[ET Trac] [Einstein Toolkit] #1828: Script to collect AH shape information into one HDF5 file

[Einstein Toolkit]

#1828: Script to collect AH shape information into one HDF5 file
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  Reporter:  knarf        |       Owner:                     
      Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  review             
  Priority:  optional     |   Milestone:                     
 Component:  Cactus       |     Version:  development version
Resolution:               |    Keywords:                     
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Comment (by rhaas):

 Looks fine to me in general. Comments:

 * the name should not contain "visit" since xdmf files are also readable
 by other tools eg Paraview, instead maybe "CollectAHShapesInXdmf.py"
 * why is there a need to specify an HDF5 file? I would sometimes like to
 just visualize the horizon without having any hdf5 output present (eg for
 binary black hole simulations, see eg
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsODZW0VuhQ)
 * the script makes assumptions on the name of the files which are not
 always true since the AHFinderDirect parameter {{{h_base_file_name}}} lets
 you change the "h" to something else (see comment in param.ccl). It should
 document these assumptions more prominently rather than only in the middle
 part of the source code.
 * would it be possible to also support AHFinderDirect's
 {{{output_HDF5_files}}} option?
 * an alternative to having Xdmf+HDF5 may be to store all data inline in
 the Xdmf file (ASCII in that case) if this is not provibitively large. It
 would have the advantage of fewer files having to be carried around
 * the script should support a {{{--help}}} option explicitly, the help
 text should start with the word "Usage", required argument should not be
 enclosed in brackets but be bare, the
 [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_message#Pattern|fount of all
 knowledge]] suggests a particular format.
 * it would be nice if error message (the usage is no error message) were
 output to stderr rather than stdout
 * rather than adding dummy meshes, would it not be better to re-use the
 mesh from the last timestep? This would be visually less jarring than
 having an AH vanish
 * this is an if(True) statement in there. We should either do as the
 comment above says or remove the "else" branch. Users should not have to
 modify the script code to chose options.

 * compare this to Eloisa's older scripts
 http://svn.cactuscode.org/VizTools/VTKutils/trunk/AHFVTK/ which produce
 VTK files instead (they require fewer tools, only bash and (g)awk).

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.einsteintoolkit.org/ticket/1828#comment:2>
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