associating time with an object in Silo is simply totally broken

In Silo, time is handled on a sort of per-directory basis. All the objects in a dir share the same "time" or "dtime" entry. To have multiple objects in a file with different times associated with them, they each need to go into their own directory. What really needs to happen is for time to be associated with the object itself sort of embedded within a namespace only the object knows about. In HDF5, this could be easily handled as an attribute on the object. Otherwise, we'd need to extend all objects structures to support a time member.

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Ticket number: 3153
Status: New
Project: VisIt
Tracker: Bug
Priority: Normal
Subject: associating time with an object in Silo is simply totally broken
Assigned to: -
Category: -
Target version: -
Author: Mark Miller
Start: 05/30/2018
Due date:
% Done: 0%
Estimated time:
Created: 05/30/2018 06:41 pm
Updated:
Likelihood: 3 - Occasional
Severity: 2 - Minor Irritation
Found in version: 4.8
Impact:
Expected Use:
OS: All
Support Group: Any
Description:
In Silo, time is handled on a sort of per-directory basis. All the objects in a dir share the same "time" or "dtime" entry. To have multiple objects in a file with different times associated with them, they each need to go into their own directory. What really needs to happen is for time to be associated with the object itself sort of embedded within a namespace only the object knows about. In HDF5, this could be easily handled as an attribute on the object. Otherwise, we'd need to extend all objects structures to support a time member.

Comments:

The issue does not name source files, tests, or an entry point. Start by reviewing how Silo stores per-directory time and how its object structures represent metadata, then compare the HDF5 attribute approach with extending those structures; done requires an agreed design for object-level time and corresponding implementation scope.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.