[Dune] Changes during constification - Renaming?

[Thimo Neubauer]

On Wed, Dec 01, 2004 at 01:46:25PM +0100, Robert Kloefkorn wrote:
> >IntersectionIterator::outer_normal
> >
> >  currently there are the methods unit_outer_normal (quite clear) and
> >  outer_normal, which reports a normal vector scaled for easy
> >  integration. We changed this to 
> >
> >    outer_normal               any normal the grid can report, length 
> >                               not known (e.g. if only direction of
> >                               flow needs to be checked)
> >
> >    unit_outer_normal          normal scaled to length 1 (for flow value)
> >
> >    integration_outer_normal   for integration, named after
> >                               "integration_element" 
> can you comment a little bit more on that. Whats the new name of the
> methods? unit_outer_normal and outer_normal we need both, because on 
> unstructured grids you really dont want to calculate an 
> unit_outer_normal and then again multiply with the volume of the face 
> therefore outer_normal returns the normal scaled with the volume face.

Well, weather the grid reports a vector scaled by a factor (be it the
length or the detinvJac) depends on the grid implementation, doesn't
it? Of course one or annother part of a discretization is faster
depending on how the grid generates the normal - but that should not
be an interface issue!

Our suggestion offers two things: convenience for the user, he can get
the vector in all flavours he may need and as fast as possible;
convenience for the grid-developer: he can pass whatever the grid
generates via "outer_normal", the default-implementation will take
care of the other two versions. If your grid generates a normalized
vector or one scaled by the determinant just override the
corresponding function and you're set.

> Say if you check in.

It is checked in... in the constification branch :) We will, of
course, annouce when we merge the branches but before we do that we
need a decision on the mark-in-grid-or-not-issue.

Cheers
   Thimo