Re: [Patch] fem-fenics patches

[c.]

On 4 Mar 2014, at 13:22, Marco Vassallo <address@hidden> wrote:


>> I've attached my modified source file so that one can read the code more
>> easily, though.  Hope this helps!
> 
> Yes thanks it is easier now. I've just pushed the two patches you submitted.

I actually don't like these changes, or rather the phylosophy behind them.
I would suggest to back them up.

There is good reasons why we want to stick to a syntax that is as close 
as possible to other FEnics interfaces (either C++ or python).

Current FEnics API's  come with very extensive and detailed (and quite lengthy)
documentation, e.g.:

 http://fenicsproject.org/documentation/tutorial/index.html
 http://fenicsproject.org/book/index.html#book

Unless we want to repeat the tremendous effort required to produce those docs
we should really make any effort possible to stick to a compatible syntax
in order to make it as straightforward as possible to switch from python to 
Octave API
seamlessly.

Even if that costs  the effort of giving a little more thought on a change 
before 
pushing it.

In this particular case, a change that would preserve the compatibility AND 
allow
the convenience of vectorization, is to allow the syntax:

 eval (FUNC, P) 

where, if P is a matrix, evaluation is done by iterating through its columns.

This would also allow, for example, interpolating to the nodes of a new mesh
by simply doing:

 f = eval (FUNC, new_mesh.p);



> I wait for the problem with the configure.ac file to be fixed and then I 
> prepare a new release.
> Thanks for your help.

I don't think we should , we are planning a new project to improve fem-fenics, 
rather than 
rush into making a new release just now I think this is the time to sit and 
plan the future
package 

> Marco