joheinze/PriNCe

Code refactoring and clear interface definitions

Closed this issue · 3 comments

joheinze commented

The code could use a bit of refactoring, such that the interfaces are more clear and everything is only done in one place. A few things that occured to me (there might be more such issues):

  • prince.util needs a cleanup. It currently contains a collection of function for widely different purposes. Several functions related to physics can be moved to other modules (ie get_AZN to prince.data. prince.util should only containt technical function suchs for reading files, printing info, etc.
    -> Moved to _deprecated module

  • TheInterpolatorclass is not used at the moment, remove?
    -> Moved to _deprecated module

  • (related to 1) The function for util.get_AZN to get mass and charge numbers is redundant with data.PrinceSpecies and explicitly depends on the NEUCOSMA ID definiton. This should be bundeled in one place (probably data.PrinceSpecies) to make it easier to switch the ID definitions later or include particles not defined in NEUCOSMA.
    -> Not yet fully adressed, see issue #12

  • The energy grid is not handled consistetly throughout the code. There is the class EnergyGrid defining bins, centers, widths, etc. However several classes just copy EnergyGrid.bins and then recompute the widths using util.bin_widths and other functions. This should be bundled in one place, in case we might need different energy grids per species later.
    -> Adressed, however util.bin_widths is still used for the grid in x=E_da/E_mo

  • The Individual classes should not require a reference to a PrinceRun object, to make the actual dependencies more clear.

  • Restructure cross_sections.py to a package with several submodules. The base class in one module, and the derived ones in other modules.

This refactoring should be done before or after the other changes, to not produce too many conflicts. We should settle on the interface definition before publishing the code, as not to later break compatibility.

afedynitch commented
  1. Restructure cross_sections.py to a package with several submodules. The base class in one module, and the derived ones in other modules.
joheinze commented

I am currently working on this in the branch refactoring

afedynitch commented

OK, I keep track when refactoring is merged into master and then start my tasks