nrc-cnrc / EGSnrc

Toolkit for Monte Carlo simulation of ionizing radiation — Trousse d'outils logiciels pour la simulation Monte Carlo du rayonnement ionisant
http://nrc-cnrc.github.io/EGSnrc
GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
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The term "restart" is ambiguous across EGSnrc #1210

Open rtownson opened 3 weeks ago

rtownson commented 3 weeks ago

Setting the run control to restart a job is a misnomer — really we are resuming from the last batch. Restarting sounds like we are running it from the beginning. This has also been confused by new users with the idea of restarting a phase-space.

ftessier commented 3 weeks ago

I agree.

Terminology shapes understanding, especially for new users, and consistency always improves clarity. Currently, the term restart in EGSnrc is ambiguous, as it refers to three different actions:

To address this, I propose adopting more precise terminology:

I recommend replacing all instances of restart across EGSnrc (in documentation, code comments, variable names, etc.) with these more specific terms. This change will make EGSnrc easier to interpret, particularly for new contributors, and will help eliminate useless ambiguity. To avoid confusion with previous terminology, the term restart should no longer be used.