3.2. Naming Conventions

In many cases MPI names for C functions are of the form MPI_Class_action_subset. This convention originated with MPI-1. Since MPI-2 an attempt has been made to standardize the names of MPI functions according to the following rules.

1. In C and the Fortran mpi_f08 module, all routines associated with a particular type of MPI object should be of the form MPI_Class_action_subset or, if no subset exists, of the form MPI_Class_action. In the Fortran mpi module and (deprecated) mpif.h file, all routines associated with a particular type of MPI object should be of the form MPI_CLASS_ACTION_SUBSET or, if no subset exists, of the form MPI_CLASS_ACTION.


2. If the routine is not associated with a class, the name should be of the form MPI_Action_subset or MPI_ACTION_SUBSET in C and Fortran.


3. The names of certain actions have been standardized. In particular, create creates a new object, get retrieves information about an object, set sets this information, delete deletes information, is asks whether or not an object has a certain property.