Versions of NetStream

Some changes from version 1.0 has been already included to yield two new versions (1.5 and 1.6). NetStream v1.5 extends v1.0 in several ways:

• Methods init()" and \verb"finalize() are set to be static, thus being common to any instance of NetStream objects, and callable in a more intuitive way (e.g. NetStream::init()) in accordance to the global operations they perform for any object.
• Group management services are provided in the form of new methods, namely one method for obtaining/setting the default communicator, one method to create a group inside a given communicator and one method to link two communicators in order to send messages from one sub-group to the other.

      // GROUP management
              // Set the netstream to a new communicator
      void set_communicator(NET_Comm comm);
              // Get the present communicator in this netstream
      NET_Comm get_communicator(void);
              // Create a new group inside the present communicator
      static NET_Comm create_group(NET_Comm comm, int color, int key);
          // Create a bridge between local and remote MATCHING call
      static NET_Comm create_inter_group(NET_Comm lcomm, int lrank,
                                         NET_Comm bcomm, int rrank,
                                         int strtrype);
  

• Do not consider LEDA objects anymore. From v1.6 on the library do not provide any support to send/receive LEDA objects.
• The method int my_pid() is added in order to have an easy invokation inside conditional and repetitive sentences (precedent version needs to invoke this through a stream-like sentence).
• This version supports unsigned" and \verb"long double input/output through the net.

On the other hand, current version 1.6 adds an internal change allowing more efficient executions and eliminating some bugs of precedent version when using packets:

• Internal in/out independent buffers have been defined.

New versions of NetStream will address issues concerning WAN services for obtaining delay times of the packets on-line, in order to provide the user with the actual performance of the network. This will highly assist the library users in taking decisions on when and how send information to a far node in the WAN.