search

slaclab / pydm

Python Display Manager
http://slaclab.github.io/pydm/
Other
113 stars 78 forks source link

Remove pydm.utilities.units functionality and scipy dependency. #363

Open mattgibbs opened 6 years ago

mattgibbs commented 6 years ago

PyDM has a dependency on scipy (which is huge and slow to install) solely so we can get a list of physical constants for unit conversion. The unit conversion feature is only used in PyDMLineEdit, and I don't think it gets much use. I'd like to remove it, and remove the scipy dependency.

@ZLLentz (or maybe @teddyrendahl? One of you photon guys...) originally built this feature. Do you guys use it in any of your displays?

Removing scipy isn't the most important thing in the world (probably most people using PyDM will want it eventually anyway), so if anybody feels strongly about the unit conversion stuff, we can keep it. Let me know.

hhslepicka commented 6 years ago

I am 👍 to remove scipy and also the unit conversion from line edit.

Attn. @laispc @gabrielfedel @xresende @fernandohds564 @anacso17 .... are you guys using this? What is your opinion?

teddyrendahl commented 6 years ago

👍 as well. Isn't there an example with blob finding that uses scipy as well?

hhslepicka commented 6 years ago

If the example is the only one we add a README file mentioning the need of an additional library as we did for the testing-IOC and pcaspy.

On Fri, Jul 6, 2018 at 12:55 PM Teddy Rendahl notifications@github.com wrote:

👍 as well. Isn't there an example with blob finding that uses scipy as well?

— You are receiving this because you commented.

Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/slaclab/pydm/issues/363#issuecomment-403131303, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AHzmUfKi_e27dwAZZ8qQNhQ_wdIA-xujks5uD8CqgaJpZM4VF2zM .

ZLLentz commented 6 years ago

:+1: I didn't know this was in here

fernandohds564 commented 6 years ago

Hi guys! @hhslepicka, sorry for taking so long to respond, I just got back from my vacation. I can not say that we use the unit conversion feature because we are not yet using the windows we are developing. They will only be used in Sirius commissioning and operation. However, we are sympathetic to this feature and we think it may be useful in the future. I think it would be a pity to remove this functionality now. On the contrary, it could perhaps be extended to other widgets, such as PyDMPlots andPyDMSpinbox.

Is it possible to remove the scipy dependency and maintain this feature? Maybe using another module to fetch the constants or set them in the units.py module?

Thank you @mattgibbs and @hhslepicka for asking our opinion on the subject!

prjemian commented 6 years ago

Have you considered cf_units which is based on the UDUNITS standard?

GH repo: https://github.com/SciTools/cf-units