Re: MPI_SPAWN() info proposal

James Cownie (jcownie@bbn.com)
Fri, 17 May 1996 13:19:36 +0100

> I think the idea to automaticly free the handle at the next usage
> is the key to get an easily usable interface.

And I think this is horrible !

If I allocate something I expect to have to free it. Functions to
allocate and free should come in pairs, and having a use of an object
automagically free it seems most unpleasant to me.

All other MPI objects have explicit free operations. We shouldn't
have one "special" object with different behaviour.

> handle = MPI_STRING_NULL; /* handle of an empty string */
> MPI_String_add ( &handle, string); /* handle is changed */
> MPI_Spawn (... &handle, ....); /* handle is freed,
> i.e. handle == MPI_STRING_NULL */
>
> Simple things should be simply programmable.

Somehow this seems less simple to me than
MPI_Spawn(..., string, ...);

-- Jim

James Cownie
BBN UK Ltd
Phone : +44 117 9071438
E-Mail: jcownie@bbn.com