Developer Notes

This file documents some facts about the codebase that might be useful for it’s developers and users.

• The Error.hpp file provides the et_assert() macro for function pre/post condition checking. It should be replaced with C++20 contracts when avaliable.
  • Use it to check for function pre and post condition fails.
  • You can also throw an EtError if you like it for recoverable errors.
  • Not disabled in release builds
• Error.hpp also provides the ASSERT() macro that works exactly like C assert(). But
  • Does not generate a unused variable warning in a release build
• Address Sanitizer is your good friend to debug buffer overflows if you are on Linux or OS X.
  • But it might cause Etaler not able to detect OpenCL platforms.
  • Memory Sanitizer will work with OpenCL. But is too sensitive.
• Nvidia’s OpenCL implementation although very optimized, has piles upon piles of problems.
  • Use POCL w/ CUDA backend for debugging. POCL is a lot slower, but very stable.
  • Or use Intel/AMD’s OpenCL SDK