[mpiwg-tools] proposed text

[Jeff Squyres (jsquyres)]

Here's what I understand from Martin+me at the end of the call:

- name and desc are OUT strings, for both control and perf vars.  So we need to have this whole mess apply to all 4 cases.

- we keep the idea of separating the two concepts:
  1. the (conceptual) internal value for the string, which will be identical across connected processes
  2. copying it to an output buffer, where it may be truncated

- so up in 14.3.3, have a definition for "<foo> strings" (someone come up with a better name than "<foo>"):
  - an MPI implementation behaves if the string is identical across all connected processes
  - when this string is copied to an output buffer, it may be truncated (e.g., if the user specifies an output buffer length that is too small).

- Then in the four cases (name/desc for control/perf vars), say that they are <foo> strings.  For example, "desc is a <foo> string (see section 14.3.3)".

Something along these lines...

-- 
Jeff Squyres
jsquyres at cisco.com
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