June 29, 2017 conference call

[colancto]

The Methods & Tools Special Interest Group held a short conference call on June 29, 2017. Bill BARRETT (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), Michael HLAVINKA (Bryan Research & Engineering) attended the meeting along with me.
The discussion topic was the threading model to be chosen for COBIA. Should COBIA allow for a Process Modelling Component (PMC) to be called from a different thread that the one it was created in? Is there a business case for this requirement or would it be "sufficient" to organize for duplicating a PMC in a different thread? Same applies to objects such as a Material Object.
Opinions are mixed on these matters and their implications somewhat unclear. Would such requirements involve merely defining the contract passed between components or require code development in COBIA middleware? One difficulty is that using multiple threads in process simulation software does not seem yet widespread but could be spreading. If you have an opinion on these matters, you are welcome to contribute to the analysis.