I'm just starting finding my way around dolfin, and I think it would be
easier (more discoverable in ipython or your-ide-of-choice) if the dolfin
namespace weren't so cluttered.
At the moment there are 546 attributes in the dolfin namespace (with only
ublas). I don't know dolfin well enough to say which are pointless, but I
can make some educated guesses:
- 113 of the functions in the main namespace are called *_swigregister,
and are probably not meant to be called by the user.
- A number of functions seem to be "leaked" from c++. Examples: ios,
ios_base, ios_base_sync_with_stdio, ios_base_xalloc, iostream, istream,
istringstream, endl_cb_ptr, ends, ends_cb_ptr.
- Some utility functions which are not dolfin-specific. Example:
is_empty, tokens(?)
- Functions that duplicate native python functions or numpy/math
functions. Examples: ipow, sqr, rand, DOLFIN_PI, Identity
- Some all-uppercase attributes are constants, other are classes. Are the
constants used? If so, maybe use a submodule (namespace) for constants?
Examples: LINE, TRIANGLE vs. ODE, LU.
- 20 other 1-2 character attributes. I know some of them are end-user
relevant. Are all? D, a, b, cg, dS, ds, dx, f, i, j, k, l, m, n, t0,
t1, v, v0, v1, v2
(Side note: the demos use "from dolfin import *". The common pattern of
"for i in N:" will rebind the variable "i" outside the loop, so this is
rather fragile in practice. The fully qualified variant "dolfin.i" is of
course immune to this problem.)
- 11 cpp_* functions. Are they meant to be called by the user?
- A few leaks from other modules. Examples: Set (sets.Set), array
(numpy.array)
- Variables that are probably used internally in the library.
vecs = [array([ 2., 0., 0.]), array([ 0., 2., 0.])]
a = (-1.0, -1.0, -1.0)
b = (1.0, -1.0, -1.0)
cg = 0
alpha = 0.0
- Class methods that are also exposed directly. Examples:
MatrixFactory_computeConvectionMatrix (MatrixFactory.computeConv...)
MatrixFactory_computeLoadVector (MatrixFactory.computeLoad...)
MatrixFactory_computeMassMatrix (MatrixFactory.computeMass...)
MatrixFactory_computeStiffnessMatrix (MatrixFactory.computeStiff...)
GraphPartition_*
- Some non-obvious names. Examples: dolfin_{add,get,set} which could
perhaps be called {add,get,set}_parameter. I was actually looking for
this functionality but didn't find it before compiling this list :)
