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VTK
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VTK datasets store most of their important information in subclasses of vtkDataArray. Vertex locations (vtkPoints::Data), cell topology (vtkCellArray::Ia), and numeric point, cell, and generic attributes (vtkFieldData::Data) are the dataset features accessed most frequently by VTK algorithms, and these all rely on the vtkDataArray API.
This page uses the following terms:
A ValueType is the element type of an array. For instance, vtkFloatArray has a ValueType of float.
An ArrayType is a subclass of vtkDataArray. It specifies not only a ValueType, but an array implementation as well. This becomes important as vtkDataArray subclasses will begin to stray from the typical "array-of-structs" ordering that has been exclusively used in the past.
A dispatch is a runtime-resolution of a vtkDataArray's ArrayType, and is used to call a section of executable code that has been tailored for that ArrayType. Dispatching has compile-time and run-time components. At compile-time, the possible ArrayTypes to be used are determined and a worker code template is generated for each type. At run-time, the type of a specific array is determined and the proper worker instantiation is called.
Template explosion refers to a sharp increase in the size of a compiled binary that results from instantiating a template function or class on many different types.
The data array type hierarchy in VTK has a unique feature when compared to typical C++ containers: a non-templated base class. All arrays containing numeric data inherit vtkDataArray, a common interface that sports a very useful API. Without knowing the underlying ValueType stored in data array, an algorithm or user may still work with any vtkDataArray in meaningful ways: The array can be resized, reshaped, read, and rewritten easily using a generic API that substitutes double-precision floating point numbers for the array's actual ValueType. For instance, we can write a simple function that computes the magnitudes for a set of vectors in one array and store the results in another using nothing but the typeless vtkDataArray API:
However, this flexibility comes at a cost. Passing data through a generic API has a number of issues:
Accuracy
Not all ValueTypes are fully expressible as a double. The truncation of integers with > 52 bits of precision can be a particularly nasty issue.
Performance
Virtual overhead: The only way to implement such a system is to route the vtkDataArray calls through a run-time resolution of ValueTypes. This is implemented through the virtual override mechanism of C++, which adds a small overhead to each API call.
Missed optimization: The virtual indirection described above also prevents the compiler from being able to make assumptions about the layout of the data in-memory. This information could be used to perform advanced optimizations, such as vectorization.
So what can one do if they want fast, optimized, type-safe access to the data stored in a vtkDataArray? What options are available?
The vtkTemplateMacro is described in this section. While it is no longer considered a best practice to use this construct in new code, it is still usable and likely to be encountered when reading the VTK source code. Newer code should use the vtkArrayDispatch mechanism, which is detailed later. The discussion of vtkTemplateMacro will help illustrate some of the practical issues with array dispatching.
With a few minor exceptions that we won't consider here, prior to VTK 7.1 it was safe to assume that all numeric vtkDataArray objects were also subclasses of vtkDataArrayTemplate. This template class provided the implementation of all documented numeric data arrays such as vtkDoubleArray, vtkIdTypeArray, etc, and stores the tuples in memory as a contiguous array-of-structs (AOS). For example, if we had an array that stored 3-component tuples as floating point numbers, we could define a tuple as:
An array-of-structs, or AOS, memory buffer containing this data could be described as:
As a result, ArrayOfStructsBuffer will have the following memory layout:
That is, the components of each tuple are stored in adjacent memory locations, one tuple after another. While this is not exactly how vtkDataArrayTemplate implemented its memory buffers, it accurately describes the resulting memory layout.
vtkDataArray also defines a GetDataType method, which returns an enumerated value describing a type. We can used to discover the ValueType stored in the array.
Combine the AOS memory convention and GetDataType() with a horrific little method on the data arrays named GetVoidPointer(), and a path to efficient, type-safe access was available. GetVoidPointer() does what it says on the tin: it returns the memory address for the array data's base location as a void*. While this breaks encapsulation and sets off warning bells for the more pedantic among us, the following technique was safe and efficient when used correctly:
The vtkTemplateMacro, as you may have guessed, expands into a series of case statements that determine an array's ValueType from the int GetDataType() return value. The ValueType is then typedef'd to VTK_TT, and the macro's argument is called for each numeric type returned from GetDataType. In this case, the call to calcMagnitudeWorker is made by the macro, with VTK_TT typedef'd to the array's ValueType.
This is the typical usage pattern for vtkTemplateMacro. The calcMagnitude function calls a templated worker implementation that uses efficient, raw memory access to a typesafe memory buffer so that the worker's code can be as efficient as possible. But this assumes AOS memory ordering, and as we'll mention, this assumption may no longer be valid as VTK moves further into the field of in-situ analysis.
But first, you may have noticed that the above example using vtkTemplateMacro has introduced a step backwards in terms of functionality. In the vtkDataArray implementation, we didn't care if both arrays were the same ValueType, but now we have to ensure this, since we cast both arrays' void pointers to VTK_TT*. What if vectors is an array of integers, but we want to calculate floating point magnitudes?
The best solution prior to VTK 7.1 was to use two worker functions. The first is templated on vector's ValueType, and the second is templated on both array ValueTypes:
This works well, but it's a bit ugly and has the same issue as before regarding memory layout. Double dispatches using this method will also see more problems regarding binary size. The number of template instantiations that the compiler needs to generate is determined by I = T^D, where I is the number of template instantiations, T is the number of types considered, and D is the number of dispatches. As of VTK 7.1, vtkTemplateMacro considers 14 data types, so this double-dispatch will produce 14 instantiations of calcMagnitudeWorker1 and 196 instantiations of calcMagnitudeWorker2. If we tried to resolve 3 vtkDataArrays into raw C arrays, 2744 instantiations of the final worker function would be generated. As more arrays are considered, the need for some form of restricted dispatch becomes very important to keep this template explosion in check.
Starting with VTK 7.1, the Array-Of-Structs (AOS) memory layout is no longer the only vtkDataArray implementation provided by the library. The Struct-Of-Arrays (SOA) memory layout is now available throught the vtkSOADataArrayTemplate class. The SOA layout assumes that the components of an array are stored separately, as in:
The new SOA arrays were added to improve interoperability between VTK and simulation packages for live visualization of in-situ results. Many simulations use the SOA layout for their data, and natively supporting these arrays in VTK will allow analysis of live data without the need to explicitly copy it into a VTK data structure.
As a result of this change, a new mechanism is needed to efficiently access array data. vtkTemplateMacro and GetVoidPointer are no longer an acceptable solution – implementing GetVoidPointer for SOA arrays requires creating a deep copy of the data into a new AOS buffer, a waste of both processor time and memory.
So we need a replacement for vtkTemplateMacro that can abstract away things like storage details while providing performance that is on-par with raw memory buffer operations. And while we're at it, let's look at removing the tedium of multi-array dispatch and reducing the problem of 'template explosion'. The remainder of this page details such a system.
We'll describe a new set of tools that make managing template instantiations for efficient array access both easy and extensible. As an overview, the following new features will be discussed:
vtkGenericDataArray: The new templated base interface for all numeric vtkDataArray subclasses.vtkArrayDispatch: Collection of code generation tools that allow concise and precise specification of restrictable dispatch for up to 3 arrays simultaneously.vtkArrayDownCast: Access to specialized downcast implementations from code templates.vtkDataArrayAccessor: Provides Get and Set methods for accessing/modifying array data as efficiently as possible. Allows a single worker implementation to work efficiently with vtkGenericDataArray subclasses, or fallback to use the vtkDataArray API if needed.VTK_ASSUME: New abstraction for the compiler __assume directive to provide optimization hints.These will be discussed more fully, but as a preview, here's our familiar calcMagnitude example implemented using these new tools:
The vtkGenericDataArray class template drives the new vtkDataArray class hierarchy. The ValueType is introduced here, both as a template parameter and a class-scope typedef. This allows a typed API to be written that doesn't require conversion to/from a common type (as vtkDataArray does with double). It does not implement any storage details, however. Instead, it uses the CRTP idiom to forward key method calls to a derived class without using a virtual function call. By eliminating this indirection, vtkGenericDataArray defines an interface that can be used to implement highly efficient code, because the compiler is able to see past the method calls and optimize the underlying memory accesses instead.
There are two main subclasses of vtkGenericDataArray: vtkAOSDataArrayTemplate and vtkSOADataArrayTemplate. These implement array-of-structs and struct-of-arrays storage, respectively.
Type lists are a metaprogramming construct used to generate a list of C++ types. They are used in VTK to implement restricted array dispatching. As we'll see, vtkArrayDispatch offers ways to reduce the number of generated template instantiations by enforcing constraints on the arrays used to dispatch. For instance, if one wanted to only generate templated worker implementations for vtkFloatArray and vtkIntArray, a typelist is used to specify this:
There's not much to know about type lists as a user, other than how to create them. As seen above, there is a set of macros named vtkTypeList_Create_X, where X is the number of types in the created list, and the arguments are the types to place in the list. In the example above, the new type list is typically bound to a friendlier name using a local typedef, which is a common practice.
The vtkTypeList.h header defines some additional type list operations that may be useful, such as deleting and appending types, looking up indices, etc. vtkArrayDispatch::FilterArraysByValueType may come in handy, too. But for working with array dispatches, most users will only need to create new ones, or use one of the following predefined vtkTypeLists:
vtkArrayDispatch::Reals: All floating point ValueTypes.vtkArrayDispatch::Integrals: All integral ValueTypes.vtkArrayDispatch::AllTypes: Union of Reals and Integrals.vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays: Default list of ArrayTypes to use in dispatches.The last one is special – vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays is a typelist of ArrayTypes set application-wide when VTK is built. This vtkTypeList of vtkDataArray subclasses is used for unrestricted dispatches, and is the list that gets filtered when restricting a dispatch to specific ValueTypes.
Refining this list allows the user building VTK to have some control over the dispatch process. If SOA arrays are never going to be used, they can be removed from dispatch calls, reducing compile times and binary size. On the other hand, a user applying in-situ techniques may want them available, because they'll be used to import views of intermediate results.
By default, vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays contains all AOS arrays. The CMake option VTK_DISPATCH_SOA_ARRAYS will enable SOA array dispatch as well. More advanced possibilities exist and are described in VTK/CMake/vtkCreateArrayDispatchArrayList.cmake.
In VTK, all subclasses of vtkObject (including the data arrays) support a downcast method called SafeDownCast. It is used similarly to the C++ dynamic_cast – given an object, try to cast it to a more derived type or return NULL if the object is not the requested type. Say we have a vtkDataArray and want to test if it is actually a vtkFloatArray. We can do this:
This works, but it can pose a serious problem if DoSomeAction is called repeatedly. SafeDownCast works by performing a series of virtual calls and string comparisons to determine if an object falls into a particular class hierarchy. These string comparisons add up and can actually dominate computational resources if an algorithm implementation calls SafeDownCast in a tight loop.
In such situations, it's ideal to restructure the algorithm so that the downcast only happens once and the same result is used repeatedly, but sometimes this is not possible. To lessen the cost of downcasting arrays, a FastDownCast method exists for common subclasses of vtkAbstractArray. This replaces the string comparisons with a single virtual call and a few integer comparisons and is far cheaper than the more general SafeDownCast. However, not all array implementations support the FastDownCast method.
This creates a headache for templated code. Take the following example:
We cannot use FastDownCast here since not all possible ArrayTypes support it. But we really want that performance increase for the ones that do – SafeDownCasts are really slow! vtkArrayDownCast fixes this issue:
vtkArrayDownCast automatically selects FastDownCast when it is defined for the ArrayType, and otherwise falls back to SafeDownCast. This is the preferred array downcast method for performance, uniformity, and reliability.
Array dispatching relies on having templated worker code carry out some operation. For instance, take this vtkArrayDispatch code that locates the maximum value in an array:
There's a problem, though. Recall that only the arrays in vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays are tested for dispatching. What happens if the array passed into someFunction wasn't on that list?
The dispatch will fail, and maxWorker.Tuple and maxWorker.Component will be left to their initial values of -1. That's no good. What if someFunction is a critical path where we want to use a fast dispatched worker if possible, but still have valid results to use if dispatching fails? Well, we can fall back on the vtkDataArray API and do things the slow way in that case. When a dispatcher is given an unsupported array, Execute() returns false, so let's just add a backup implementation:
Ok, that works. But ugh...why write the same algorithm twice? That's extra debugging, extra testing, extra maintenance burden, and just plain not fun.
Enter vtkDataArrayAccessor. This utility template does a very simple, yet useful, job. It provides component and tuple based Get and Set methods that will call the corresponding method on the array using either the vtkDataArray or vtkGenericDataArray API, depending on the class's template parameter. It also defines an APIType, which can be used to allocate temporaries, etc. This type is double for vtkDataArrays and vtkGenericDataArray::ValueType for vtkGenericDataArrays.
Another nice benefit is that vtkDataArrayAccessor has a more compact API. The only defined methods are Get and Set, and they're overloaded to work on either tuples or components (though component access is encouraged as it is much, much more efficient). Note that all non-element access operations (such as GetNumberOfTuples) should still be called on the array pointer using vtkDataArray API.
Using vtkDataArrayAccessor, we can write a single worker template that works for both vtkDataArray and vtkGenericDataArray, without a loss of performance in the latter case. That worker looks like this:
Now when we call operator() with say, ArrayT=vtkFloatArray, we'll get an optimized, efficient code path. But we can also call this same implementation with ArrayT=vtkDataArray and still get a correct result (assuming that the vtkDataArray's double API represents the data well enough).
Using the vtkDataArray fallback path is straightforward. At the call site:
Using the above pattern for calling a worker and always going through vtkDataArrayAccessor to Get/Set array elements ensures that any worker implementation can be its own fallback path.
While performance testing the new array classes, we compared the performance of a dispatched worker using the vtkDataArrayAccessor class to the same algorithm using raw memory buffers. We managed to achieve the same performance out of the box for most cases, using both AOS and SOA array implementations. In fact, with --ffast-math optimizations on GCC 4.9, the optimizer is able to remove all function calls and apply SIMD vectorized instructions in the dispatched worker, showing that the new array API is thin enough that the compiler can see the algorithm in terms of memory access.
But there was one case where performance suffered. If iterating through an AOS data array with a known number of components using GetTypedComponent, the raw pointer implementation initially outperformed the dispatched array. To understand why, note that the AOS implementation of GetTypedComponent is along the lines of:
Because NumberOfComponents is unknown at compile time, the optimizer cannot assume anything about the stride of the components in the array. This leads to missed optimizations for vectorized read/writes and increased complexity in the instructions used to iterate through the data.
For such cases where the number of components is, in fact, known at compile time (due to a calling function performing some validation, for instance), it is possible to tell the compiler about this fact using VTK_ASSUME.
VTK_ASSUME wraps a compiler-specific __assume statement, which is used to pass such optimization hints. Its argument is an expression of some condition that is guaranteed to always be true. This allows more aggressive optimizations when used correctly, but be forewarned that if the condition is not met at runtime, the results are unpredictable and likely catastrophic.
But if we're writing a filter that only operates on 3D point sets, we know the number of components in the point array will always be 3. In this case we can write:
in the worker function and this instructs the compiler that the array's internal NumberOfComponents variable will always be 3, and thus the stride of the array is known. Of course, the caller of this worker function should ensure that this is a 3-component array and fail gracefully if it is not.
There are many scenarios where VTK_ASSUME can offer a serious performance boost, the case of known tuple size is a common one that's really worth remembering.
The dispatchers implemented in the vtkArrayDispatch namespace provide array dispatching with customizable restrictions on code generation and a simple syntax that hides the messy details of type resolution and multi-array dispatch. There are several "flavors" of dispatch available that operate on up to three arrays simultaneously.
Using the vtkArrayDispatch system requires three elements: the array(s), the worker, and the dispatcher.
All dispatched arrays must be subclasses of vtkDataArray. It is important to identify as many restrictions as possible. Must every ArrayType be considered during dispatch, or is the array's ValueType (or even the ArrayType itself) restricted? If dispatching multiple arrays at once, are they expected to have the same ValueType? These scenarios are common, and these conditions can be used to reduce the number of instantiations of the worker template.
The worker is some generic callable. In C++98, a templated functor is a good choice. In C++14, a generic lambda is a usable option as well. For our purposes, we'll only consider the functor approach, as C++14 is a long ways off for core VTK code.
At a minimum, the worker functor should define operator() to make it callable. This should be a function template with a template parameter for each array it should handle. For a three array dispatch, it should look something like this:
At runtime, the dispatcher will call ThreeWayWorker::operator() with a set of Array1T, Array2T, and Array3T that satisfy any dispatch restrictions.
Workers can be stateful, too, as seen in the FindMax worker earlier where the worker simply identified the component and tuple id of the largest value in the array. The functor stored them for the caller to use in further analysis:
The dispatcher is the workhorse of the system. It is responsible for applying restrictions, resolving array types, and generating the requested template instantiations. It has responsibilities both at run-time and compile-time.
During compilation, the dispatcher will identify the valid combinations of arrays that can be used according to the restrictions. This is done by starting with a typelist of arrays, either supplied as a template parameter or by defaulting to vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays, and filtering them by ValueType if needed. For multi-array dispatches, additional restrictions may apply, such as forcing the second and third arrays to have the same ValueType as the first. It must then generate the required code for the dispatch – that is, the templated worker implementation must be instantiated for each valid combination of arrays.
At runtime, it tests each of the dispatched arrays to see if they match one of the generated code paths. Runtime type resolution is carried out using vtkArrayDownCast to get the best performance available for the arrays of interest. If it finds a match, it calls the worker's operator() method with the properly typed arrays. If no match is found, it returns false without executing the worker.
We've made several mentions of using restrictions to reduce the number of template instantiations during a dispatch operation. You may be wondering if it really matters so much. Let's consider some numbers.
VTK is configured to use 13 ValueTypes for numeric data. These are the standard numeric types float, int, unsigned char, etc. By default, VTK will define vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays to use all 13 types with vtkAOSDataArrayTemplate for the standard set of dispatchable arrays. If enabled during compilation, the SOA data arrays are added to this list for a total of 26 arrays.
Using these 26 arrays in a single, unrestricted dispatch will result in 26 instantiations of the worker template. A double dispatch will generate 676 workers. A triple dispatch with no restrictions creates a whopping 17,576 functions to handle the possible combinations of arrays. That's a lot of instructions to pack into the final binary object.
Applying some simple restrictions can reduce this immensely. Say we know that the arrays will only contain floats or doubles. This would reduce the single dispatch to 4 instantiations, the double dispatch to 16, and the triple to 64. We've just reduced the generated code size significantly. We could even apply such a restriction to just create some 'fast-paths' and let the integral types fallback to using the vtkDataArray API by using vtkDataArrayAccessors. Dispatch restriction is a powerful tool for reducing the compiled size of a binary object.
Another common restriction is that all arrays in a multi-array dispatch have the same ValueType, even if that ValueType is not known at compile time. By specifying this restriction, a double dispatch on all 26 AOS/SOA arrays will only produce 52 worker instantiations, down from 676. The triple dispatch drops to 104 instantiations from 17,576.
Always apply restrictions when they are known, especially for multi-array dispatches. The savings are worth it.
Now that we've discussed the components of a dispatch operation, what the dispatchers do, and the importance of restricting dispatches, let's take a look at the types of dispatchers available.
This family of dispatchers take no parameters and perform an unrestricted dispatch over all arrays in vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays.
Variations:
vtkArrayDispatch::Dispatch: Single dispatch.vtkArrayDispatch::Dispatch2: Double dispatch.vtkArrayDispatch::Dispatch3: Triple dispatch.Arrays considered: All arrays in vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays.
Restrictions: None.
Usecase: Used when no useful information exists that can be used to apply restrictions.
Example Usage:
This family of dispatchers takes a vtkTypeList of explicit array types to use during dispatching. They should only be used when an array's exact type is restricted. If dispatching multiple arrays and only one has such type restrictions, use vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays (or a filtered version) for the unrestricted arrays.
Variations:
vtkArrayDispatch::DispatchByArray: Single dispatch.vtkArrayDispatch::Dispatch2ByArray: Double dispatch.vtkArrayDispatch::Dispatch3ByArray: Triple dispatch.Arrays considered: All arrays explicitly listed in the parameter lists.
Restrictions: Array must be explicitly listed in the dispatcher's type.
Usecase: Used when one or more arrays have known implementations.
Example Usage:
An example here would be a filter that processes an input array of some integral type and produces either a vtkDoubleArray or a vtkFloatArray, depending on some condition. Since the input array's implementation is unknown (it comes from outside the filter), we'll rely on a ValueType-filtered version of vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays for its type. However, we know the output array is either vtkDoubleArray or vtkFloatArray, so we'll want to be sure to apply that restriction:
This family of dispatchers takes a vtkTypeList of ValueTypes for each array and restricts dispatch to only arrays in vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays that have one of the specified value types.
Variations:
vtkArrayDispatch::DispatchByValueType: Single dispatch.vtkArrayDispatch::Dispatch2ByValueType: Double dispatch.vtkArrayDispatch::Dispatch3ByValueType: Triple dispatch.Arrays considered: All arrays in vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays that meet the ValueType requirements.
Restrictions: Arrays that do not satisfy the ValueType requirements are eliminated.
Usecase: Used when one or more of the dispatched arrays has an unknown implementation, but a known (or restricted) ValueType.
Example Usage:
Here we'll consider a filter that processes three arrays. The first is a complete unknown. The second is known to hold unsigned char, but we don't know the implementation. The third holds either doubles or floats, but its implementation is also unknown.
This family of dispatchers takes a vtkTypeList of ArrayTypes for each array and restricts dispatch to only consider arrays from those typelists, with the added requirement that all dispatched arrays share a ValueType.
Variations:
vtkArrayDispatch::Dispatch2ByArrayWithSameValueType: Double dispatch.vtkArrayDispatch::Dispatch3ByArrayWithSameValueType: Triple dispatch.Arrays considered: All arrays in the explicit typelists that meet the ValueType requirements.
Restrictions: Combinations of arrays with differing ValueTypes are eliminated.
Usecase: When one or more arrays are known to belong to a restricted set of ArrayTypes, and all arrays are known to share the same ValueType, regardless of implementation.
Example Usage:
Let's consider a double array dispatch, with array1 known to be one of four common array types (AOS float, double, int, and vtkIdType arrays), and the other is a complete unknown, although we know that it holds the same ValueType as array1.
This family of dispatchers takes a single vtkTypeList of ValueType and restricts dispatch to only consider arrays from vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays with those ValueTypes, with the added requirement that all dispatched arrays share a ValueType.
Variations:
vtkArrayDispatch::Dispatch2BySameValueType: Double dispatch.vtkArrayDispatch::Dispatch3BySameValueType: Triple dispatch.vtkArrayDispatch::Dispatch2SameValueType: Double dispatch using vtkArrayDispatch::AllTypes.vtkArrayDispatch::Dispatch3SameValueType: Triple dispatch using vtkArrayDispatch::AllTypes.Arrays considered: All arrays in vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays that meet the ValueType requirements.
Restrictions: Combinations of arrays with differing ValueTypes are eliminated.
Usecase: When one or more arrays are known to belong to a restricted set of ValueTypes, and all arrays are known to share the same ValueType, regardless of implementation.
Example Usage:
Let's consider a double array dispatch, with array1 known to be one of four common ValueTypes (float, double, int, and vtkIdType arrays), and array2 known to have the same ValueType as array1.
Despite the thin vtkGenericDataArray API's nice feature that compilers can optimize memory accesses, sometimes there are still legitimate reasons to access the underlying memory buffer. This can still be done safely by providing overloads to your worker's operator() method. For instance, vtkDataArray::DeepCopy uses a generic implementation when mixed array implementations are used, but has optimized overloads for copying between arrays with the same ValueType and implementation. The worker for this dispatch is shown below as an example:
Now that we've explored the new tools introduced with VTK 7.1 that allow efficient, implementation agnostic array access, let's take another look at the calcMagnitude example from before and identify the key features of the implementation:
This implementation:
vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays (13 AOS + 13 SOA).float or double ValueTypes, which translates to 4 array types (one each, SOA and AOS).double precision when the ValueType restrictions are not met.vtkDataArrayAccessor, we have a fallback implementation that reuses our templated worker code.vtkGenericDataArray API is transparent to the compiler. The specialized instantiations of operator() can be heavily optimized since the memory access patterns are known and well-defined.VTK_ASSUME tells the compiler that the arrays have known strides, allowing further compile-time optimizations.Hopefully this has convinced you that the vtkArrayDispatch and related tools are worth using to create flexible, efficient, typesafe implementations for your work with VTK. Please direct any questions you may have on the subject to the VTK mailing lists.
1.8.9.1