Previously, `VecFromPortal` could only be set to a standard `Vec`.
However, because this is a `Vec`-like object with a runtime-size, it is
hard to do general arithmetic on it. It is easier to do in place so
there is some place to put the result. To make it easier to operate on
this as the result of other `Vec`-likes, extend the operators like `+=`,
`*=`, etc to support this.
The `VecTraits` class allows templated functions, methods, and classes to
treat type arguments uniformly as `Vec` types or to otherwise differentiate
between scalar and vector types. This only works for types that `VecTraits`
is defined for.
The `VecTraits` templated class now has a default implementation that will
be used for any type that does not have a `VecTraits` specialization. This
removes many surprise compiler errors when using a template that, unknown
to you, has `VecTraits` in its implementation.
One potential issue is that if `VecTraits` gets defined for a new type, the
behavior of `VecTraits` could change for that type in backward-incompatible
ways. If `VecTraits` is used in a purely generic way, this should not be an
issue. However, if assumptions were made about the components and length,
this could cause problems.
Fixes#589
The `UnknownArrayHandle` has been updated to allow
`ArrayHandleRuntimeVec` to work interchangeably with basic
`ArrayHandle`. If an `ArrayHandleRuntimeVec` is put into an
`UnknownArrayHandle`, it can be later retrieved as an `ArrayHandleBasic`
as long as the base component type matches and it has the correct amount
of components. This means that an array can be created as an
`ArrayHandleRuntimeVec` and be used with any filters or most other
features designed to operate on basic `ArrayHandle`s. Likewise, an array
added as a basic `ArrayHandle` can be retrieved in an
`ArrayHandleRuntimeVec`. This makes it easier to pull arrays from VTK-m
and place them in external structures (such as `vtkDataArray`).
The new `ArrayHandleRuntimeVec` is a fancy `ArrayHandle` allows you to
specify a basic array of `Vec`s where the number of components of the `Vec`
are not known until runtime. (It can also optionally specify scalars.) The
behavior is much like that of `ArrayHandleGroupVecVariable` except that its
representation is much more constrained. This constrained representation
allows it to be automatically converted to an `ArrayHandleBasic` with the
proper `Vec` value type. This allows one part of code (such as a file
reader) to create an array with any `Vec` size, and then that array can be
fed to an algorithm that expects an `ArrayHandleBasic` of a certain value
type.
You can often get compile errors when trying to get `Vec` attributes
from types that do not define `VecTraits`. This is of particular problem
when you create an object like `Vec` with a component that does not
define `VecTraits`. Make using these types safer by internally using
`SafeVecTraits`, which will gracefully handle types that do not have
`VecTraits`.
When you use an `ArrayHandle` as an output array in a worklet (for example,
as a `FieldOut`), the fetch operation does not read values from the array
during the `Load`. Instead, it just constructs a new object. This makes
sense as an output array is expected to have garbage in it anyway.
This is a problem for some special arrays that contain `Vec`-like objects
that are sized dynamically. For example, if you use an
`ArrayHandleGroupVecVariable`, each entry is a dynamically sized `Vec`. The
array is referenced by creating a special version of `Vec` that holds a
reference to the array portal and an index. Components are retrieved and
set by accessing the memory in the array portal. This allows us to have a
dynamically sized `Vec` in the execution environment without having to
allocate within the worklet.
The problem comes when we want to use one of these arrays with `Vec`-like
objects for an output. The typical fetch fails because you cannot construct
one of these `Vec`-like objects without an array portal to bind it to. In
these cases, we need the fetch to create the `Vec`-like object by reading
it from the array. Even though the data will be garbage, you get the
necessary buffer into the array (and nothing more).
Previously, the problem was fixed by creating partial specializations of
the `Fetch` for these `ArrayHandle`s. This worked OK as long as you were
using the array directly. However, the approach failed if the `ArrayHandle`
was wrapped in another `ArrayHandle` (for example, if an `ArrayHandleView`
was applied to an `ArrayHandleGroupVecVariable`).
To get around this problem and simplify things, the basic `Fetch` for
direct output arrays is changed to handle all cases where the values in the
`ArrayHandle` cannot be directly constructed. A compile-time check of the
array's value type is checked with `std::is_default_constructible`. If it
can be constructed, then the array is not accessed. If it cannot be
constructed, then it grabs a value out of the array.
Added a BaseComponentType to VecTraits that recursively finds the base
(non-Vec) type of a Vec. This is useful when dealing with potentially
nested Vec's (e.g. Vec<Vec<T, M>, N>) and you need to keep the structure
but know the base type.
Also added a couple of templates for keeping the structure but changing
the type. These are ReplaceComponentType and ReplaceBaseComponentType.
These allow you to create new Vec's with the same structure as the query
Vec but with differen component types.
Sandia National Laboratories recently changed management from the
Sandia Corporation to the National Technology & Engineering Solutions
of Sandia, LLC (NTESS). The copyright statements need to be updated
accordingly.
This is a fancy array handle that can group entries in another array by
arbitrary amounts. This allows us to implement input and output arrays
with a different sized Vec for each instance. This is necessary for
generating new topologies with cells of different types.
