while loops compiled to do-while blocks for JITParticles

[andrewwatford]

Hi all,

I just wanted to flag something I noticed in v3.1.4. If a kernel contains a while loop, it is compiled to a do-while block in C for JITParticles. This leads to different behaviour for JIT vs Scipy particles, and this was causing me some problems in a kernel I was using. I didn't see it mentioned anywhere so I thought I'd mention it here in case anyone else runs into a similar problem.

The way I got around this in Python was by adding a bit of extra code to my while loop:

while condition:
    do_stuff()

becomes

while condition:
    if not condition:
        break
    do_stuff()

though I'm sure there are other ways too!

[erikvansebille]

Thanks for flagging this, @andrewwatford. I had not realised this subtle aspect of the codeconverter myself. So good to be aware!

Note that in the new Parcels v4, we have ditched the code conversion to C altogether in favour of pure python Kernels, so this unexpected behaviour will not be an issue anymore