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Scope of the API - CIF coverage

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 11:33 pm
by jcbollinger
Another important scope question is which versions of CIF it will cover. As a practical matter, I think it must support CIF 1.1. Surely it must eventually support CIF 2.0 as well, but should we target that for the the initial version? And to what extent, if any, must the API support documented CIF features that predate and are excluded from CIF 1.1? Are there any non-standard features that should be supported in some manner by the API?

Re: Scope of the API - CIF coverage

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 11:23 pm
by yayahjb
Unless we want CIF to diverge even more than it already has into conflicting dialects, it would be desirable for any common API to support as wide a range of CIF variants as possible. The parametrized model followed by gcc come to mind. gcc uses command line options to allow correct compilation of almost every version of C every used along with clear warning and error messages for violations of the dialect chosen. At present there seem to be fewer variants of CIF than there are of C, so there is some hope that we could do as well. -- Herbert