The rise of Python and the open-development revolution in Astronomy

Invited talk at ADASS XXVI in Trieste, Italy from 16-20th October (http://www.adass2016.inaf.it)

Transcript

1. The rise of Python and the open-development Revoluti̤n in Astronomy Tom Robitaille (@astrofrog) Freelance | The Astropy Project ADASS XXVI, Trieste
3. Software Use in Astronomy: an Informal Survey Momcheva & Tollerud, 2015 67% of Astronomers use Python https://arxiv.org/abs/1507.03989
4. this change has been tightly coupled with the rise in openly developed software in Astronomy, in particular grassroots projects
5. Open Source Code :| Note: No license does not mean free/open source! Examples: PGPLOT, any unlicensed code, etc. :) Includes license that gives right to study, change, redistribute Open Source/Free Software Examples: CASA, IRAF, DS9, etc. Binaries :’( Examples: Keynote, PowerPoint, etc. Open development Discussion is done in the open and anyone can join in! Examples: ENZO, yt, SunPy, Astropy, etc. :D Closed This talk
6. The yt project yt is an open-source, permissively-licensed python package for analyzing and visualizing volumetric data. Started in 2007 by Matt Turk ~100 contributors to date Note: not just a pure Python package, contains sections in Cython/C! http://yt-project.org @yt_astro
7. SunPy The community-developed, free and open-source solar data analysis environment for Python. Started in 2011 by a group of solar physicists ~60 contributors to date http://sunpy.org @SunPyProject
8. The Astropy project The Astropy Project is a community effort to develop a single core package for Astronomy in Python and foster interoperability between Python astronomy packages. http://astropy.org @astropy
9. Ryan Abernathey Shailesh Ahuja Tom Aldcroft Anthony Horton Anne Archibald Cristian Ardelean Matteo Bachetti Kyle Barbary Geert Barentsen Pauline Barmby Paul Barrett Andreas Baumbach Chris Beaumont Daniel Bell Elijah Bernstein-Cooper Kristin Berry Francesco Biscani Thompson Le Blanc Christopher Bonnett Joseph Jon Booker Médéric Boquien Azalee Bostroem Matthew Bourque Larry Bradley Gustavo Bragança Erik M. Bray Eli Bressert Hannes Breytenbach Hugo Buddelmeijer Doug Burke Mihai Cara Patti Carroll Mabry Cervin Pritish Chakraborty Alex Conley Jean Connelly Simon Conseil Ryan Cooke Yannick Copin Matthew Craig Steven Crawford Neil Crighton Robert Cross Kelle Cruz Dan P. Cunningham Daniel Datsev Matt Davis Christoph Deil Nadia Dencheva Jörg Dietrich Axel Donath Michael Droettboom Zach Edwards Jonathan Eisenhamer Thomas Erben Henry Ferguson Jonathan Foster Ryan Fox Lehman Garrison Simon Gibbons Adam Ginsburg Christoph Gohlke Danny Goldstein Perry Greenfield Dylan Gregersen Austen Groener Frédéric Grollier Karan Grover Kevin Gullikson Hans Moritz Günther Chris Hanley Alex Hagen Paul Hirst Moataz Hisham Michael Hoenig Emma Hogan Derek Homeier Anthony Horton JC Hsu Lingyi Hu Eric Jeschke Eric Depagne Joseph Jon Booker Sarah Kendrew Marten van Kerkwijk Wolfgang Kerzendorf Lennard Kiehl Rashid Khan Aleh Khvalko David Kirkby Dominik Klaes Kacper Kowalik Roban Hultman Kramer Arne de Laat Antony Lee Daniel Lenz Simon Liedtke Pey Lian Lim Stuart Littlefair Joseph Long Joe Lyman Curtis McCully Vinayak Mehta Aaron Meisner Serge Montagnac José Sabater Montes Francesco Montesano Brett Morris Michael Mueller Stuart Mumford Demitri Muna Prasanth Nair Bogdan Nicula Joe Philip Ninan Asra Nizami Bryce Nordgren Miruna Oprescu Carl Osterwisch Luigi Paioro Asish Panda Madhura Parikh Neil Parley Sergio Pascual Rohit Patil David Perez-Suarez Ray Plante Orion Poplawski Adrian Price-Whelan J. Xavier Prochaska David Pérez-Suárez QuanTakeuchi Tanuj Rastogi Juan Luis Cano Rodríguez Evert Rol Alex Rudy Joseph Ryan Eloy Salinas Gerrit Schellenberger Michael Seifert David Shiga Albert Y. Shih David Shupe Jonathan Sick Leo Singer Brigitta Sipocz Shivan Sornarajah Shantanu Srivastava Ole Streicher Matej Stuchlik Bernardo Sulzbach James Taylor Jeff Taylor Kirill Tchernyshyov Víctor Terrón Scott Thomas James Turner Miguel de Val-Borro Jonathan Whitmore Julien Woillez Jake VanderPlas Lisa Walter Benjamin Alan Weaver Jonathan Whitmore Julien Woillez Víctor Zabalza Developers/Contributors for the Astropy core package (as of 14th October 2016):
10. 6 major public releases (first release February 2013) Latest stable version: v1.2.1 (released 22nd June 2016) ~180 individual contributors so far! Over 16,000 commits (as of 17th October 2016) Astropy Core Package
11. http://docs.astropy.org
12. Observation planning Image reprojection Publication-quality image plotting Machine learning Photometry Interface to many web services/archives Gamma-ray data analysis CCD image reduction Spectroscopic analysis ‘Big’ spectral cube analysis (e.g. ALMA, etc.) Spectral cube slicing <your package here!> etc. Astropy-affiliated packages http://affiliated.astropy.org
14. [AstroPy] PyAstronomy Stefan Czesla • [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Marshall Perrin ◦ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Wolfgang Kerzendorf ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Stefan Czesla ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Erik Tollerud ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Erik Bray ◦ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Taro Sato ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Thomas Robitaille ◦ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Thomas Robitaille ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Perry Greenfield ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Erik Tollerud ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Perry Greenfield ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs James Turner ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs James Turner ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Perry Greenfield ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Kelle Cruz ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Tom Aldcroft ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Matthew Turk ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Mubdi Rahman ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Perry Greenfield ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Tommy Grav ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Perry Greenfield ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Tommy Grav ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Christoph Deil ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs James Turner ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Kelle Cruz ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Thomas Robitaille ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Victoria G. Laidler ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs James Turner ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Thomas Robitaille ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Perry Greenfield ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Erik Tollerud ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Marcel Haas ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Neil Crighton ▪ [AstroPy] organizing meetings to organize astropy Marshall Perrin ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Mark Sienkiewicz ▪ [AstroPy] Proliferating py-astro-libs Thomas Robitaille etc ...
16. First Astropy Coordination Meeting - Center for Astrophysics, 2011 (followed by STScI in 2012, Yale in 2013) In-person meetings are crucial
17. Open Development in 2016
18. Repository Mailing list Contributor patch patch Developer Contributor Developer
21. def test_constellations(): # the actual test for accuracy is in test_funcs - this is just meant # to make sure we get sensible answers sc = SkyCoord(135*u.deg, 65*u.deg) assert sc.get_constellation() == 'Ursa Major' assert sc.get_constellation(short_name=True) == 'UMa' scs = SkyCoord([135]*2*u.deg, [65]*2*u.deg) npt.assert_equal(scs.get_constellation(), ['Ursa Major']*2) npt.assert_equal(scs.get_constellation(short_name=True), ['UMa']*2) (x 10,000)
22. travis-ci.org (Linux and OSX testing) Python 3 MacOS X Documentation Style
23. ci.appveyor.com (Windows testing)
26. readthedocs.org (Documentation)
27. Challenges for openly developped projects (in no specific order)
28. Challenge #1: Reaching critical mass
29. Challenge #2: Keeping the barrier of entry low
30. Challenge #3: Heterogeneous development
31. NO (to feature creep) Challenge #4: Saying
32. Challenge #5: Giving credit to contributors
34. Challenge #6: Improving diversity
35. Challenge #7: Building good governance models
39. Online communities: GitHub, BitBucket Mailing lists (astropy, yt-users, sunpy, etc.) Facebook (Python users in Astronomy) Twitter In-person community events Dedicated conferences (e.g. #pyastro) Hack days (Astro Hack Week, AAS Hack Day)
40. http://openastronomy.org/pyastro/2017/ Python in Astronomy 2017 8 - 12 May 2017 Lorentz Center, Leiden Apply Now! (Deadline: 9th December)
41. BoF B4 today @ 17:00
42. Thank you to all the users of and contributors to open projects!