[Yt-dev] Interest in a yt Workshop?

Tue Sep 6 10:57:50 PDT 2011

Hi Sam, Jeff, Brian, GS et al,

I like the idea of an in person workshop in a town with a hub.
Chicago would work well for a couple reasons, although I am still
trying to see if NYC would be viable.  Should we aim to try to do this
in the Spring, and then backburner discussion until, say, December or
January?

On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 1:52 PM, Sam Skillman <samskillman at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>>
>>  * Host an online workshop / office hours
>
>
>>
>> Another alternative Sam has suggested which I like is instead
>> to host office hours in IRC or G+ or something with video.
>>
>
> I think this could be pretty useful on something like a every few months
> timescale, or more frequent if they are found to be productive.  If we
> combined G+ Hangouts (since nearly everyone has gmail) with a code sharing
> program like http://collabedit.com/ or http://codr.cc/ we could have a
> developer or two hang out and be available to chat with new/old users about
> any issues.  I think just publicizing that we'll be hanging out through the
> yt-users list a few days ahead of time would do the trick.  Anyways, this is
> a pretty low maintenance option that would allow "face-to-face" interaction
> with new users.

I like this.  If you would be interested in
announcing/coordinating/spearheading, I would gladly participate or
lead sessions.  I'm up for G+, as I have found it very useful.  We
could also deploy bigbluebutton.org but it's a bit higher buy-in.

> As for the physical meeting, I think it would be great to have and advertise
> to not only the people who are already on the yt-users list but also to
> people on the teragrid/XSEDE that don't know that they should be interested
> in yt.

Excellent.  Does my plan above sound okay?

-Matt

> Sam
>
>>
>> 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> 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
>> > http://stephenskory.com/
>> > 510.621.3687 (google voice)
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> > http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
>> >
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