[Ncep.list.nems.announce] Feedback requested on replacing the NEMS build system.

Tue Feb 7 14:25:06 UTC 2017

Anning,

The "configure and gmake" no longer works after the atmos layer is
removed.  Even while we had the atmos layer, "configure and gmake" only
compiled with an atmosphere.  Each component has its own build system, and
some of them are complicated to run.

One option is to make the "configure and gmake" more capable so that it CAN
build the entire coupled system.  As for the GUI, it would be easy to make
one once we have a new way of building the NEMS.  We could even have the
"NEMSAppBuilder" look exactly like it did before (but with changes to to
the appBuilder files).

However, I don't think a text-based GUI is the right way to implement
that.  This is a project, Cupid, to make a graphical IDE for all of NEMS.
It does more than just building the system.  It has is code analysis and
code generation tools, as well as interactive profile analysis tools.

I think it would be better to use Cupid to provide the graphical front-end.
  The NEMS repository would provide the back-end as a simple, easy to
maintain, non-interactive build system of a more traditional nature.  Users
that want extra flexibility can use Cupid's more powerful user interface.
The Eclipse-based Cupid system will be far more powerful than anything we
can hack together in a text-based world.

Sincerely,
Sam Trahan

On Tue, Feb 7, 2017 at 9:17 AM, Anning Cheng - NOAA Affiliate <
anning.cheng at noaa.gov> wrote:

> I still like the old way, configure and gmake in NEMS/src. It is good to
> have NEMSAppBuilder, but why not keep both? Is it possible?
>
> On Tue, Feb 7, 2017 at 9:07 AM, Samuel Trahan - NOAA Affiliate <
> samuel.trahan at noaa.gov> wrote:
>
>> Moorthi,
>>
>> That is the most common complaint.  I tried to cover that in items #1 and
>> #2 of my "feedback thus far" list in the previous email.  There are really
>> two aspects to the problem:
>>
>> 1. It is difficult to navigate the 1900 line NEMSAppBuilder to figure out
>> how to change the build commands.
>>
>> 2. Some users want to be able to manually build the NEMS without running
>> an overarching script.
>>
>> Ultimately, if there was a simpler "NEMSAppBuilder" (problem #1) it would
>> be easy to pick out the few commands you need to run manually (problem #2).
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Sam Trahan
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 7, 2017 at 9:04 AM, Shrinivas Moorthi <
>> shrinivas.moorthi at noaa.gov> wrote:
>>
>>> I can't compile standalone GSM on wcoss.  How do I do it without
>>> blackbox (appbuilder)?
>>> Thanks
>>> Moorthi
>>>
>>>
>>> On 02/07/2017 08:46 AM, Samuel Trahan - NOAA Affiliate wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> The NEMS build system, NEMSAppBuilder, is causing a lot of problems,
>>> especially for the atmospheric model developers.  We plan on replacing the
>>> build system.  What do you want out of the new build system?  What do you
>>> dislike about the old one?
>>>
>>> Some questions to ponder:
>>>
>>> - How should the build system work internally?  Shell script?  Make?
>>> Cmake?
>>>
>>> - How should you run the build system?  Shell script?  Run "make?"  Run
>>> a GUI?
>>>
>>> - When do we replace the build system?  Do we do it now, and risk
>>> breaking coupled systems?  Do we wait until we can test it with the coupled
>>> applications?
>>>
>>> Feedback thus far:
>>>
>>> 1. It is difficult to navigate the 1900 line NEMSAppBuilder to figure
>>> out how to change the build commands.
>>>
>>> 2. Some users want to be able to manually build the NEMS without running
>>> an overarching script.
>>>
>>> 3. Some users want a simple graphical interface to select components and
>>> build the NEMS.  (Yes, there are users that want this.)
>>>
>>> 4. Sometimes, components compile with options that are incompatible with
>>> the linking options.  This is because each component has its own
>>> configuration system.  This causes problems, as we saw with FV3.
>>>
>>> 5. The logic for building a component is in the NEMS framework level.
>>> Any time a component's build system changes, the NEMS framework has to be
>>> updated, breaking applications that use older versions of the component.
>>> This forces applications to use non-trunk versions of the NEMS.
>>>
>>> 6.  The NEMS/src/configure script contains application-specific logic.
>>> This also forces applications to use non-trunk versions of the NEMS.
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>> Sam Trahan
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Ncep.list.nems.announce mailing listNcep.list.nems.announce at lstsrv.ncep.noaa.govhttps://www.lstsrv.ncep.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/ncep.list.nems.announce
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dr. Shrinivas Moorthi
>>> Research Meteorologist
>>> Global Climate and Weather Modeling Branch
>>> Environmental Modeling Center / National Centers for Environmental Prediction
>>> 5830 University Research Court - (W/NP23), College Park MD 20740 USA
>>> Tel:(301)683-3718 <(301)%20683-3718>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>
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>
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