[Trilinos-Users] [EXTERNAL] Re: Epetra_Map

[Littlewood, David John]

Mike,

Wanted to chime in here because I've had the same question as Luca.
Everything you said makes sense, but it's still not clear why the
constructor for Epetra_CrsMatrix takes an Epetra_Map.  It seems like it
should take an Epetra_BlockMap.

The fact that it takes an Epetra_Map has caused some minor grief for me,
since I generally use Epetra_BlockMap to create vectors which I'd then
like to multiply with an Epetra_FECrsMatrix.  This doesn't work without
some data juggling, because I created the matrix using an Epetra_Map (as
required by the constructor) and thus it is incompatible with my vectors
(created with Epetra_BlockMap, element size = 3).

Dave


On 12/6/13 11:25 PM, "Heroux, Mike" <MHeroux at csbsju.edu> wrote:

>Luca,
>
>As you pointed out, Epetra_Map "isa" Epetra_BlockMap, with a block size
>of 1.  If you are only using a block size of 1, then you should just use
>Epetra_Map.  Doing this should make your code much simpler.  So when you
>are working with Epetra_CrsGraph, just use an Epetra_Map.
>
>In general Epetra_Map (and Epetra_BlockMap, and similar classes in Tpetra
>and soon Kokkos) encodes a description of the dimensions and distribution
>of data objects.  By encoding this information into a separate class, we
>can create many data objects using the same map and know that they are
>compatible by construction.  We can also use maps to create
>redistributions of data objects, and a few other things.
>
>In straightforward use cases, the map may seem like unnecessary overhead,
>but even in these cases, the maps are being used by underlying
>functionality to improve correct and efficient behavior.
>
>Epetra_CrsGraph uses Epetra_BlockMap because it serves as the graph class
>for both Epetra_Map and Epetra_BlockMap based object.  For example,
>Epetra_CrsMatrix and Epetra_VbrMatrix both use Epetra_CrsGraph.
>
>I hope this helps.
>
>Mike
>
>On Dec 7, 2013, at 1:20 AM, "Bertagna, Luca"
><lbertag at emory.edu<mailto:lbertag at emory.edu>> wrote:
>
>
>Hello,
>
>I've been using the epetra package for a while, but I still don't
>understand what's the point of Epetra_Map. I understand it's a map where
>the element size is equal to 1, but I don't get why Epetra_CrsMatrix uses
>it when Epetra_CrsGraph does not. Calling the method FillComplete in
>CrsMatrix is always a pain, cause I need to cast the BlockMap of the
>graph into a Map. I guess my question is, if the underlying graph does
>not use Epetra_Map but uses Epetra_BlockMap instead, why can't
>Epetra_CrsMatrix just use Epetra_BlockMap as well?
>
>Thanks
>
>
>Luca Bertagna
>Math&CS, Emory University, Atlanta
>www.mathcs.emory.edu/~lbertag<http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~lbertag>
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