[DRMAA-WG] Meeting minutes - Conf call @ November 30th 2011

[Peter Tröger]

Participants: Mariusz, Daniel, Roger, Peter

> 1. Meeting secretary for this meeting?

Peter

> 2. Public comments on DRMAAv2
> (http://ogf.org/gf/docs/comment.php?id=377)

-> "slots" attribute in SlotInfo

- Just a typo, proposed solution approved.

-> Attribute naming

- Agreement to stick with self-descriptive attribute names
- Agreement to current shortening approach in C binding draft:
   - drmaa2_reservation_get_reservation_id (bad duplication)
   - drmaa2_r_get_reservation_id (we like this approach)
   - drmaa2_r_get_id (not self-descriptive enough)

-> exception extensibility

- Extensibility of exception list in language binding or implementation
- First one is easy (e.g. special expression of runtime issues in JVM)
   - Does not break portability
- Allowing extensibility in implementations can break portability
   - normally,  we have introspection support for this
   - Fetching the list of implementation-specific exceptions is useless
   - Customer perspective: I want portability
   - Vendor perspective: I want tailoring for special customer needs
   - The Java classic: New exceptions must inherit from a DRMAA exception
- Solution: Introduction of a new ImplementationSpecificException
   - Implementation-specific exception must inherit from this one
   - Allows generic catch in portable application code
   - Message parameter and numeric error id parameter
   - Maps to custom error codes in C (no portability problem)

-> No CPU speed support
   - not present in Torque, PBS, SGE; only in LSF with JSDL support
   - intentionally left out, use job categories for that

-> Job / reservation closing on session closing
   - Original intention was parent / child relationship
   - Would lead to invalidation of all instances on session destruction
   - Counter argument: You destroy uselessly fetched information
   - Agreement: State that "on session close, job / reservation objects 
MAY remain usable completely or in parts."

> 3. New co-chair election (details in the call)

- Mariusz was elected as new co-chair, replacing Dan Templeton.

The group wants to express its gratitude for years of continuous support 
and personal engagement by Dan. We are aware of the fact that Dan 
(together with many other Sun employees) acted as the major driving 
force behind the market acceptance of DRMAA. Hopefully, he will continue 
to "just talk a lot" as part of the regular group work. And the world 
anyway may want to see a DRMAA Hadoop binding ...

> 4. Next steps with the C-binding

Still pending.

The next conf call will take place on Wednesday, 19:00 UTC.
(which means 20:00 for you, Peter).

Best regards,
Peter.