#1554: Want to define constants in parameter files --------------------------+------------------------------------------------- Reporter: eschnett | Owner: sbrandt Type: enhancement | Status: reviewed_ok Priority: major | Milestone: Component: Cactus | Version: development version Resolution: | Keywords: --------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
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.