August 2007 - saga-rg - lists.ogf.org

URL class in SAGA?
by Andre Merzky 18 Sep '07

18 Sep '07

I seem to remember that the topic of an URL class was, once upon a time, discussed by the group, but I can't find any notes nor mails about it. From what I remember, the consensus was that several languages do have a native URL/URI class (e.g. Java), and that then the language bindings should allow to use these classes instead or additionally to strings. However, Ole and Hartmut argued that the C++ bindings should have an URL class, too, as the task of generating and parsing teh URLs would be left as a tedious excercise to the end user. Now, if we are going to specify URL classes for basically all bindings, then we may as well consider to use a simple URL class in the spec. OTOH, that might be overkill, and the bindings may be just the right place to deal with that topic. As I am blessed with a very poor memory, I really can't remember if that was discussed already, or if I for example was opposed to an URL class myself :-P Anyway, I'd like to raise the question (again), and would love to hear your opinions. Thanks, Andre. PS.: _if_ we would include an URL class in the spec, I'd insist on keeping it as simple and small as possible. No need for fancyness here - setters and getters for the URL elements is all what we basically need, right? -- "XML is like violence: if it does not help, use more."

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blocking/nonblocking I/O on files?
by Andre Merzky 29 Aug '07

29 Aug '07

Hi, Ole and Hartmut raised the point that the attribute interface on files is actaully useless. Formerly, we had a number of attributes on files defined - in the latest version of the spec, only one remaines: 'Blocking'. That atgtribute however does not make much sense, as we have explicit versions for sync and async file I/O. Yes, yes, sync/async and blocking/non-blocking is not exactly the same, but (a) the difference is small for our use cases AFAICS (thats different for streams), and (b) the spec does not define the behaviour for blocking/non-blocking files anyway. So the proposal is to remove that attribute, and the attribute interface on files altogether. Any comments? Thanks, Andre. -- "XML is like violence: if it does not help, use more."

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OGF20 - meeting notes
by Andre Merzky 22 Aug '07

22 Aug '07

Hi groups, Pascal sacrificed himself once more and took notes for all SAGA sessions at OGF-20. Thanks! The notes are attached, and are also on GF (http://forge.ogf.org/short/saga-rg/notes-ogf20) Comments and additions are very welcome! Cheers, Andre. -- "XML is like violence: if it does not help, use more."

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mailing list - alive again!
by Andre Merzky 21 Aug '07

21 Aug '07

Hi Folx, many of you have noticed that the mailing list was dead for a couple of months. That problem seems to be fixed, finally. I'm/we are very sorry for the trouble... I'll repost a couple of mails I am aware of which went missing - please let me know if you miss other mails, too. Short summary of activities over the summer: - Steve Fisher and team worked on the Service Discovery spec, the draft should be close to final now. CVS Repository: SAGA-RG/SAGA-Packages/ServiceDiscovery - Ceriel Jacobs and some folx at the VU worked on Java language bindings, and put some Java sources into our CVS CVS Repository: SAGA-RG/SAGA-Bindings/Java/OGF - there will be two SAGA sessions at OGF 21, mostly focusing on the Service Discovery doc and on the Java bindings. - the Core spec has still a number of open TODO items *sigh*, the Editor is pushing us to publish it. Best regards, Andre. PS: CVS access infos are at http://forge.ogf.org/projects/saga-rg (bottom of page)

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Attribute interface and Service Discovery
by Fisher, SM (Steve) 21 Aug '07

21 Aug '07

Hi, I have got round to start editing the short service discovery document again. During one of the OGF seesions I suggested that to avoid clashes between the two sets of attributes in a service_description we could introduce 2 container objects both of which would implement the attribute interface. This would lead to code, where s is a service\_description: s.get_glue().get_attribute("some predefined 'glue' attribute") s.get_data().get_attribute("some key value in the key value pair") This was more or less agreed by those present. However I would now like to suggest a small change: s.get_attribute("some predefined 'glue' attribute") s.get_data().get_attribute("some key value in the key value pair") This requires only one new container object and I think more faithfully represents the model. I will start editing in this direction tomorrow unless I hear objections. Steve

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Fwd (S.M.Fisher@rl.ac.uk): RE: Service Discovery
by Andre Merzky 21 Aug '07

21 Aug '07

Repost from Steve. Cheers, Andre. -- "XML is like violence: if it does not help, use more."

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SAGA Java Bindings, spec status
by Andre Merzky 21 Aug '07

21 Aug '07

Hi group(s), there has been some progress on the Java language bindings, finally. The VU had a small SAGA-Java retreat today, and started to draft the bindings as interfaces etc. In order to get early feedback, and to allow for input from other groups, that work is now in CVS: we would very much appreciate if the Java interested people on this list could have a look (Pascal? Gregor? Malcolm? Steve? Gregor? ... :-). CVS details are now on the SAGA-RG GridForge home page (http://forge.ogf.org/projects/saga-rg) There are also instructions on how to subscribe to the CVS notification list, in case you want to keep up to date. You find the current minimal state of affairs in the SAGA-RG/SAGA-Bindings/Java/OGF subdir. Please don't treat that code as anything else than what it is at the moment: food for discussion! :-) In other news: we updated the TODO list for the SAGA spec. Although many/most serious issues are now resolved, an annoying number of small to medium size items remain. If anybody feels inclined to take on one or more of these items, you would be very welcome! :-)) As a reminder: the spec is in the SAGA-RG/Strawman subdirectory in CVS (an historical artifact as many of you know...). Cheers, Andre. PS.: There seemed to be a problem with this mailing list during OGF20 - a mail from Steve went missing. If anybody else experiences trouble, I'd appreciate a direct note. I'll repost Steve's mail. -- "XML is like violence: if it does not help, use more."

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Service Discovery
by Fisher, SM (Steve) 21 Aug '07

21 Aug '07

Hi, I attach a first draft of the proposed service discovery SAGA API extension following very closely my presentation at the last GGF. Once I have write access to CVS I will check the source files in. We have a prototpye implementation which does not make use of a proper adapter mechanism yet - however we plan to use the SAGA adapter style for the C++. The C++ prototpye is almost complete for the BDII (LDAP) information system and the R-GMA one is not far behind. The performance is good - we can show it at Manchester. We would appreciate any comments - especially identifying those areas where we are not doing things "the SAGA way". Incidentally we were surprised that we are only expected to use one name space for the implementation - why are sub-namespaces not permitted - especially for the API extensions? For the Java implementation are we expected to use lower case class names and underscore separated method names? Steve

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FW: Emailing: saga_sd.pdf
by Fisher, SM (Steve) 21 Aug '07

21 Aug '07

<<saga_sd.pdf>> Andre, I sent this on the 9th. Looking at the archive it would appear that the mailing list has once again failed to handle it properly. 1 - Please forward it on my behalf 2 - Get the list fixed !!! Steve -----Original Message----- From: Fisher, SM (Steve) Sent: 09 July 2007 16:44 To: saga-rg(a)ggf.org Cc: paventhan(a)rl.ac.uk Subject: Emailing: saga_sd.pdf Hi, We have finally edited the service discovery spec - it is attached. Comments would be appreciated of course. At the same time we are working on the implementation. We have an LDAP backend completed and a relational one (for R-GMA) almost done. This work is in C++ but it does not yet use the recommended plugin mechanism. Steve and Paventhan

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Emailing: saga_sd.pdf
by Fisher, SM (Steve) 21 Aug '07

21 Aug '07

<<saga_sd.pdf>> Hi, We have finally edited the service discovery spec - it is attached. Comments would be appreciated of course. At the same time we are working on the implementation. We have an LDAP backend completed and a relational one (for R-GMA) almost done. This work is in C++ but it does not yet use the recommended plugin mechanism. Steve and Paventhan

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