fenics team mailing list archive

[Anders Logg <logg@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Nov 16, 2006 at 10:00:15AM +0100, Anders Logg wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 16, 2006 at 09:56:12AM +0100, Garth N. Wells wrote:
> > Anders Logg wrote:
> > > I'm suggesting two new projects to be added to the web page as FEniCS
> > > projects:
> > > 
> > >  1. SyFi by Kent-Andre Mardal
> > > 
> > >  2. UFC by Alnæs, Langtangen, Logg, Mardal, Skavhaug
> > > 
> > > SyFi is described in detail here:
> > > 
> > >     http://folk.uio.no/kent-and/software/SyFi/doc/SyFi.html
> > > 
> > > SyFi can be seen as a combination of FIAT and FFC using symbolic
> > > manipulation through GiNaC in C++ and Python.
> > > 
> > > UFC (Unified Form-assembly Code) is a specification of a common
> > > format for the code generated by FFC, SyFi and other form compilers.
> > > 
> > > Are there any objections to adding these two new projects?
> > >
> > 
> > Sounds good to me. UFC will provide a nice link between different projects.
> > 
> > Will both projects be hosted on www.fenics.org? For the coherence of
> > FEniCS, I think that this is preferable.
> 
> Yes, that's the plan.
> 
> Kent has made effort to FEniCSize SyFi: using fenicsmanual.cls for the
> manual, conversion from Subversion to hg. There will be a web page,
> mailing list syfi-dev@xxxxxxxxxx etc.

Another point is that as we get more and more packages, the
distribution of these packages becomes important. If someone needs to
download and compile 10 different packages (possibly using different
build systems) they may give up before getting to the third or fourth
package. In addition, many of the packages will undergo rapid changes
so it's difficult to stay in sync.

The "project" fenics (http://www.fenics.org/hg/fenics/) is one attempt
to solve this problem: a script that downloads, configures, compiles
and installs all packages from fenics.org. The script also builds a
binary package that may (ideally) be used directly if you don't want
to build all packages yourself.

We may also consider other approaches, like building Debian packages,
but then someone needs to maintain these packages.

/Anders