@knowuh When we started out with the task we were expecting that by the time we finished completing it for the SOW there would be major refactoring of the global variable names. To avoid fidgeting with already tested code we went with the local+global approach. Both refer to the same instance in memory however if the global variable name has to be refactored we only need change the line with the global name (the core code remains untouched, in a way preventing bugs from getting introduced). There is no other purpose for this kind of convention.

Do you want us to replace all the local instances with the global variable name? We can add that in the [next pull request](https://github.com/concord-consortium/rigse/pull/34) for this SOW.