CVS Version of Charm++: Weekly Changelog

3/20/2003:
  -Charm++ Checkpointing, by Chao
   Initial support--arrays, groups, and nodegroups should
   work fine; but chares and TCharm programs do not yet work.


2/28/2003:
  -Nodegroup-based reductions, by Sayantan
   Uses immediate and node messages for much faster
   reductions.

  -Much new work on commlib, by Sameer

  -FEM bug fixes and serial assembly routines, by Orion

1/25/2003:
  -New version of FEM framework, by Orion
   Dramatically revamped internal structure allows much more
   flexibility: multiple meshes, data items per entity, and more.
   Split off communication into separate library (IDXL).

  -Added ".dep" files for Charm++ modules, by Orion
   These let you concicely list the dependencies for a library.

  -CkSparseReducer module, by Vikas
   This module allows you to reduce a sparse array.

  -More bug fixes for Commlib (Terry), Projector (Sayantan)

1/17/2003:
  -MAXLOC/MINLOC reduction types for AMPI, by Chao

  -Multicast library improvements, by Gengbin
   Multicast reductions now use CkReductionMsg and CkCallbacks,
   just like regular reductions.

  -Bug fixes for Commlib (Terry), Projector (Sayantan)

12/27/2002:
  -Projector, by Sayantan
   Checkins for Arun's advanced tracing module.

12/20/2002:
  -Charm++ Usage, by Orion
   Call any Charm++ program with "-h", "--help", or "-?" to get 
   a complete list of the acceptable command-line arguments.
   This comes from the actual CmiGetArg calls in the source.

11/30/2002:
  -CmiRegisterHandlerEx, by Orion
   This new way to register a Converse handler passses in
   an extra "user pointer", which can reduce your dependence 
   on global variables.
  
  -CcsRegisterHandler(char *name,CkCallback cb), by Orion
   Register a CkCallback as a CCS handler, in "ckcallback-ccs.h".

  -CkStartQD(CkCallback cb), by Rahul
   Allows quiescence detection to call a callback, which 
   is much more flexible than calling just one chare.

  -"ckstatistics.h" header, by Orion
   Allows you to easily calculate mean, variance, max, and min
   on streaming data as it goes by.


11/9/2002:
  -CkEntryOptions, by Orion
   This new, optional addition to parameter-marshalled
   methods allows you to set the message priority.

11/1/2002:
  -"+no_outstanding_sends=1" runtime option for MPI, by Orion
   This works around a bug in MPI_Isend on the IBM SP
   and other machines, and may increase performance.

  -New CkVec, by Orion
   CkVec now respects copy constructors and no longer
   demands an (int) constructor.

  -CK_STRICT_PUP compile-time option, by Orion
   Compile your code with "-DCK_STRICT_PUP=1" to flag
   p|x for unknown x's as an error, rather than just 
   copying x as bytes, the (difficult-to-debug) default.

  -Faster liveViz image combine, by Vikas
  
  -charmc .ci file location fix, by Gengbin


10/24/2002:
  -skt_sendV, by Orion
   This vector-socket-send routine aggregates small
   messages, which in particular sped up the CCS 
   small-message ping time from 40ms down to .5ms (!)

  -"-fortran" link-time flag, by Orion
   This link-time flag can be used to get f90 libraries
   linked into an arbitrary Charm++ program.  This is useful
   if your program uses f90 components.

10/18/2002:
  -"Immediate" message support, by Gengbin
   This kind of message is executed right out of SIGIO
   or the communication thread; so it's tricky but fast.
  
  -IBM SP-3 Fortran name mangling fixes, by Orion
   This breaks backward compatability with the 
   FEM framework (renamed "offsetof" as "foffsetof"
   and changed arguments to FEM_Update_mesh)

10/11/2002:
  -liveVizPoll interface, by Jonathan
   This allows the application to ask liveViz for requests,
   rather than vice versa.  This fits nicely with iterative
   applications, which may not always be ready to draw.

10/4/2002:
  -Bugfix to charmc object file destination, by Orion
   This enables multi-directory Makefiles to work properly.
   
  -CkDLL and CkCppInterpreter classes for DLL's, by Orion
   These enable runtime code compiling and loading.

9/6/2002:
  -"stl_pup.h", by Orion
   Allows you to pup or marshall any combination of
   std::vector, std::list, std::map, std::string, ...