(j3.2006) (SC22WG5.4022) [ukfortran] LOCK/UNLOCK question

[Bill Long]

N.M. Maclaren wrote:

> 
> In my experience, the unstructured nature of aliasing control is a more
> important factor, but I agree that getting unstructured parallelism controls
> right is error-prone in the hands of experts and completely hopeless in the
> hands of non-experts.

I dislike this sort of imperious condescension. While it might be the 
case that some hapless beginners will get things wrong, there are a lot 
of very good programmers out there who directly benefit from access to 
powerful features. They should not have their hands tied. Rather, we 
should cater to their needs.


....


> 
> I agree that it would be better to separate atomics, SYNC MEMORY and locks 
> out into a separate module, for 'library implementors' only, and keep the 
> basic features at a higher and more robust level. 

I also don't entirely agree with the philosophy that all sophisticated 
coding should be confined in libraries where it is hidden from all but a 
few self-appointed experts.  It's quite possible that someone else would 
come up with a new approach that is better - as long as (s)he has access 
to the tools.


Cheers,
Bill



-- 
Bill Long                                   longb at cray.com
Fortran Technical Support    &              voice: 651-605-9024
Bioinformatics Software Development         fax:   651-605-9142
Cray Inc., 1340 Mendota Heights Rd., Mendota Heights, MN, 55120