Re: [Boost-users] [Boost.MPI] question about serializingcustomobject

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] [Boost.MPI] question about serializingcustomobject
From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-08-26 20:05:41

Dave Abrahams wrote:
> BoostPro Computing, http://boostpro.com
> Sent from coveted but awkward mobile device
>
>> If one were using heterogenious machines, I could understand the
>> usage of MPI types. But as I understand it, the MPI serialization
>> presumes that the machines are binary compatible.
>
> You're mistaken.
>
>>   So I'm just not seeing this.
>
> Start reading here:
> http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_39_0/doc/html/mpi/tutorial.html#mpi.skeleton_and_content
> and all will be revealed

lol - I've read that several times.  I just never found it to be very 
revealing.  The word skeleton seemed pretty suggestive. It's still not clear 
to me how such a think can work between heterogeneous machines.  For 
example, if I have an array of 2 byte integers and they each need to get 
transformed one by one into a 4 byte integer because that's closest MPI data 
type, I don't see how the fact that the "shape" doesn't change helps you. 
So when I read the documentation I didn't find an obvious answer to this 
question. Admitadly my attention span is pretty short when I'm looking at 
something just because I'm curious rather than really needing a solution to 
my problem.  So maybe its OK if one has more time to spend on it.

Robert Ramey