Scope of the API - CIF coverage

Forum for CIF developers to define an application programming interface for CIF software.

Moderators: Brian McMahon, jcbollinger

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jcbollinger
Posts: 57
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2011 2:41 pm

Scope of the API - CIF coverage

Post by jcbollinger » Tue Dec 20, 2011 11:33 pm

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?

yayahjb
Posts: 18
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2011 9:54 pm

Re: Scope of the API - CIF coverage

Post by yayahjb » Thu Dec 22, 2011 11:23 pm

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

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