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[RFC] oneMKL Interface renaming #564

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Oct 10, 2024
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# OneMKL Interface renaming

### Revision


|Date |Revision | Comments |
|-----------|---------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 20240903 | 1.0 | Initial version |

## Motivation

As oneMKL interface is moving to the UXL foundation we should make sure that the
name does not collide with the existing [Intel oneMKL
product](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/tools/oneapi/onemkl.html).

We have been discussing 2 solutions to avoid this issue:
1. Renaming the [oneMKL](https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneMKL) GitHub project to
a new name to be discussed and replacing or clarifying the occurrences of
"oneMKL" in that repository.
2. Using this opportunity to also split this GitHub project per domain. In this
case the names that are advertised would be based on each domain of oneMKL
like `one<Domain>`.

We think that the first solution should be enough to answer the main concern. It
is not clear whether the second solution could better answer the need of users
so we are not planning to split oneMKL per domain unless there is clear and
strong feedback from users.

**We aim to agree on a solution by October 4, 2024 and have the proposal
implemented by the end of November 2024.**

There has been a number issues of where we have had to clarify the differences
between oneMKL Interface and the Intel oneMKL product
[#501](https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneMKL/issues/501#issuecomment-2134681621);
[#377](https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneMKL/issues/377);
[#253](https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneMKL/issues/253);
[#222](https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneMKL/issues/222);
[#211](https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneMKL/issues/211);
[#207](https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneMKL/issues/207);
[#206](https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneMKL/issues/206). Many of these issues
are from 2022. I believe this is still an issue today since this has been an
issue on multiple occasion internally when Codeplay started to contribute to
oneMKL Interface. The oneMKL Interface
[README](https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneMKL?tab=readme-ov-file#onemkl) already
explains the differences between oneMKL Interface and Intel oneMKL product but
this is not enough for people who are not working directly on the projects.

## Outline

1. [Introduction](#introduction)
2. [Proposal](#proposal)
3. [User impact](#user-impact)
4. [Open questions](#open-questions)

## Introduction

oneMKL Interface has historically been implemented and supported by Intel. As
the project is moving to the UXL foundation we want to avoid using the name of
an Intel product. This RFC describes the solution of renaming oneMKL Interface
to a new name.

## Proposal

The main purpose of this RFC is to agree on a new name for oneMKL Interface.
Some of the suggested names are:
* **oneMath**
* **oneSLA** (SYCL Linear Algebra)
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'oneMath' looks good to me. I'm not sure 'oneSLA' will be accurate in this case, since FFT, RNG, and Vector math are not technically part of Linear Algebra

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and SLA first association is service Level Agreement, not Linear Algebra


Other suggestions are welcomed.

The suggested solution is to proceed in the following steps:
1. The UXL foundation agrees on the new name.
2. Codeplay submits a oneMKL Interface PR to:
* Update the root README to use the new name, with a mention that the project
was formerly called oneMKL Interface.
* Update the references to "oneMKL" and `onemkl_` in the documentation as
seen in the first few lines of
[docs/onemkl-datatypes.rst](https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneMKL/blob/develop/docs/onemkl-datatypes.rst?plain=1#L1)
for instance.
* Update occurrences of "onemkl" in internal functions such as
[onemkl_cublas_host_task](https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneMKL/blob/1ce98a699f93bd3a78350269b2e34d822fe43b91/src/blas/backends/cublas/cublas_task.hpp#L77).
* Update macros such as include guards and other internal macros like
`ONEMKL_EXPORT` to use the new name.
* Rename CMake targets `onemkl` and `onemkl_<domain>_<backend>` to use the
new name. The existing targets name can be added with a deprecation
messages for anyone using them. See the section on [CMake target
deprecation](#cmake-deprecated-target) for more details.
3. Codeplay submits a oneAPI-spec PR to rename the occurrences of "oneMKL" to
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the new name.
4. Once the PRs are approved, Codeplay transfers the
[oneMKL](https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneMKL) GitHub project to the
[uxlfoundation](https://github.com/uxlfoundation) organization under the new
name. We use the
[transferring](https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/creating-and-managing-repositories/transferring-a-repository)
feature from GitHub so the links from the previous repository are redirected
to the new one.
5. The PRs from the step 2 and 3 are merged.

We are not planning to rename the occurrences of "mkl" such as the `oneapi::mkl`
namespace, the `include/oneapi/mkl` folder or the `include/oneapi/mkl.hpp` file.
Whether this is needed is an open question.

### CMake target deprecation

CMake allows to set a
[`DEPRECATION`](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/prop_tgt/DEPRECATION.html)
property on a target which will print a custom message whenever the target is
used. The property cannot be set on an [alias
target](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/cmake-buildsystem.7.html#alias-targets)
as they are read-only. The property can be set on an imported target instead
like the example below:

```cmake
add_library(onemath lib.cpp) # New main target, for the example

add_library(onemkl INTERFACE IMPORTED) # onemkl works like an alias of onemath which can have different properties
target_link_libraries(onemkl INTERFACE onemath)
set_target_properties(onemkl PROPERTIES DEPRECATION "onemkl target is deprecated, please use onemath instead")

add_executable(main main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(main PUBLIC onemkl) # Prints a warning at CMake configuration time
```

The same solution can be used for the `onemkl_<domain>_<backend>` targets. This does
not add any extra targets to the generated `Makefile` or `build.ninja` files so
the library will not be built twice.

### Other Considered Approaches

Another considered approach is to split the existing oneMKL Interface per domain
like so: oneBLAS, oneLAPACK, oneDFT, oneRNG, oneSPARSE. This shifts the need of
renaming "oneMKL Interface" as the main visible names will be based on the
domain. It is not clear whether this better answers the users needs.
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I have one idea to share about how to improve rebase simplicity when multiple people work on different domains in one repo at the same time, as an option we might consider switching merge policy from 'rebase and merge' to 'merge commits'.

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Some developers, myself included, are not fond of using merge commits in the main branch. I find it makes the history harder to read and I don't see what difference it would make for developers working on a single domain.

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I second that, I personally tend to avoid merge commits at all costs exactly because the history is harder to figure out. Having a clean history also means the pretty output of git log --all --decorate --oneline --graph is easier to decipher.


With this approach the suggested solution is to have a common repository for
common types (`transpose`, `uplo`, `diag`, `side`, `offset`, `index_base`,
`layout`), exceptions and some CMake logic. Each domain would have its own
repository automatically pulling the common headers. Another repository could be
created to automatically pull multiple domains which would mimic the behavior of
the current oneMKL Interface.

We are not planning to proceed with this approach unless users express a strong
preference.

## User impact

The suggested solution does not break any existing code.
* The repository is transferred using the [GitHub
transfer](https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/creating-and-managing-repositories/transferring-a-repository)
feature so users accessing or pulling from
https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneMKL will be redirected to the new link.
* The changes in oneMKL do not affect the public API. The macros renamed or the
header files in the `detail` folders renamed should not be used outside of the
oneMKL Interface project.
* The CMake changes will still provide the same targets but will print a warning
message if users use targets with the `onemkl` name.

## Open questions

* Other suggestions for new names are welcomed.
* Is it needed to rename the occurrences of "mkl"?
* This will have a bigger impact and require more time to complete.
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I believe it will also affect specification

* It should be possible to rename these occurrences without any breaking
change. This would need to be further investigated.