(j3.2006) TKR for C Interop

[Bill Long]

Aleksandar Donev wrote:

>
>Should type and/or rank information be included in the descriptors, that is, 
>when one creates a descriptor one must supply them, and one can get them out 
>of a descriptor previously created? [The old proposal does this for rank 
>only.]
>

Yes.

>
>If the answer is yes, then there better be some use for it. If one cannot use 
>the same C procedure to handle arguments of different type and rank, then 
>including TKR info in the API is useless, and adds burden to the programmer 
>(since it complicates the descriptor API).
>

That was not at all the primary motivation for including tkr information 
in the descriptor.  The reason was to give vendors enough information to 
create valid dope vectors.  Not just one vendor, but all the vendors.  
This is a basic implementation and performance issue.  To say that the 
TKR information is "useless" without these other features is just nonsense.

Cheers,
Bill

-- 
Bill Long                                   longb at cray.com
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