Thin-client MdsValue should accept the same data type definitions as thick-client

[mwinkel-dev]

Affiliation
PPPL (KeithE submitted via email)

Version(s) Affected
All

Platform(s)
All

Installation Method(s)
Packages from the www.mdsplus.org website.

Describe the bug
When using thick, distributed or local access to a tree, one can use KIND(some_node) to determine the data type of the node, and then use that data type to build a descriptor for use with the C API's MdsValue() function.

Unfortunately, the thin-client code for MdsValue() does not support that workflow. That is because it was only designed to work with the data type definitions in include/ipdesc.h. For more details on the restrictions of the current thin-client design, refer to Issue #3042 and PR #3044. Thin-client should be improved to support the workflow with KIND() described above.

To Reproduce
Review the source code in mds_value_remote_expression() and compare it with the comparable code for "local" access.

Expected behavior
Thin-client MdsValue() should accept the same inputs that the other access modes accept.

Screenshots
N/A

Additional context
N/A

[mwinkel-dev]

A fix for this issue will require extensive testing to ensure it doesn't break thin-client.