You should be able to use normal MPI_TYPE_CREATE_STRUCT functionality to skip
members that you don't want represented in a struct.
The general idea is to instantiate one of the classes and then use the
addresses of the members to compute the displacement(s) from the base. The
same thing works for C/C++ structs. Google around to find some examples; I
believe there are plenty of them out on the interwebs.
On Dec 13, 2010, at 8:42 AM, Riccardo Murri wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 2:51 AM, Santosh Ansumali <ansum...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> - the "static" data member is shared between all instances of the
>>> class, so it cannot be part of the MPI datatype (it will likely be
>>> at a fixed memory location);
>>
>> Yes! I agree that i is global as far as different instances of class
>> is concern. I don't even want it to be part of MPI datatype.
>> However, I am concern
>> that as the given class has a static member, is it ok to just ignore
>> its existence while creating MPI datatype?
>>
>
> It *should* be. However, an authoritative answer requires good
> knowledge of the C++ standard and extensive experience with the
> compiler (none of which I personally have), so my suggestion would be
> to post the question on comp.lang.c++ or StackOverflow.
>
>
>>> - in addition, the "i" member is "static const" of a POD type, meaning
>>> the compiler is allowed to optimize it out and not allocate any
>>> actual memory location for it;
>>>
>>> This boils down to: the only data you need to send around in a "class
>>> test" instance is the "double data[5]" array.
>>
>> True! on what computers there is no memory allocation for static const
>> int member.
>
> As far as I understand it, the "const" is a hint to the compiler that
> the value will never change, so the storage *could* be optimized out.
> Whether this happens or not, depends on the compiler and the
> optimization level (e.g., GCC will never optimize a value out with
> -O0, but can do it at -O2), and on the actual code as well: if your
> code references "&i" at some point, then the compiler has to create
> actual storage for "i".
>
>
>> True! I just want to show the essential part of the class. The real
>> class is inheriting from other class which has no data member.
>
> Beware: if you are using virtual functions in any class of the
> hierarchy, then the vtable pointer will be a hidden field in the
> class' storage, and you definitely do not want to overwrite it -- this
> can influence the start address and/or the displacement of the data.
> In a simple case like "class test { double data[5]; }" you can just
> use "&data" as the address of your MPI data, but things may be
> different in the general case. Again, my adivce would be to post a
> question in a dedicated C++ forum for a comprehensive answer.
>
> If you are going to send C++ classes via MPI, you might want to have a
> look at Boost.MPI, which provides an easier interface to sending C++
> classes around, possibly at some performance and/or memory cost.
>
> Best regards,
> Riccardo
>
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