Previously you had to create a special virtual object to place in the
`Buffer`'s metadata. This added a lot of difficulty that is probably
unnecessary.
Instead, just have `Buffer` hold an arbitrary object and some simple
functions to copy and delete it. There may be issues with type safety
across translation units, but we'll deal with that when/if we run into
it.
The old atomic compare and swap operations (`vtkm::AtomicCompareAndSwap`
and `vtkm::exec::AtomicArrayExecutionObject::CompareAndSwap`) had an
order of arguments that was confusing. The order of the arguments was
shared pointer (or index), desired value, expected value. Most people
probably assume expected value comes before desired value. And this
order conflicts with the order in the `std` methods, GCC atomics, and
Kokkos.
Change the interface of atomic operations to be patterned off the
`std::atomic_compare_exchange` and `std::atomic<T>::compare_exchange`
methods. First, these methods have a more intuitive order of parameters
(shared pointer, expected, desired). Second, rather than take a value
for the expected and return the actual old value, they take a pointer to
the expected value (or reference in `AtomicArrayExecutionObject`) and
modify this value in the case that it does not match the actual value.
This makes it harder to mix up the expected and desired parameters.
Also, because the methods return a bool indicating whether the value was
changed, there is an additional benefit that compare-exchange loops are
implemented easier.
For example, consider you want to apply the function `MyOp` on a
`sharedValue` atomically. With the old interface, you would have to do
something like this.
```cpp
T oldValue;
T newValue;
do
{
oldValue = *sharedValue;
newValue = MyOp(oldValue);
} while (vtkm::AtomicCompareAndSwap(sharedValue, newValue, oldValue) != oldValue);
```
With the new interface, this is simplfied to this.
```cpp
T oldValue = *sharedValue;
while (!vtkm::AtomicCompareExchange(sharedValue, &oldValue, MyOp(oldValue));
```
The number of bits in a `BitField` cannot be directly implied from the
size of the buffer (because the buffer gets padded to the nearest sized
word). Thus, the `BitField stored the number of bits in its own
internals.
Unfortunately, that caused issues when passing the `BitField` data
between it and an `ArrayHandleBitField`. If the `ArrayHandleBitField`
resized itself, the `BitField` would not see the new size because it
ignored the new buffer size.
To get around this problem, `BitField` now declares its own
`BufferMetaData` that stores the number of bits. Now, since the number
of bits is stored in the `Buffer` object, it is sufficient to just share
the `Buffer` to synchronize all of the state.
Now that we have the functions in `vtkm/Atomic.h`, we can deprecate (and
eventually remove) the more cumbersome classes `AtomicInterfaceControl`
and `AtomicInterfaceExecution`.
Also reversed the order of the `expected` and `desired` parameters of
`vtkm::AtomicCompareAndSwap`. I think the former order makes more sense
and matches more other implementations (such as `std::atomic` and the
GCC `__atomic` built ins). However, there are still some non-deprecated
classes with similar methods that cannot easily be switched. Thus, it's
better to be inconsistent with most other libraries and consistent with
ourself than to be inconsitent with ourself.
Previously, when a ReadPortal or a WritePortal was returned from an
ArrayHandle, it had wrapped in it a Token that was attached to the
ArrayHandle. This Token would prevent other reads and writes from the
ArrayHandle.
This added safety in the form of making sure that the ArrayPortal was
always valid. Unfortunately, it also made deadlocks very easy. They
happened when an ArrayPortal did not leave scope immediately after use
(which is not all that uncommon).
Now, the ArrayPortal no longer locks up the ArrayHandle. Instead, when
an access happens on the ArrayPortal, it checks to make sure that
nothing has happened to the data being accessed. If it has, a fatal
error is reported to the log.
The old version of ExecutionObject (that only takes a device) is still
supported, but you will get a deprecated warning if that is what is
defined.
Supporing this also included sending vtkm::cont::Token through the
vtkm::cont::arg::Transport mechanism, which was a change that propogated
through a lot of code.
The newer List operations should still work on the old ListTags, so make
those changes first to ensure that everything still works as expected if
given an old ListTag.
Next step is to deprecate ListTagBase itself and move all the lists to
the new types.
BitFields are:
- Stored in memory using a contiguous buffer of bits.
- Accessible via portals, a la ArrayHandle.
- Portals operate on individual bits or words.
- Operations may be atomic for safe use from concurrent kernels.
The new BitFieldToUnorderedSet device algorithm produces an ArrayHandle
containing the indices of all set bits, in no particular order.
The new AtomicInterface classes provide an abstraction into bitwise
atomic operations across control and execution environments and are used
to implement the BitPortals.
