[Yt-dev] Interest in a yt Workshop?

Mon Aug 29 14:04:11 PDT 2011

Not sure how much more expensive it is, but I would +1 a meeting in nyc.
I've only been twice and it's easier for Matt, since he would probably
prepare a lot of the material for a workshop. I'm not opposed to a workshop
in a cheaper place, but I would love to see New York again.

On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 1:51 PM, Geoffrey So <gsiisg at gmail.com> wrote:

> Can add Denver (Frontier, may not be cheap), Atlanta (Delta), Dallas (AA)
> to the list of cheap hubs.
>
> Wife recommends against Minneapolis for winter visits.
>
> From
> G.S.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Aug 29, 2011, at 1:18 PM, "Brian O'Shea" <bwoshea at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Matt et al.,
>
> After looking at your list, I agree there's definitely enough for a user
> workshop, if that's your intention (and one could easily piggyback a
> developer workshop, as per the Enzo summer 2010 workshop).
>
> If you were going to do a standalone workshop, and given that no university
> that hosts a yt developer is in a particularly central or cheap place, much
> less a (inexpensive)*(cheap) place, you might think of just picking a city
> near the middle of the country that is a hub for at least one airline (so
> that flights are cheap) and then just get a conference room and block of
> rooms in a hotel near the airport.  The main point of the meeting is for
> everybody to be in the same physical location, and it doesn't really matter
> where precisely that place is, as long as it's convenient to get to.  To
> this end, some place like Chicago (United, American), Minneapolis (Delta),
> or Detroit (Delta) might be adequate.
>
> Just a thought...
>
> -Brian
>
> On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 2:50 PM, Matthew Turk < <matthewturk at gmail.com>
> matthewturk at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> This thread may now be cold, but I wanted to bring it back up briefly.
>>  I've been in touch a little bit with XSEDE personnel as well as a
>> number of yt developers, and we have attempted to brainstorm some
>> ideas, which I sum up here.
>>
>> I think it is now certain that we will not be piggy-backing on the
>> Enzo workshop.  The issue is not as much a problem of infrastructure,
>> but rather of weariness on the part of the developers.  My feeling
>> initially was that we could do a day and a half workshop, then move
>> directly on to Enzo.  It has been impressed upon me that 1) we should
>> have more than a day and a half 2) It would take a *lot* out of the
>> developers to do this.
>>
>> This does not preclude piggybacking on an existing workshop in the future.
>>
>> I see three main opportunities for a workshop:
>>
>>  * Piggyback on Enzo or other 'numerical' event which would have a
>> large number of interested people, such as XSEDE
>>  * Host an isolated, standalone workshop
>>  * Host an online workshop / office hours
>>
>> Marcel's comment about proximity to the NE corner of the country is
>> well-taken; I too would like to be close to home.  I think we could
>> also probably find a small amount of money for travel, from some
>> source or another.  The idea of a virtual conference is somewhat
>> appealing, but I am not as fond of webinars as others are, and I think
>> we would have to have very short, targeted items if we did that.
>> However, there are resources we could draw upon for webinars.  I think
>> the most productive would be option #2, but I am not yet convinced we
>> would be able to support such an endeavor as a community, and I still
>> do not know where we would host it.  (Any institutions out there that
>> could?)  Another alternative Sam has suggested which I like is instead
>> to host office hours in IRC or G+ or something with video.
>>
>> However, one of the big questions that has come up with respect to a
>> physical workshop is: what would we talk about?  I scribbled out a few
>> items this morning that I think could fill a goodly amount of time,
>> which I have included below.  My feeling from talking to others is
>> that for it to be useful, we would need both beginner and advanced
>> topics.  My list is at the bottom of this email -- after writing this
>> out I kind of came around and felt like there is enough material to
>> fill up a few sessions.
>>
>> Anyway, I'd like to solicit some thoughts on this.  Pretty much it
>> comes down to:
>>
>> 1a) Physical (likely spring), virtual (anytime) or no workshop?
>> 1b) If Physical, where?  (Specifically, which institutions or regions
>> would you prefer, and could you volunteer your location?)
>> 2) What do you think of the pseudo-agenda below?
>>
>> One last item is that I was the most skeptical about the feasibility
>> of a workshop, and I have been brought around by other developers --
>> who have impressed upon me that not only could we do this, we really
>> *ought* to do it.  If not now, at some point in the future.
>>
>> Thanks everyone,
>>
>> -Matt
>>
>> * Agenda Ideas *
>>
>> = Using yt =
>>
>> - Introduction to yt -
>> Jargon and terminology
>> Installation
>> How to start up
>> How to write a script
>> How to examine a simulation's characteristics
>> Examining individual grids
>> Slicing
>> Projecting
>> Command-line tool
>>
>> - Data handling in yt -
>> How to think of data objects in yt
>> What is a field? (also: my_plugins.py)
>> Basics of select/instantiating a data object
>> How to call and use a derived quantity
>> What DQs and DOs are available?
>> Phase plots (1-, 2-, 3-D)
>>
>> - Visualizing data -
>> Projections, slices, and plot modifications
>> Raw, stripped down plot objects
>> Manually plotting data
>>
>> - Advanced data objects -
>> Accessing attributes of data objects
>> Cutting and subselecting data from objects
>> Creating new data objects
>> 1D and 2D objects
>> Creating fields
>> Clump finding
>> Finding points
>>
>> - Advanced visualization -
>> Writing your own plot callback
>> Fixed resolution buffers
>>
>> - Volume rendering -
>> What is "Volume Rendering"?
>> How to use the camera
>> How to write a transfer function
>> Making animations: camera paths and normalization
>> "Photo-realistic"
>>
>> - Astrophysical Analysis -
>> Halo finding
>> Halo analysis / halo profiler
>> Halo mass functions
>> Spectral energy distribution
>> Star particle analysis
>> Absorption spectra
>>
>> - Large data analysis -
>> How to run in parallel
>> What kind of datasets work well with parallelism?
>> Do's and don'ts of parallel analysis
>> Distributing work
>>
>> - Time series analysis -
>> Full simulation
>> Analysis objects
>> Multi-level Parallelism
>>
>> - Reason -
>> How to use reason
>> How does reason work
>> Advanced features
>>
>> = Advanced yt + Developing yt =
>>
>> - Overview of the yt community -
>> Communication channels
>> Source control
>> Testing
>> Documentation
>> People
>>
>> - Mercurial -
>> What is version control?
>> What is distributed version control?
>> What's a DAG?
>>
>> - Contributing changes -
>> How to commit, share, and notify
>> What to expect when you contribute
>>
>> - The yt testing system -
>> How to write a test
>> How do tests get run?
>> What does it mean to 'pass' a test?
>>
>> - How to write a code frontend -
>> What does yt expect from a simulation output format?
>> What is necessary / expected
>> Simple prototyping
>> How to construct the necessary source files
>>
>> - Fast code and Cython -
>> What is Cython?
>> How do I compile and run Cython code?
>> How to speed it up
>>
>> - Writing parallel code -
>> How does yt use parallelism?
>> What routines are available for parallelism?
>> How to debug parallel code
>>
>> - Interfacing with external code -
>> Raw C api
>> Exporting data objects
>> Cython for easy API usage
>>
>> - yt internals -
>> Parameter file storage and pickling
>> kD-trees
>> Idiomatic yt
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 3:03 PM, Stephen Skory < <s at skory.us>s at skory.us>
>> wrote:
>> > Hi All,
>> >
>> > I would be interested in a yt workshop. If it's combined with the Enzo
>> > workshop this fall, it would reduce the number of plane tickets. If we
>> > wait until spring, it would be even easier for me, as we are thinking
>> > about hosting that edition of Enzo workshop here at CU (unless someone
>> > else steps forward with more enthusiasm and money).
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Stephen Skory
>> > <s at skory.us>s at skory.us
>> > <http://stephenskory.com/>http://stephenskory.com/
>> > 510.621.3687 (google voice)
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Yt-dev mailing list
>> > <Yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org>Yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
>> > <http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org>
>> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
>> >
>> _______________________________________________
>> Yt-dev mailing list
>>  <Yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org>Yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
>>  <http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org>
>> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Yt-dev mailing list
> Yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Yt-dev mailing list
> Yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.spacepope.org/pipermail/yt-dev-spacepope.org/attachments/20110829/f05b0acb/attachment.htm>