Submission Group 23: coordgeompy (Python)

Submitting Author: Arlin Cherian(@arlincherian), Jordan Casoli(@jcasoli), Nico Van den Hooff(@nicovandenhooff), Zheren Xu(@ZherenXu)
Package Name: coordgeompy One-Line Description of Package: A simple coordinate geometry helper package Repository Link: https://github.com/UBC-MDS/coordgeompy Version submitted: v2.0.0 Editor: TBD
Reviewer 1: Vera Cui Reviewer 2: Jasmine ORTEGA Reviewer 3: Mel Liow Reviewer 4: Anahita Einolghozati
Archive: TBD
Version accepted: TBD

Description

This starter package allows users to perform various geometric operations like calculate distance between two parallel lines, distance between two n dimensional vectors, intersection of lines in 3-Dimensional space and so on. Our motivation in creating this package was to allow users with minimal experience in python coding to be able to perform these geometric calculations easily.

Scope

Please indicate which category or categories this package falls under:
- [ ] Data retrieval
- [ ] Data extraction
- [x] Data munging
- [ ] Data deposition
- [ ] Reproducibility
- [ ] Geospatial
- [ ] Education
- [ ] Data visualization*

* Please fill out a pre-submission inquiry before submitting a data visualization package. For more info, see notes on categories of our guidebook.

Explain how the and why the package falls under these categories (briefly, 1-2 sentences): The coordgeompy package provides simple calculations for geometry data.
Who is the target audience and what are scientific applications of this package?
Data analysts, statisticians or any other R users who need to do simple geometry calculations.
Are there other Python packages that accomplish the same thing? If so, how does yours differ? SymPy is a Python library that contains comprehensive mathematical functions including intersection of lines, shortest distance between a point and a line etc. We also found a package coordinate-geometry 1.0.02 that had similar functions to calculating distance between two points, a point and a line, area of a triangle etc. We are not really reinventing the wheel on coordinate geometry calculations with our package, we used this as an opportunity to gain some experience in understanding how these calculations function in python language.
If you made a pre-submission enquiry, please paste the link to the corresponding issue, forum post, or other discussion, or @tag the editor you contacted:

Technical checks

For details about the pyOpenSci packaging requirements, see our packaging guide. Confirm each of the following by checking the box. This package:

[x] does not violate the Terms of Service of any service it interacts with.
[x] has an OSI approved license.
[x] contains a README with instructions for installing the development version.
[x] includes documentation with examples for all functions.
[x] contains a vignette with examples of its essential functions and uses.
[x] has a test suite.
[x] has continuous integration, such as Travis CI, AppVeyor, CircleCI, and/or others.

Publication options

[ ] Do you wish to automatically submit to the Journal of Open Source Software? If so:

JOSS Checks

- [ ] The package has an **obvious research application** according to JOSS's definition in their [submission requirements][JossSubmissionRequirements]. Be aware that completing the pyOpenSci review process **does not** guarantee acceptance to JOSS. Be sure to read their submission requirements (linked above) if you are interested in submitting to JOSS. - [ ] The package is not a "minor utility" as defined by JOSS's [submission requirements][JossSubmissionRequirements]: "Minor ‘utility’ packages, including ‘thin’ API clients, are not acceptable." pyOpenSci welcomes these packages under "Data Retrieval", but JOSS has slightly different criteria. - [ ] The package contains a `paper.md` matching [JOSS's requirements][JossPaperRequirements] with a high-level description in the package root or in `inst/`. - [ ] The package is deposited in a long-term repository with the DOI: *Note: Do not submit your package separately to JOSS*

Are you OK with Reviewers Submitting Issues and/or pull requests to your Repo Directly?

This option will allow reviewers to open smaller issues that can then be linked to PR's rather than submitting a more dense text based review. It will also allow you to demonstrate addressing the issue via PR links.

[x] Yes I am OK with reviewers submitting requested changes as issues to my repo. Reviewers will then link to the issues in their submitted review.

Code of conduct

[x] I agree to abide by pyOpenSci's Code of Conduct during the review process and in maintaining my package should it be accepted.

P.S. *Have feedback/comments about our review process? Leave a comment here

Editor and Review Templates

Editor and review templates can be found here

Package Review

Please check off boxes as applicable, and elaborate in comments below. Your review is not limited to these topics, as described in the reviewer guide

[X] As the reviewer I confirm that there are no conflicts of interest for me to review this work (If you are unsure whether you are in conflict, please speak to your editor before starting your review).

Documentation

The package includes all the following forms of documentation:

[X] A statement of need clearly stating problems the software is designed to solve and its target audience in README
[] Installation instructions: for the development version of package and any non-standard dependencies in README
[X] Vignette(s) demonstrating major functionality that runs successfully locally
[X] Function Documentation: for all user-facing functions
[X] Examples for all user-facing functions
[X] Community guidelines including contribution guidelines in the README or CONTRIBUTING.
[X] Metadata including author(s), author e-mail(s), a url, and any other relevant metadata e.g., in a setup.py file or elsewhere.

Readme requirements The package meets the readme requirements below:

[X] Package has a README.md file in the root directory.

The README should include, from top to bottom:

[X] The package name
[X] Badges for continuous integration and test coverage, a repostatus.org badge, and any other badges. If the README has many more badges, you might want to consider using a table for badges: see this example. Such a table should be more wide than high. (Note that the badge for pyOpenSci peer-review will be provided upon acceptance.)
[X] Short description of goals of package, with descriptive links to all vignettes (rendered, i.e. readable, cf the documentation website section) unless the package is small and there’s only one vignette repeating the README.
[X] Installation instructions
[ ] Any additional setup required (authentication tokens, etc)
[X] Brief demonstration usage
[X] Direction to more detailed documentation (e.g. your documentation files or website).
[X] If applicable, how the package compares to other similar packages and/or how it relates to other packages
[ ] Citation information

Usability

Reviewers are encouraged to submit suggestions (or pull requests) that will improve the usability of the package as a whole. Package structure should follow general community best-practices. In general please consider:

[X] The documentation is easy to find and understand
[X] The need for the package is clear
[X] All functions have documentation and associated examples for use

Functionality

[X] Installation: Installation succeeds as documented.
[X] Functionality: Any functional claims of the software been confirmed.
[X] Performance: Any performance claims of the software been confirmed.
[X] Automated tests: Tests cover essential functions of the package and a reasonable range of inputs and conditions. All tests pass on the local machine.
[X] Continuous Integration: Has continuous integration, such as Travis CI, AppVeyor, CircleCI, and/or others.
[X] Packaging guidelines: The package conforms to the pyOpenSci packaging guidelines.

For packages co-submitting to JOSS

[ ] The package has an obvious research application according to JOSS's definition in their submission requirements.

Note: Be sure to check this carefully, as JOSS's submission requirements and scope differ from pyOpenSci's in terms of what types of packages are accepted.

The package contains a paper.md matching JOSS's requirements with:

[ ] A short summary describing the high-level functionality of the software
[ ] Authors: A list of authors with their affiliations
[ ] A statement of need clearly stating problems the software is designed to solve and its target audience.
[ ] References: with DOIs for all those that have one (e.g. papers, datasets, software).

Final approval (post-review)

[ ] The author has responded to my review and made changes to my satisfaction. I recommend approving this package.

Estimated hours spent reviewing: 45 minutes

Review Comments

I have to say it's great work, and I really enjoyed having this chance to play around. The project is well organized and everything is clearly stated and documented.
I think it's necessary to add dependencies in READEME to show users required packages.
The README misses the citation section since the whole package is not built from scratch, like that numpy can be referred to.
Since ci-cd.yml has already pushed the package to PyPI, the installation method needs to update that the package can also be installed by using pip.
More detail can be added to the Usage part where only one function is listed.

Package Review

Please check off boxes as applicable, and elaborate in comments below. Your review is not limited to these topics, as described in the reviewer guide

[X] As the reviewer I confirm that there are no conflicts of interest for me to review this work (If you are unsure whether you are in conflict, please speak to your editor before starting your review).

Documentation

The package includes all the following forms of documentation:

[X] A statement of need clearly stating problems the software is designed to solve and its target audience in README
[X] Installation instructions: for the development version of package and any non-standard dependencies in README
[X] Vignette(s) demonstrating major functionality that runs successfully locally
[X] Function Documentation: for all user-facing functions
[X] Examples for all user-facing functions
[X] Community guidelines including contribution guidelines in the README or CONTRIBUTING.
[X] Metadata including author(s), author e-mail(s), a url, and any other relevant metadata e.g., in a setup.py file or elsewhere.

Readme requirements The package meets the readme requirements below:

[X] Package has a README.md file in the root directory.

The README should include, from top to bottom:

[X] The package name
[X] Badges for continuous integration and test coverage, a repostatus.org badge, and any other badges. If the README has many more badges, you might want to consider using a table for badges: see this example. Such a table should be more wide than high. (Note that the badge for pyOpenSci peer-review will be provided upon acceptance.)
[X] Short description of goals of package, with descriptive links to all vignettes (rendered, i.e. readable, cf the documentation website section) unless the package is small and there’s only one vignette repeating the README.
[X] Installation instructions
[ ] Any additional setup required (authentication tokens, etc)
[X] Brief demonstration usage
[X] Direction to more detailed documentation (e.g. your documentation files or website).
[X] If applicable, how the package compares to other similar packages and/or how it relates to other packages
[ ] Citation information

Usability

[X] The documentation is easy to find and understand
[X] The need for the package is clear
[X] All functions have documentation and associated examples for use

Functionality

[X] Installation: Installation succeeds as documented.
[X] Functionality: Any functional claims of the software been confirmed.
[X] Performance: Any performance claims of the software been confirmed.
[X] Automated tests: Tests cover essential functions of the package and a reasonable range of inputs and conditions. All tests pass on the local machine.
[X] Continuous Integration: Has continuous integration, such as Travis CI, AppVeyor, CircleCI, and/or others.
[X] Packaging guidelines: The package conforms to the pyOpenSci packaging guidelines.

For packages co-submitting to JOSS

[ ] The package has an obvious research application according to JOSS's definition in their submission requirements.

Note: Be sure to check this carefully, as JOSS's submission requirements and scope differ from pyOpenSci's in terms of what types of packages are accepted.

The package contains a paper.md matching JOSS's requirements with:

[ ] A short summary describing the high-level functionality of the software
[ ] Authors: A list of authors with their affiliations
[ ] A statement of need clearly stating problems the software is designed to solve and its target audience.
[ ] References: with DOIs for all those that have one (e.g. papers, datasets, software).

Final approval (post-review)

[ ] The author has responded to my review and made changes to my satisfaction. I recommend approving this package.

Estimated hours spent reviewing: 1hr

Review Comments

Really well written package with detailed documentation and easy to use functions! I am definitely nit-picking here with the following comments.

Nice work on getting 100% coverage on the tests - they are very thorough and so neat! My only comment is that some of the test comments don't describe the test accurately. e.g. just needs integer -> float

def test_dist_pll_lines_2d_int():
"""Tests the distance between two parallel lines with integer input"""
....
def test_dist_pll_lines_2d_float():
"""Tests the distance between two parallel lines with integer input"""

Not sure if this is intentional but you have "Finding distance between two parallel lines" repeated before each function in the ReadTheDocs documentation which was initially a little confusing as I expected the header to describe the function not the package repeatedly.
I agree with the above comment about the Usage section being a bit more detailed with examples of using all the functions.
Each function is very well documented with correct docstring usage and comments throughout the code which is great to see.

Package Review

Please check off boxes as applicable, and elaborate in comments below. Your review is not limited to these topics, as described in the reviewer guide

[x] As the reviewer I confirm that there are no conflicts of interest for me to review this work (If you are unsure whether you are in conflict, please speak to your editor before starting your review).

Documentation

The package includes all the following forms of documentation:

[x] A statement of need clearly stating problems the software is designed to solve and its target audience in README
[x] Installation instructions: for the development version of package and any non-standard dependencies in README
[x] Vignette(s) demonstrating major functionality that runs successfully locally
[x] Function Documentation: for all user-facing functions
[x] Examples for all user-facing functions
[x] Community guidelines including contribution guidelines in the README or CONTRIBUTING.
[x] Metadata including author(s), author e-mail(s), a url, and any other relevant metadata e.g., in a setup.py file or elsewhere.

Readme requirements The package meets the readme requirements below:

[x] Package has a README.md file in the root directory.

The README should include, from top to bottom:

[x] The package name
[x] Badges for continuous integration and test coverage, a repostatus.org badge, and any other badges. If the README has many more badges, you might want to consider using a table for badges: see this example. Such a table should be more wide than high. (Note that the badge for pyOpenSci peer-review will be provided upon acceptance.)
[x] Short description of goals of package, with descriptive links to all vignettes (rendered, i.e. readable, cf the documentation website section) unless the package is small and there’s only one vignette repeating the README.
[x] Installation instructions
[x] Any additional setup required (authentication tokens, etc)
[x] Brief demonstration usage
[x] Direction to more detailed documentation (e.g. your documentation files or website).
[x] If applicable, how the package compares to other similar packages and/or how it relates to other packages
[x] Citation information

Usability

[x] The documentation is easy to find and understand
[x] The need for the package is clear
[x] All functions have documentation and associated examples for use

Functionality

[x] Installation: Installation succeeds as documented.
[x] Functionality: Any functional claims of the software been confirmed.
[x] Performance: Any performance claims of the software been confirmed.
[x] Automated tests: Tests cover essential functions of the package and a reasonable range of inputs and conditions. All tests pass on the local machine.
[x] Continuous Integration: Has continuous integration, such as Travis CI, AppVeyor, CircleCI, and/or others.
[x] Packaging guidelines: The package conforms to the pyOpenSci packaging guidelines.

For packages co-submitting to JOSS

[ ] The package has an obvious research application according to JOSS's definition in their submission requirements.

Note: Be sure to check this carefully, as JOSS's submission requirements and scope differ from pyOpenSci's in terms of what types of packages are accepted.

The package contains a paper.md matching JOSS's requirements with:

[ ] A short summary describing the high-level functionality of the software
[ ] Authors: A list of authors with their affiliations
[ ] A statement of need clearly stating problems the software is designed to solve and its target audience.
[ ] References: with DOIs for all those that have one (e.g. papers, datasets, software).

Final approval (post-review)

[x] The author has responded to my review and made changes to my satisfaction. I recommend approving this package.

Estimated hours spent reviewing: 1 hour

Review Comments

The installation instructions need to be updated to install the latest release, 3.0.0 . Right now it's $ pip install git+https://github.com/UBC-MDS/CoordGeomPy.git@v1.0.0 and the functions don't work under the 1.0.0 release!
There are 18 active branches on the main repo and some of them seem repetitive and/or have now defunct purposes.
The docstring for dist_pll_lines_2d should be updated so the parameters m,b1, b2 can be integers or floats. Right now, the docstrings say to use floats, but the test explicitly test for integers or floats1
It would be nice to link the PyPI site directly in the README!
I also agree with previous reviews that that the Usage/README could be expanded on more!

Overall, this was an extremely well done package and I'm impressed by the quality achieved in a few short weeks. I apologize for the nit-picky comments - it was hard to find things to comment on! So don't take these critiques too harshly. 😃 Great job!

Package Review

Please check off boxes as applicable, and elaborate in comments below. Your review is not limited to these topics, as described in the reviewer guide

[x] As the reviewer I confirm that there are no conflicts of interest for me to review this work (If you are unsure whether you are in conflict, please speak to your editor before starting your review).

Documentation

The package includes all the following forms of documentation:

[x] A statement of need clearly stating problems the software is designed to solve and its target audience in README
[x] Installation instructions: for the development version of package and any non-standard dependencies in README
[x] Vignette(s) demonstrating major functionality that runs successfully locally
[x] Function Documentation: for all user-facing functions
[x] Examples for all user-facing functions
[x] Community guidelines including contribution guidelines in the README or CONTRIBUTING.
[x] Metadata including author(s), author e-mail(s), a url, and any other relevant metadata e.g., in a setup.py file or elsewhere.

Readme requirements The package meets the readme requirements below:

[x] Package has a README.md file in the root directory.

The README should include, from top to bottom:

[x] The package name
[x] Badges for continuous integration and test coverage, a repostatus.org badge, and any other badges. If the README has many more badges, you might want to consider using a table for badges: see this example. Such a table should be more wide than high. (Note that the badge for pyOpenSci peer-review will be provided upon acceptance.)
[x] Short description of goals of package, with descriptive links to all vignettes (rendered, i.e. readable, cf the documentation website section) unless the package is small and there’s only one vignette repeating the README.
[x] Installation instructions
[ ] Any additional setup required (authentication tokens, etc)
[x] Brief demonstration usage
[x] Direction to more detailed documentation (e.g. your documentation files or website).
[x] If applicable, how the package compares to other similar packages and/or how it relates to other packages
[ ] Citation information

Usability

[x] The documentation is easy to find and understand
[x] The need for the package is clear
[x] All functions have documentation and associated examples for use

Functionality

[ ] Installation: Installation succeeds as documented.
[x] Functionality: Any functional claims of the software been confirmed.
[x] Performance: Any performance claims of the software been confirmed.
[x] Automated tests: Tests cover essential functions of the package and a reasonable range of inputs and conditions. All tests pass on the local machine.
[x] Continuous Integration: Has continuous integration, such as Travis CI, AppVeyor, CircleCI, and/or others.
[x] Packaging guidelines: The package conforms to the pyOpenSci packaging guidelines.

For packages co-submitting to JOSS

[ ] The package has an obvious research application according to JOSS's definition in their submission requirements.

Note: Be sure to check this carefully, as JOSS's submission requirements and scope differ from pyOpenSci's in terms of what types of packages are accepted.

The package contains a paper.md matching JOSS's requirements with:

[ ] A short summary describing the high-level functionality of the software
[ ] Authors: A list of authors with their affiliations
[ ] A statement of need clearly stating problems the software is designed to solve and its target audience.
[ ] References: with DOIs for all those that have one (e.g. papers, datasets, software).

Final approval (post-review)

[ ] The author has responded to my review and made changes to my satisfaction. I recommend approving this package.

Estimated hours spent reviewing: 1

Review Comments

I really enjoyed reviewing this package, and I think the idea behind it is very practical. As others have mentioned, there is very minor stuff that could be considered further.

It would be good to consider updating the installation on README file to pip install coordgeompy which is an easier way to install the package for the user rather than using the GitHub repo.
I really liked the testing of the package. I think different test functions for different purposes is definitely organized very well and is easy to read.
It would have been a good idea to include docstrings for all testing functions. For example, there is no docstring for test_is_orthogonal_T() and def test_is_orthogonal_F().
For the usage, I think it would have been a good idea to use an existing data set with more observations to show the usage of your package. And, as others have mentioned, expanding a bit more on the usage would be a good idea.
I think since the functions in this package recreate functions that already exist in other packages, it would have been good to explain why a user might want to use coordgeompy over other packages in the motivation section
The functions under the installation instruction on README don't work, which as mentioned seems to be a versioning issue in the link.
Very detailed docstrings for the functions that help the user understand what each of them do, and in particular, I found the defensive programming to be very impressive.

Again, great job!

UBC-MDS / software-review-2022