RFC: DTIO and PR82007

[Thomas Koenig]

Hi Jerry,

> 1) Compile a list of the components int the dtp structure similar to what we do
> for namelists so that if a DT edit descriptor is not found at run time, the
> library can simple traverse the derived time data.

This sounds like a straightforward thing to do, and (to my mind) is
probably less error-prone than

>    st_write
>    {
>      if (DT present)
>        transfer_derived
>      else
>        transfer_component_a
>        transfer_component_b
>        .
>        .
>        .
>      endif
>    }
>    st_write_done

if the library has to do the updating. That kind of synchronization
could be hard, especially if we ever get around to doing asynchronous
I/O on top of this.

So, my preference would be option 1.

Regards

	Thomas