As both an imlementor and end user I will make a suggestion that will
probably make most of you cringe. I would have gone even further
with the definition of constants under MPI-1. I would have liked to
see the actual values (i.e. integers) for the constants defined in
the standard. And, I would like to say that no MPI function could
be defined as a macro. Why? So that the particular mpi library
implementation could be loaded at run-time using shared-object
libraries without having to re-compile the code.
For example, if my job is to be wholly contained within an SGI I
would set-up the environment to load the SGI optimized shared-library
version of MPI for use within a single box. If my job is to be
split between an SGI and several other boxes, I could set up my
environment to load shared object versions of MPICH or CHIMP at
run time. In this way, I can use the same binary of my application
and load the best library implementation for the particular job
that I am running.
It is too late to consider something like this. However, I
figured it was worth having people think about it.
-- ==================================================================== Craig J Fischberg E-mail: Craig.Fischberg@ae.ge.com GE Aircraft Engines Phone: 513-552-2716 One Neumann Way M/D T207 Fax: 513-552-3153 Cincinnati, OH 45215-6301 ====================================================================