[ET Trac] [Einstein Toolkit] #1554: Want to define constants in parameter files

[Einstein Toolkit]

#1554: Want to define constants in parameter files
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  Reporter:  eschnett     |       Owner:  sbrandt            
      Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  reviewed_ok        
  Priority:  major        |   Milestone:                     
 Component:  Cactus       |     Version:  development version
Resolution:               |    Keywords:                     
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Comment (by hinder):

 I'd rather not apply the patch just because it works.  We haven't come to
 a consensus on whether we want the feature, or the syntax that should be
 used.  There is an obvious road here, which leads to writing our own home-
 grown programming language to be included in parameter files.  Before we
 start down this road, I think we should consider if this is what we want,
 and if it is, whether there is a better way to accomplish it.  For
 example, could we use Lua?  If we add features like the proposed one, we
 will be constrained in what we can do in the future to maintain
 compatibility.  I am also concerned about making the parameter files
 difficult to interpret by the end user: does Cactus provide an "expanded"
 version anywhere, so the user can see the final result?  Cactus doesn't
 even write out a metadata file for the simulation.  If it did, parsing the
 parameter file would not be necessary during analysis of the data.  Maybe
 Formaline is the answer to this, but this automatically introduces an
 overhead (archiving of source files) which many people find onerous.  I
 don't want to lose the capability of parsing parameter files to obtain
 fundamental information about the simulation.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.einsteintoolkit.org/ticket/1554#comment:23>
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