#629: Allow parameters to be marked as deprecated in param.ccl files -------------------------+-------------------------------------------------- Reporter: hinder | Owner: Type: enhancement | Status: new Priority: minor | Milestone: Component: Cactus | Version: Keywords: | -------------------------+-------------------------------------------------- Parameters often need to be deprecated. For backwards compatibility, the best thing to do in this situation is to accept the old parameter and print a warning that the parameter is deprecated, and what other parameter should be used instead. Writing code to handle this in each case is redundant. I propose that there should be some way of indicating in the param.ccl file that a given parameter is deprecated.

One possibility would be:

{{{ BOOLEAN out3D_ghosts "Output ghost zones" STEERABLE = ALWAYS DEPRECATED = yes DEPRECATIONMESSAGE = "This parameter will be removed in a future release. Please use XXXX instead." { } "yes" }}}

Cactus would then detect if the user had explicitly set that parameter and, if so, it would print a warning in paramcheck along the lines of

Parameter CarpetIOHDF5::out3D_ghosts is deprecated. Please use XXXX instead.