Release Notices for Cactus 4.0 beta 11
======================================
Date: January 28, 2002

Released modules:
================
Cactus
CactusBase
CactusBench
CactusConnect
CactusEinstein
CactusElliptic
CactusExamples
CactusExternal
CactusIO
CactusPUGH
CactusPUGHIO
CactusTest
CactusUtils
CactusWave

New thorns:
==========
CactusExamples/FleshInfo
CactusExamples/TimerInfo
CactusEinstein/Maximal
CactusTest/TestStrings
CactusTest/TestTimers

Removed thorns:
==============
CactusPUGH/Interp (replaced in beta10 by CactusPUGH/PUGHInterp)

Deprecated thorns:
=================
None

CVS Tag: Cactus_4_0_Beta_11

==============================================================================


CHANGES FOR BETA 11
===================

Flesh
=====

Interface:
Initial support for vector grid variables

Array sizes can be specified by expressions

Configuration:
Re-configuration with same extra options (e.g. MPI or HDF5) no longer
rebuilds whole configuration.

Implemented user defaults for configuration contained in the file
$HOME/.cactus/config or $CACTUSRC/.cactus/config

Changed order of precedence for configuration options, now command line
options override all others

Compilation:
New architecture: Fujitsu VPP700

Can now have thorns with no source files.

Less recompilation necessary eg with HDF5, MPI

Makefile:
New targets to display configuration information
gmake configinfo
gmake <config>-configinfo

Thorn Activation:
The ActiveThorns parameter is now checked for self-consistency
and you are no longer able to incorrectly activate a thorn
without activating thorns providing implementations a thorn inherits
from or has declared itself a friend of.

New Utility Functions:
StringList routines - routines which deal with a fixed-sized
sorted list of strings
Util_asprintf,Util_asnprintf,Util_snprintf,Util_vsnprintf
added to allow people to use these functions portably.

Key-value table routines (the Cactus equivalent of perl hash tables).
(The general API is Util_Table****)

New chapter added to User Guide for Utility functions, including
complete description of Key-value routines.

Driver:
Added flesh support for grid arrays to be specified with given
integer dimensions, in addition to parameter values. Parameters
and integers can also be combined with a +/-

Grid scalars should now be activated with the STORAGE tag in the
schedule.ccl files. (This influencing their treatment by thorns,
for example initialisation in drivers and output by IO methods).

API for some Fortran driver subroutine calls changed to include
a (missing) integer error argument ierr:

CCTK_Barrier(ierr, <as before>)
CCTK_SyncGroup(ierr, <as before>)
CCTK_SyncGroupI(ierr, <as before>)
CCTK_SyncGroupWithVar(ierr, <as before>)
CCTK_SyncGroupWithVarI(ierr, <as before>)

[NOTE for those using CCTK_SyncGroup routines:
Please check whether you really need to sync directly, or
whether if it can be moved into the schedule.ccl
enabling the scheduler do control ghostzone syncronisation.
This will be the only way Cactus can guarantee your code to work
with techniques such as AMR and automatic cache-aware subblocking
once those are available.]

Coordinates:
New API to allow thorns providing functions to register and
obtain the extent of the physical grid (using indices).

CCTK_CartRegisterRangePhysIndex
CCTK_CartRangePhysIndex

Termination:
There is now a keyword parameter "terminate" to decide whether
to terminate the evolution loop by "iteration", "time", "either",
"both" or "never".

Timers:
Fortran wrappers and documentation added for using Cactus timers

Checkpointing:
The very first POSTSTEP schedule bin is now before
RECOVER_VARIABLES, so that POSTSTEP routines no longer run twice
on the same timestep after recovery.

New functions:
There are several new functions for obtaining information from
the flesh about IO methods, reduction operators, interpolation
operators and coordinate systems. An example of using these
functions is provided in the new thorn CactusExamples/FleshInfo

Util Thorns
===========

CactusBase/IOUtil:
Parameters added to copy a parameter file to the output directory,
or to generate one sorted by thorns (see IO::parfile_write and
IO::parfile_name)

CactusBase/Time:
Negative timesteps are now supported.

CactusBase/IOASCII:
New parameters out1D_style, out1D_style (deprecating out_style)
to specify the type of output to perform for xgraph, gnuplot.
Diagonal output added for non-cubic grids
IOASCII now outputs all relevent slabs of data from 1D, 2D or
3D grid arrays

CactusBase/Boundary:
Robin boundary conditions added

CactusPUGH/PUGH:
Implementation of integer specified grid array sizes
Respect storage for grid scalars
New debugging function PUGH_PrintStorage(cctkGH) prints the
variables with storage allocated to screen

CactusUtil/NaNChecker
Now has an API for calling the NaNChecker directly from thorns,
and for setting the grid variables to NaNs. The NaNChecker can
also be used for chosen timelevels.


Einstein Thorns
===============

CactusEinstein/AHFinder:
Improved IO layer of AHFinder
AHFinder is now scheduled at ANALYSIS

CactusEinstein/Einstein
Isotropic Schwarzschild initial lapse added


==============================================================================


KNOWN BUGS IN BETA 11
=====================
(See Cactus bug tracking system for a complete list)

==============================================================================


WHAT TO EXPECT IN BETA 12
=========================

Improved interfaces for Interpolation and Reduction
Thorn LocalInterp for interpolation local to a processor

==============================================================================


TEST MACHINES NOTES
===================

[Note: CactusElliptic/EllPETSc only tested on Linux IA32 and SGI 64 bit]

* MacOS X (Darwin Kernal Version 5.2)
o seidelg4.aei-potsdam.mpg.de
[Absoft F90, gcc 2.95.2, MPICH or LAM]

- not compiling because of buggy C preprocessor
CactusBase/Boundary (fix available on Cactus web pages)
- notes
CactusEinstein/ADM and CactusEinstein/AHFinder can only
be compiled without optimisation

* SGI 64 bit (Irix 6.5)
o origin.aei-potsdam.mpg.de, w/wo native MPI
- testsuites failing
CactusEinstein/IDBrillData

* SGI 32 bit (Irix 6.5)
o nott.aei-potsdam.mpg.de w native compilers wo MPI

* Cray T3E (Unicos mk2.0.5.X)
o berte.zib.de w/wo native MPI
- failing testsuites
CactusEinstein/AHFinder
CactusEinstein/IDBrillData (on multiprocessors)

* Sun Sparc II (SunOS 5.7)
o pitcairn.mcs.anl.gov with native compilers, no MPI
- not compiling
CactusEinstein/TimeGeodesic

* IBM SP2 (AIX 4.3.3.0)
o seaborg.nersc.gov with native compilers, MPI

* Intel IA64 (Linux ia64 2.4.13)
o ia64.osc.edu Intel C/C++/F90 w/wo MPICH Myrinet

* Intel IA32 (Linux Redhat 6.2)
o xeon01.aei.mpg.de w/wo MPICH (shmem device)

Fortran compiler: Intel icc/F90

o bifrost.aei-potsdam.mpg.de w/wo MPICH (p4 and shmem devices)

Fortran compiler: Absoft F90

Fortran compiler: Lahey F90

Fortran compiler: Vast F90
- not compiling:
CactusEinstein/AHFinder

Fortran compiler: g77 F77
- not compiling
Fortran77/90 thorns

o bifrost.aei-potsdam.mpg.de w LAM

Fortran compiler: Absoft F90
- not compiling:
CactusEinstein/TimeGeodesic (compiles without LAM MPI)

* Intel IA32 (Windows 2000)
o gullveig.aei-potsdam.mpg.de wo MPI
- not compiling
CactusConnect/HTTPDExtra
CactusUtils/NaNChecker

* Dec Alpha (OSF1 V4.0 1229 alpha)
o holodec01.aei.mpg.de wo MPI

* Hitachi SR8000-F1 (HI-UX/MPP)
o sr8000.lrz-muenchen.de with native MPI and compilers
- failing testsuites
CactusEinstein/AHFinder
CactusEinstein/IDBrillWave

* Fujitsu VPP700
o vpp1.lrz-muenchen.de with native compilers, native MPI
- not compiling because of peculiar fortran compiler
CactusEinstein/AHFinder
(minval, maxval, trim not recognized as
intrinsic functions)