Re: OCL package 1.0.0 released

[Matthias W. Klein]

On 20.08.2019 00:08, PhilipNienhuis wrote:
> Matthias W. Klein wrote
> > Hi Octave folks,
> >
> > a new release of the OCL package providing OpenCL support for
> > parallelized calculations (including GPGPU) is available [1], version
> > 1.0.0 .
> >
> > It is the first package release which is fully compatible with all
> > recently released octave versions.  (Thanks to the "communications"
> > package, I learned a crucial octave programming technique.)  A summary
> > of all important user-visible changes is available online [2].
> >
> > Users and developers can choose to either download and install the
> > package tarball [3], or clone the repo [4] and use 'make dist' and other
> > Makefile targets for local testing.
> >
> > Feedback is welcome, by e-mail or project ticket.
>
> I just tested ocl-1.0 on a cross-built dev Octave 6.0.0 on my Windows 7 box
> with 2 graphics HW, i.e., built-in Intel plus an NVidia graphics card.
> Results: ocl_tests works fine & gives no errors and the example in the
> doc/README works fine compared to mimicking the commands in Octave.
>
> While installing/building the package I got a LOT of errors along the lines
> of:
>
> :
> C:/Programs/Octave/OCTAVE~1.0_2/mingw64/bin/mkoctfile-6.0.0.exe --verbose -c
> ocl_ov_matrix.cc
> g++ -c
> -I/home/philip/devel/octdev/mxe/mxe_64b_20190808/usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include
> -IC:\Progr
> ams\Octave\OCTAVE~1.0_2\mingw64\include\octave-6.0.0\octave\..
> -IC:\Programs\Octave\OCTAVE~1.0_2\m
> ingw64\include\octave-6.0.0\octave
> -IC:\Programs\Octave\OCTAVE~1.0_2\mingw64\include   -fopenmp -g
>  -O2    ocl_ov_matrix.cc -o ocl_ov_matrix.o
> ocl_ov_matrix.cc: In member function 'octave_base_ocl_matrix<AT>*
> octave_base_ocl_matrix<AT>::ocl_
> index_op(const octave_value_list&, bool)':
> ocl_ov_matrix.cc:181:13: warning: 'error_state' is deprecated: [6]: this
> variable is obsolete and
> always has the value 0 [-Wdeprecated-declarations]
>          if (error_state) break;
>              ^~~~~~~~~~~
> In file included from
> c:\programs\octave\octave~1.0_2\mingw64\include\octave-6.0.0\octave\oct.h:33
> :0,
>                  from ocl_octave_versions.h:4,
>                  from ocl_ov_matrix.h:37,
>                  from ocl_ov_matrix.cc:32:
> c:\programs\octave\octave~1.0_2\mingw64\include\octave-6.0.0\octave\error.h:551:26:
> note: declared
>  here
>  extern OCTINTERP_API int error_state;
>                           ^~~~~~~~~~~
> ocl_ov_matrix.cc:190:11: warning: 'error_state' is deprecated: [6]: this
> variable is obsolete and
> always has the value 0 [-Wdeprecated-declarations]
> :
>
> so I'd suggest to update these statements so that ocl-1.0 isn't outdated the
> moment that Octave-6.1.0 is released. Perhaps some configure option stuff is
> needed for that.
>
> Next try: on the virtualized HW of the VDI clients at work. Maybe maybe it
> works.
>
> Nice work, Matthias!
>
> Philip
Philip,

thanks for your dedicated evaluation and motivating comment.

The last months, I worked on making the OCL project compatible with
released versions of octave as prio #1. Doing the same with the octave
dev has been on my mind - as one of several ideas in which direction OCL
should grow in the future, maybe as the most important of these. (I
will, however, need to setup a new dedicated environment for that, in
short, so don't expect it tomorrow.)

Your tests clearly show very promising results with the octave dev, very
appreciated. And also show only little work left, probably only a few
encapsulations with preprocessor directives using an extended
ocl_octave_versions.h

In order to clarify for me: What difference will it make to have a
dev-compatible ocl package, what aspects are relevant to you octave
maintainers in practice for the package? Where do you see it in relation
to the octave (forge) project?

Please do keep me posted on you further tests as announced.

Best, Matt