[ofiwg] ofiwg item: supporting other OS's

[Hefty, Sean]

> 1. We can find someone who actually knows how to develop on Windows who
> will work on libfabic with us, including long-term maintenance.

FWIW, I have done significant development on Windows.  But I would expect most this work to come from the people making the request.

> 2. There's an extremely clear business interest from one party (or
> ideally, two parties) that will help sustain the Windows support.
> 
> > At least two development teams have asked about support outside of
> Linux.
> 
> Are these Intel development teams?  Or random third parties?

Solaris was a random third party.

The Windows support is from the Intel MPI team, but I've been asked about Windows a few times.  The Intel team relies on DAPL to bridge between Linux and Windows.  So, from their view libfabric replaces DAPL.  There are different levels of support that could be done with Windows (these aren't exclusive).

1. none
2. keep linux and windows providers separate
   We only need to worry about shared headers.
3. make the sockets provider portable
4. support including libfabric into some other application
   i.e. don't create a windows package or installer
5. treat windows as a real OS and target platform
6. port fabtests to Windows

- Sean