Bypass method name ambiguity in TaskServer

[miketynes]

The methods argument to TaskServer creates method names implictly, for example in the code:

task_server = LocalTaskServer(
        ...,
        methods=[foo, bar.baz]
)

the methods will be called foo and baz, but code like

task_server = LocalTaskServer(
        ...,
        methods=[foo, bar.baz, qux.baz]
)

will cause issues.

[gpauloski]

I wonder if it should just be an error in BaseTaskServer to provide methods with the same name? Then let users explicitly customize the names, which is possible with the Parsl/GC task servers but not local IIRC.

I think if we tried to automatically disambiguate the names it would be confusing within the Thinker to know what names to use. For example, what do you pass as method here:

self.queues.send_inputs(..., method="???")

"bar.baz" is tricky because the variable name "bar" isn't really known to the task server and f"{type(bar).__name__}.baz is the most precise but annoying to write. Making the user correct the issue would make it more apparent they'll also need to use the same names everywhere.

[miketynes]

The error idea could work.

FWIW: Logan Ward (@WardLT) and I were discussing an option to let the user explicitly define names somewhere, perhaps with a dict like

{callable: 'name'}

to make the method naming feel less magical than it does at the moment