From: Wolfgang Bangerth Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 21:06:26 +0000 (+0000) Subject: Write documentation. X-Git-Tag: v8.0.0~14183 X-Git-Url: https://gitweb.dealii.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=6943f8dc4a1dde24b21f33c161213280589f3240;p=dealii.git Write documentation. git-svn-id: https://svn.dealii.org/trunk@10364 0785d39b-7218-0410-832d-ea1e28bc413d --- diff --git a/deal.II/base/include/base/data_out_base.h b/deal.II/base/include/base/data_out_base.h index f11f2e0d52..6fc6609e96 100644 --- a/deal.II/base/include/base/data_out_base.h +++ b/deal.II/base/include/base/data_out_base.h @@ -327,31 +327,32 @@ class ParameterHandler; * @subsection DataOutBaseD2 deal.II intermediate format * * In addition to all the other formats, this class can also write - * data in the deal.II format. This is not a format that is read by - * any other graphics program, but is rather a direct dump of the + * data in the deal.II format. This is not a format that read by any + * other graphics program, but is rather a direct dump of the * intermediate internal format used by deal.II. This internal format * is generated by the various classes that can generate output using * the DataOutBase class, for example from a finite element solution, * and is then converted in the present class to the final graphics * format. The reason why we offer to write out this intermediate - * format is that it can be read back into a deal.II program, which is - * helpful in at least two contexts: First, this can be used to later - * generate graphical output in any other graphics format presently - * understood; this way, it is not necessary to know at run-time which - * output format is requested, or if multiple output files in - * different formats are needed. Secondly, in contrast to almost all - * other graphics formats, it is possible to merge several files that - * contain intermediate format data, and generate a single output file - * from it, which may be again in intermediate format or any of the - * final formats. This latter option is most helpful for parallel - * programs: as demonstrated in the step-17 example program, it is - * possible to let only one processor generate the graphical output - * for the entire parallel program, but this can become vastly - * inefficient if many processors are involved, because the load is no - * longer balanced. The way out is to let each processor generate - * intermediate graphical output for its chunk of the domain, and the - * later merge the different files into one, which is an operation - * that is much cheaper than the generation of the intermediate data. + * format is that it can be read back into a deal.II program using the + * DataOutReader class, which is helpful in at least two contexts: + * First, this can be used to later generate graphical output in any + * other graphics format presently understood; this way, it is not + * necessary to know at run-time which output format is requested, or + * if multiple output files in different formats are needed. Secondly, + * in contrast to almost all other graphics formats, it is possible to + * merge several files that contain intermediate format data, and + * generate a single output file from it, which may be again in + * intermediate format or any of the final formats. This latter option + * is most helpful for parallel programs: as demonstrated in the + * step-17 example program, it is possible to let only one processor + * generate the graphical output for the entire parallel program, but + * this can become vastly inefficient if many processors are involved, + * because the load is no longer balanced. The way out is to let each + * processor generate intermediate graphical output for its chunk of + * the domain, and the later merge the different files into one, which + * is an operation that is much cheaper than the generation of the + * intermediate data. * * Intermediate format deal.II data is usually stored in files with * the ending .d2. @@ -2237,6 +2238,36 @@ class DataOutInterface : private DataOutBase +/** + * A class that is used to read data written in deal.II intermediate + * format back in, so that it can be written out in any of the other + * supported graphics formats. This class has two main purposes: + * + * The first use of this class is so that application programs can + * defer the decision of which graphics format to use until after the + * program has been run. The data is written in intermediate format + * into a file, and later on it can then be converted into any + * graphics format you wish. This may be useful, for example, if you + * want to convert it to gnuplot format to get a quick glimpse and + * later on want to convert it to OpenDX format as well to get a high + * quality version of the data. The present class allows to read this + * intermediate format back into the program, and allows it to be + * written in any other supported format using the relevant functions + * of the base class. + * + * The second use is mostly useful in parallel programs: rather than + * having one central process generate the graphical output for the + * entire program, one can let each process generate the graphical + * data for the cells it owns, and write it into a separate file in + * intermediate format. Later on, all these intermediate files can + * then be read back in and merged together, a process that is fast + * compared to generating the data in the first place. The use of the + * intermediate format is mostly because it allows separate files to + * be merged, while this is almost impossible once the data has been + * written out in any of the supported established graphics formats. + * + * @author Wolfgang Bangerth, 2005 + */ template class DataOutReader : public DataOutInterface {