[yt-dev] RFC: (yt-3.0) Geometry handling redesign

[Stephen Skory]

Hi all,

One thought comes to mind with regards to selecting particle types as
part of the new method: There needs to be a simple and memory
efficient way to select multiple types of particles (or all types).
For example, for the halo finders, sometimes only dark matter is
wanted, and other times stars (or perhaps even only certain types of
stars) are wanted as well. In the past we've done things to avoid
na.concatenate with particles because it fragments memory. I think
Matt has thought of this already, but I'd like to extend this
discussion to how to allow users to select particle types without
having to do na.concatenate manually (or have it happen behind the
scenes).

With regards to obj['particle_position_x'] or
obj.particles['position_x'], I think the argument for changing it is
not a bad one, but that if we do this, I think it would make the most
sense to extend it to other things, like obj.grid['Density'], for
continuity's sake.

I'm for a user survey if we think we'll get replies. Have users
generally been forthcoming with opinions on technical stuff like this
before?

I'll see you in the chat on Monday!

-- 
Stephen Skory
s at skory.us
http://stephenskory.com/
510.621.3687 (google voice)