward it is too easy to miss such broad statements when the standard is being changed, producing inconsistencies in the document.




Best regards,

Fernando.
---
La parte gris de las zapatillas es bien resbalosa, con ésas voy como Flash por la baranda de la escalera.
(Santi, 7 años)


----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.



_______________________________________________
mpi-comments mailing list
mpi-comments at lists.mpi-forum.org
http://lists.mpi-forum.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/mpi-comments