Re: Inclusion of the ducc0 Python package?
Dear Martin,
in principle, I think it would be a good addition. However, I would like
to have the package having a bit more "strengtened" focus. Currently, it
looks like a random collection of algorithms, which are finally hard to
find for a developer.
For example, if one would want to use fft, they would probably just
stick to scipy and not even search for something else (unless there is a
specific need). Therefore, the best here would probably be, instead of
maintaining your own package, to try to include it into scipy with a
pull request (on https://github.com/scipy/scipy). This would also have
the advantage that you get a review of your code by other experienced
people.
Similar things can be said for the sht and the convolution algorithms.
For Healpix, I suggest to have a look into the Healpix package of
astropy, https://github.com/astropy/astropy-healpix, and to help them
instead of maintaining your own package.
And for the gridding algorithm, from the README it turns out that it is
already integrated in wsclean, so probably it is better to cooperate
with this package instead of having an extra one.
It is really better to improve the existing software packages instead to
start writing your own. Aside from the often fruitful discussion during
integration, the long-term maintainance is much better ensured and the
visibility is much higher. And for the software community, it is easier
to have a canonical place for an algorithm instead of searching a number
of "Useful Code Collections". Fragmentation of software is also
fragmentation of development power.
Does this make sense for you? I am however happy to discuss this if
(resp. where) you disagree.
Best regards
Ole
Martin Reinecke <martin@MPA-Garching.MPG.DE> writes:
> Hi,
>
> I wanted to ask whether it might make sense to include the "ducc0"
> package of numerical algorithms into debian-astro.
>
> Main page: https://gitlab.mpcdf.mpg.de/mtr/ducc
>
> This package contains C++17 implementations of
> - a pretty fast FFT (the one used in scipy, but with several improvements)
> - spherical harmonic transforms (an evolution of the libsharp library)
> - algorithms for 4pi convolution on the sphere (an evolution of the
> "totalconvolver" and "conviqt" codes)
> - a wide-field gridding/degridding algorithm for radio astronomy
> - beginnings of a Python wrapper for Healpix-related functionality.
>
> with a pybind11-based Python interface. The current goal is to provide a
> stable Python interface, while the internal C++ interfaces are still in
> flux. (More details including references etc. directly in the README.md)
>
> The code has minimal external dependencies (pybind11) and is quite
> portable (tested on Linux x86_64, Linux arm32, MacOS x86_64 and Windows
> x86_64).
> At the moment, not many packages are explicitly depending on it, but
> healpy will probably switch to this as a back-end in the future, the
> Pixell library might use it as well, and other packages like wsclean use
> it by incorporating parts of its source code.
>
> Do you think this package is sufficiently "on topic" for Debian astro,
> and if yes, how would we proceed?
>
> Thanks,
> Martin
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