2021 07 19 Open NEST Developer Video Conference

previous | list | next

Agenda

1. Welcome
2. Review of NEST User Mailing List
3. Project team round
4. In-depth discussion
   • Docker: Integration of changes for Daint? How to avoid too much proliferation?

Mailing list

• https://nest-simulator.org/mailinglist

Project team round

Here we discuss topics that need broader attention, for example questions that came up but are outside a single project's scope, larger planned changes/PRs that affect all teams or pending work that is blocked by external factors.

1. Models / NESTML
   • initial model with 3rd factor (dendritic current) into NESTML
   • PyNN integration under review
2. PyNEST
   • discussing proper integration of PyNEST with PyNN
     • issues with definition of ResetNetwork()
3. Kernel
   • investigating performance in different MPI/thread splits
4. Installation
   • pip install is under review
5. Infrastructure
   • nothing to report
6. Documentation
   • looking for reviewers of #2106
7. EBRAINS
   • nothing to report
8. (Feature) Automated Testing
   • working on pynest test suite (#2108) that fixes MPI problems
   • cleaned up MPI runners to a single one for all tests
   • tests in docs were moved out to testsuite/
9. (Feature) Extension Module System
   • nothing to report

In-depth discussion

• Docker image of general purpose installation exists
• on Piz Daint the image needs to be compiled with a specialized MPI (mpich)
• first attempt of specialized image for Daint exists
• Q: How do we want to handle different Docker images
  • everyone building their own image (based on ours or not) will distribute knowledge; no real "integration"
  • special requirements by different deploy environments?
• accept pull-requests for nest/nest-docker
• different compiled NEST inside single image could be possible
• can not provide support for forked and modified versions
  • need to provide official image, others will not be updated or maintenance status becomes unclear
• knowledge how to install is gathered while working on the machine (short time, sometimes only few people)
• where to collect machine specific knowledge? Docs? Dockerfiles? …
• Things are still quite a lot in flux, don't search for ultimate solution here
• go on with Dockerfiles for now, collect in nest/nest-docker and integrate with intersphinx.