[SciPy-Dev] GSoC 2019

Tue Mar 5 17:11:36 EST 2019

There are a number of considerations that would be good to address. I'd
start by considering the things that are typically considered when making
changes to SciPy
<https://docs.scipy.org/doc/scipy/reference/hacking.html#contributing-to-scipy>,
but I'd expand it to a longer list since the scope is bigger than a typical
single PR. The list would contain (at least):

- what will the user-facing API / contract be?
- what in SciPy needs to change to allow it (internals / implementation
outline, perhaps skeleton functions/classes)?
- what examples should we show users (in general this ends up being just
simple use cases of the API)?
- how will we test it for correctness?
- how will we benchmark it to prevent performance regressions?
- how can we break up the work for these steps (if possible) into
separable, sequential (or -- better but not usually possible --
independent) PRs?

You might notice that none of these points are actually all that specific
to the FFT project, but can be generally applicable to GSoC projects. For
the FFT project, I would say "how do we build the backend" is indeed
implicitly contained / outlined in these bullet points. And as with most
projects, the first two points (and possibly the last) will probably be the
most challenging to sort out.

Eric

On Mon, Mar 4, 2019 at 10:09 PM Gopi Manohar Tatiraju <deathcoderx at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hey Eric,
> So for my proposal, shall I include how can we built a back end? What all
> points shall I include to make it effective?
>
> Cheers.
>
> On Tue, Mar 5, 2019, 4:50 AM Eric Larson <larson.eric.d at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> That would be me -- don't worry, I'm on this list, as are (presumably)
>> other developers interested in the discussion, so no need to document
>> elsewhere for now from our end. It looks like Greg has summarized the
>> current status and thoughts we've had, so I don't have much to add at this
>> point.
>>
>> Eric
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Mar 3, 2019 at 11:59 PM Gopi Manohar Tatiraju <
>> deathcoderx at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hey Greg,
>>> I got the basic idea about what we want to implement this year.
>>> Our first priority is to create a backend for 3rd party fftpacks. We can
>>> create API using Python and Flask or any other suitable framework.
>>>
>>> I thought this discussion was going on on SciPy Developer List only. So
>>> do I need to document it all and post it somewhere so that other
>>> contributors can see this?
>>> Also, I couldn't find any contact info regarding Eric. It would be very
>>> helpful if we include him in this discussion as this is a roadmap for GSoC
>>> project and I can also get more insight into the project and expected
>>> outcomes.
>>>
>>> Cheers.
>>>
>>> On Mon, Mar 4, 2019 at 9:31 AM Gregory Lee <grlee77 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Mar 3, 2019 at 12:28 PM Gopi Manohar Tatiraju <
>>>> deathcoderx at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hey Gregory,
>>>>> I went through the idea and I am very much interested in working on
>>>>> it. I had Fourier Transforms as a part of my academic course, so I am well
>>>>> aware with basic concepts.
>>>>> One thing I want to discuss is, its mentioned that we have to create a
>>>>> backend system for 3rd party FFTpacks so my dobuts
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> 1. How are we going to create API?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> This will needed to be decided on in consensus with the SciPy
>>>> developers and user community. I am mentoring for the project as a
>>>> contributor here and a maintainer of the related pyFFTW package, but I am
>>>> not a core SciPy dev (the other mentor, Eric, is a core dev here). I have
>>>> not discussed the API in any detail with the SciPy team at this stage.
>>>> Working out details of what the API should look like and working to
>>>> finalize that in collaboration with the community will be a primary task
>>>> during the early part of the GSOC project.
>>>>
>>>> 2. After the creation of backend will user at the time of installation
>>>>> of SciPy will decide what all 3rd party FFTpacks he needs or we will
>>>>> include some by default?
>>>>>
>>>>> The idea is to allow users to opt-in to a different FFT backend at run
>>>> time, but these alternative libraries will not be distributed with SciPy
>>>> itself due to incompatible software licenses (pyFFTW and mkl-fft) or a
>>>> requirement for specific hardware (CuPy requires an NVIDIA GPU). SciPy will
>>>> continue to offer its own bundled FFT library (currently fftpack, but this
>>>> could be switched to pocketfft as discussed in the ideas page). The purpose
>>>> of the backend interface is to provide a convenient way for users to have
>>>> third party libraries perform the FFTs instead, but under the existing
>>>> scipy.fftpack API. This is motivated by a desire by end users and
>>>> downstream projects to have features such as multi-threading (pyFFTW and
>>>> mkl-fft) or GPU support (CuPy) that are not implemented in scipy.fftpack.
>>>> Ultimately it will be up to users that opt-in to using these other
>>>> libraries to confirm that the license terms and are compatible with their
>>>> use case.
>>>>
>>>> p.s. It is not a big deal, but I think the SciPy-Dev mailing lists
>>>> prefers replies **below** the email you are replying to so people can more
>>>> easily follow the thread of discussion. There are some guidelines at:
>>>> https://www.scipy.org/scipylib/mailing-lists.html
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I will research more about how to implement a backend myself and will
>>>>> let you know as soon as I come up with something new.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> CHeers,
>>>>> Greg
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sun, Mar 3, 2019 at 10:25 PM Gregory Lee <grlee77 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sun, Mar 3, 2019 at 4:19 AM Gopi Manohar Tatiraju <
>>>>>> deathcoderx at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I want to work on SciPy in GSoC 2019. I started fixing some bugs,
>>>>>>> also made some pull request. Can anyone suggest me how should I proceed
>>>>>>> further?
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> SciPy-Dev mailing list
>>>>>>> SciPy-Dev at python.org
>>>>>>> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/scipy-dev
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi Gopi,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I think you have probably already found it, but the GSOC project we
>>>>>> have already identified mentors for in SciPy is here:
>>>>>> https://github.com/scipy/scipy/wiki/GSoC-2019-project-ideas
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If this is a project you are interested in then I would start
>>>>>> thinking about what the FFT interface would look like and reviewing some of
>>>>>> the past/present issues related to fftpack / FFT in SciPy. Please ask
>>>>>> questions you have related to that project here so that you can clarify
>>>>>> what would be involved in writing a successful application.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If you have a different idea in mind you can propose it here, but you
>>>>>> should do that soon, because it will be necessary to determine if there is
>>>>>> interest from the SciPy team before you spend time coming up with a
>>>>>> detailed proposal. We have to determine if a project sounds feasible to
>>>>>> complete for GSOC and if appropriate mentors can be identified.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Ultimately, you will need to submit an application to SciPy between
>>>>>> March 25th - April 9th.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>> Greg
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
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