CGNS Steering Committee

Meeting Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm. There were 24 attendees, as listed below.

• Charter/Membership - A motion to amend the Charter to increase the number of voting members of the Steering committee from 16 to 17 was made, seconded and passed by consensus. A motion to amend the Charter by adding ONERA as an official Steering Committee member was made, seconded and passed by consensus.

  Laurent Cambier introduced the ONERA efforts with CGNS (for Marc Poinot).
  
  

• ISO Status - Ray Cosner presented an overview of the ISO status (HTML, PDF). Ray also solicited interest in a 2 day ISO-CGNS workshop at which the CGNS Steering Committee would do a thorough review of the ISO documentation. This would probably occur in the late spring time frame. Many in the audience indicated a willingness to attend, so Ray will set a date and location with Bob Bush and invitations will be sent to interested parties.
  
  
• Documentation - Theresa Benyo gave an overview of the documentation status (HTML, PDF) for Charlie Towne.

  Jim French indicated that the transfer of the SIDS documentation to AIAA for transition to an AIAA Recommended Practice is underway. Final documentation should be available soon. This will be distributed to the entire CGNS mailing list, and votes for approval solicited from the official Steering Committee members. We anticipate this will occur in the spring.

  David Edwards reported that the AIAA Paper was completed, and presented the paper on Wednesday. The paper was well received. Thanks to David for pulling it together so nicely.

  It was mentioned that CGNStalk has had little activity lately. Theresa will ask Charlie to check to be sure it is operational. All interested parties are encouraged to submit questions and comments via this web vehicle.
  
  

• Extensions - Chris Rumsey gave an overview of the status of various extensions (HTML, PDF).

  Diane Poirier gave an overview of the version control system that is in place to facilitate software updates and code management. The system is based on CVS and is currently controlled via controlled access. Access can be granted by the Steering Committee. Currently, only Diane (ICEM) and David Edwards (Intelligent Light) have access. It is intended that others will be provided access when the need arises. It was noted that we should have a document itemizing the quality control steps needed to maintain the software integrity. This may be in the form of a checklist that includes the update steps, and include a process to have updated code checked by a third party before insertion in the official version.
  
  

• Related Software - Bob Bush gave a brief overview of material Marc Poinot prepared (HTML, PDF) that details the PyCGNS software that ONERA has developed. The software is available from http://elsa.onera.fr/CGNS/releases .

  There was quick mention of the C++ interface being developed by Manuel Kessler and Udo Tremel. Unfortunately they were not able to attend the meeting, so the discussion was relatively generic. There was also discussion of how to make this software available and how the CGNS Steering Committee should support the software. We would like to suggest that rather than posting the library directly on the CGNS web site, that we provide a summary of the capability and a link to a developers web site. This would allow the developers to respond directly to questions, comments and extensions without introducing an intermediate filter, and it would lessen the need for the Steering Committee to support unfamiliar software. However, it will also increase the support burden on the developers. We will work with Udo and Manuel to determine the most effective means of distributing the software.
  
  

• Issues - There was a short discussion on funding and support. It was suggested that funding agencies be identified, and proposals prepared. One approach would be to have interested organizations bid on tasks directly to funding agencies. The role of the Steering Committee could be to coordinate and endorse various proposals instead of trying to bid directly.

  NIST was suggested as a potentially interested funding agency. Ray Cosner offered that Cary Presser of NIST often attends the CoS meetings. (Bob Bush met with Cary briefly after the CoS meeting Wednesday evening. Cary indicated that NIST is not generally a funding agency, but he has interest in CGNS and will assist us in looking for potential funding.)

The meeting was adjourned at about 8:30.

Attendees