[Yt-dev] Generalization Changes

[Matthew Turk]

Hi everyone,

First, thanks to Jeff for summarizing all the API changes.  I'm really
excited about this -- I think it marks an important transition in the
code.

As a followup to Jeff's email, I wanted to share a couple more
changes.  Because we're increasingly supporting non-Enzo codes, an
effort has been made with this API re-shuffling to remove some
"Enzo-isms."  This will likely affect many of you.

Previously, the parameter file was meant to be accessed via a
dictionary like method:

pf["InitialTime"]

for instance.  This is still going to be the case, but only for
specific parameters in a given code.  Fiducial values for simulation
parameters will now be stored in attributes that hang off the
StaticOutput instance.  Specifically, the following changes have been
made:


RefineBy => refine_by
TopGridRank => dimensionality
TopGridDimensions => domain_dimensions
InitialTime => current_time
DomainLeftEdge => domain_left_edge
DomainRightEdge => domain_right_edge
CurrentTimeIdentifier => unique_identifier
CosmologyCurrentRedshift => current_redshift
ComovingCoordinates => cosmological_simulation
CosmologyOmegaMatterNow => omega_matter
CosmologyOmegaLambdaNow => omega_lambda
CosmologyHubbleConstantNow => hubble_constant

So in all of your internal code, instead of accessing:

pf["CosmologyCurrentRedshift"]

you would access:

pf.current_redshift

Or, for example, instead of the Enzo-ism pf["InitialTime"] you would
access pf.current_time .

As one last quick comment, I've tried to make these changes throughout
the code base.  As testing continues, please feel free to change and
update these.  And, if you don't want to just yet, feel free to hg up
to the branch named "stable" which is pre-reorganization.  These
parameters are designed to be general across codes, and with time they
will mirror more closely those in the proposed GridDataFormat:
http://yt.enzotools.org/wiki/GridDataFormat .

Thanks very much,

Matt