Content from Introduction

Last updated on 2023-10-28 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 5 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • “What is Julia?”
  • “Why use Julia?”

Objectives

  • “Explain the difference between interpreted and compiled programming languages”
  • “Compare how composing works in Julia and some common programming languages”

What is a programming language?

A programming language mediates between the natural language of humans and the machine instructions of a computer. The human specifies what the computer should compute on a high level using the programming language. This specification will be translated to machine instructions, the so called assembly code, which will be executed by the processor (CPU, GPU, …).

Interpreting and compiling

This translation happens differently depending on the programming language you use. There are mainly two different techniques: compiling and interpreting. Interpreted languages such as Python and R translate instructions one at a time, while compiled languages like C and Fortran take whole documents, analyze the structure of the code, and perform optimizations before translating it to machine code.

This leads to more efficient machine instructions of the compiled code at the cost of less flexibility and more verbose code. Most prominently, compiled languages need an explicit type declaration for each variable.

Why Julia?

Julia is a programming language that superficially looks like an interpreted language and mostly behaves like one. But before each function is executed it will be compiled just in time.

Thus you get the flexibility of an interpreted language and the execution speed of a compiled language at the cost of waiting a bit longer for the first execution of any function.

There is another aspect of Julia that makes it interesting and that is the way packages compose. This is captured the best by an analogy from Sam Urmy:

Say you want a toy truck.

The Python/R solution is to look for the appropriate package–like buying a Playmobil truck. It comes pre-manufactured, well-engineered and tested, and does 95% of what you would ever want a toy truck to do.

The Fortran/C solution is to build the truck from scratch. This allows total customization and you can optimize the features and performance however you want. The downside is that it takes more time, you need woodworking skills, and might hurt yourself with the power tools.

The Julia solution is like Legos. You can get the truck kit if you want–which will require a bit more assembly than the Playmobil, but way less than building it from scratch. Or, you can get the component pieces and assemble the truck to your own specs. There’s no limit to what you can put together, and because the pieces all have the same system of bumps, everything snaps together quickly and easily.

OK, sure. Toy trucks are like linear algebra, though, a common request, and every “toy system” will have an implementation that works basically fine. But what if you want a time-traveling sailing/space ship with lasers AND dragon wings? And it should be as easy to build and use as a basic dump truck?

There’s a reason that only Lego ever made anything like Dr. Cyber’s Flying Time Vessel!

Originally posted on Discourse.

Key Points

  • “Julia is a just-in-time compiled language”
  • “Julia packages compose well”

Content from Using the REPL

Last updated on 2024-11-15 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 20 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • “How to use the REPL?”

Objectives

  • “Explore basic functionality of input.”
  • “Learn how to declare variables.”
  • “Learn about REPL modes.”

Entering the REPL

Melissa and her classmates open a terminal and launch julia:

BASH 

julia

JULIA 

               _
   _       _ _(_)_     |  Documentation: https://docs.julialang.org
  (_)     | (_) (_)    |
   _ _   _| |_  __ _   |  Type "?" for help, "]?" for Pkg help.
  | | | | | | |/ _` |  |
  | | |_| | | | (_| |  |  Version 1.7.2 (2022-02-06)
 _/ |\__'_|_|_|\__'_|  |  Official https://julialang.org/ release
|__/                   |
julia>

This is the so-called REPL, which stands for read-evaluate-print-loop. The interactive command-line REPL allows quick and easy execution of Julia statements.

Like the terminal, the Julia REPL has a prompt, where it awaits input:

JULIA 

julia>

implicit promt

Most of the code boxes that follow do not show the julia> prompt, even though it’s there in the REPL. Why?

It’s important to delineate input (what you type) and output (how the machine responds). The prompt can be confusing, so it is excluded. You may assume that any Julia box prepends the prompt on each line of input.

Visual Studio Code

An alternative to using the REPL through a terminal is to work with Visual Studio Code or its open source altenative VSCodium. VSC is a source code editor for which a julia extension is available. After installing the application, simply click on the “Extension” symbol on the left side and search for julia. Once installt julia remains usable and can be selected as a programming language in new documents.

For further guidance and visual aid, check out the provided video!

Variables

The first thing they try is to perform basic arithmetic operations:

JULIA 

1 + 4 * 7.3

OUTPUT 

30.2

That works as expected. It is also possible to bind a name to a value via the assignment operator =, which makes it easier to refer to the value later on. These names are called variables.

JULIA 

distance = 30.2
distance_x_2 = 2 * distance

OUTPUT 

60.4

Melissa notices that assignment also returns the value. She can also check which variables are defined in the current session by running

JULIA 

varinfo()

OUTPUT 

 name                    size summary
 –––––––––––––––– ––––––––––– –––––––
 Base                         Module
 Core                         Module
 InteractiveUtils 270.164 KiB Module
 Main                         Module
 ans                  8 bytes Float64
 distance             8 bytes Float64
 distance_x_2         8 bytes Float64

Unicode

In Julia, Unicode characters are also allowed as variables like α = 2. Unicode characters can be entered by a backslash followed by their LaTeX name and then pressing tab (in this case \alphatab).

REPL-modes

Unfortunately Melissa can’t remember the LaTeX name of ∂ so she copies the character , presses ? for help mode,

JULIA 

?

pastes the ∂ character, then presses enter:

JULIA 

help?> ∂

OUTPUT 

"∂" can be typed by \partial<tab>

Great! This way she can easily look up the names she needs. She gets back to normal mode by pressing backspace.

Exploring Julia’s Help Mode

Help mode can also be used to look up the documentation for Julia functions. Use Julia’s help mode to read the documentation for the varinfo() function.

Exploring Julia’s Help Mode (continued)

If you are not already in help mode, type ? to enter it. Then write varinfo and press enter.

SH 

```julia
?varinfo
```

Another useful mode is the shell mode that can be entered by pressing ;. The prompt has now changed:

JULIA 

shell>

Shell mode can be used to issue commands to the underlying shell, but don’t confuse it with an actual shell: special shell syntax like piping won’t work. Like before, hit backspace to get back to the Julia prompt.

Hello, shell> (pwd and cd) !

Two commonly used shell commands are pwd (print working directory) and cd (change directory).

  1. Use pwd to find out what is your current working directory.
  2. Type the command cd in shell mode, which by default will bring you to your “home directory”.
  3. Use pwd again. Did you get a different result from before? Why or why not?

JULIA 

shell> pwd

JULIA 

shell> cd

JULIA 

shell> pwd

Hello, shell> (pwd and cd) ! (continued)

The working directory is the location from which you launched Julia. To navigate to a different directory, you can use the cd command by entering: cd <directory>. By default, this command will return you to your home directory if a specific directory is not given. If you initially launched Julia from your home directory, the working directory remains unchanged, so the output of the second pwd command will be identical to the first. Conversely, if you were in a different directory when you started Julia, the results of the two pwd commands will differ. You can use cd - to go back to your previous location.

Hello, shell> (ls)!

Another useful shell command is ls (list files). Use it to show the contents of your home directory.

JULIA 

shell> cd

JULIA 

shell> ls

Hello, shell> (ls)! (continued)

The first cd command will bring you to your home directory. ls will print a list of the files and directorys in your current location.

Hello, shell> (nano and cat)!

Use the shell mode to create a file called hello.jl with the nano terminal text editor. Inside that file write the simple hello world program print("Hello World!").

Check the content of the file using cat hello.jl and then run the program using julia hello.jl.

JULIA 

;

JULIA 

shell> nano hello.jl
shell> cat hello.jl

OUTPUT 

print("Hello World!")

JULIA 

shell> julia hello.jl

OUTPUT 

Hello World!

backspace

Finally there is package mode that is entered with ] which is used for package management, which will be covered later on:

JULIA 

]

JULIA 

pkg>

To exit shell, help or pkg mode, hit backspace.

Key Points

  • “The REPL reads the given input, evaluates the given expression and prints the resulting output to the user.”
  • “Pressing ? enters help mode.”
  • “Pressing ; enters shell mode.”
  • “Pressing ] enters pkg mode.”

Content from Julia type system

Last updated on 2023-08-29 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 20 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • “What is the use of types?”
  • “How are types organized in Julia?”

Objectives

  • “Understand the structure of the type tree.”
  • “Know how to traverse the type tree.”
  • “Know how to build mutable and immutable types.”

Structuring variables

Melissa wants to keep the variables corresponding to the trebuchet (counterweight, release_angle) separate from the variables coming from the environment (wind, target_distance). That is why she chooses to group them together using structures. There are two structure types:

  • immutable structures, whose fields can not be changed after creation
  • keyword: struct
  • mutable structures, whose fields can change after creation
  • keyword: mutable struct

Since Melissa wants to change the parameters of the trebuchet, she uses a mutable struct for it. But she cannot influence the environment and thus uses a struct for those values.

JULIA 

mutable struct Trebuchet
  counterweight::Float64
  release_angle::Float64
end

struct Environment
  wind::Float64
  target_distance::Float64
end

Types and hierarchy

Here ::Float64 is a type specification, indicating that this variable should be a 64-bit floating point number, and :: is an operator that is read “is an instance of.” If Melissa hadn’t specified the type, the variables would have the type Any by default.

In Julia every type can have only one supertype, so let’s count how many types are between Float64 and Any:

1.

JULIA 

supertype(Float64)

OUTPUT 

AbstractFloat

2.

JULIA 

supertype(AbstractFloat)

OUTPUT 

Real

3.

JULIA 

supertype(Real)

OUTPUT 

Number

4.

JULIA 

supertype(Number)

OUTPUT 

Any

So we have the relationship Float64 <: AbstractFloat <: Real <: Number <: Any where <: is the subtype operator, used here to mean the item on the left “is a subtype of” the item on the right.

Float64 is a concrete type, which means that you can actually create objects of this type. For example 1.0 is an object of type Float64. We can check this at the REPL using either (or both) the typeof function or the isa operator:

JULIA 

typeof(1.0)

OUTPUT 

Float64

or

JULIA 

1.0 isa Float64

OUTPUT 

true

All the other types are abstract types that are used to address groups of types. For example, if we declare a variable as a::Real then it can be bound to any value that is a subtype of Real.

Let’s quickly check what are all the subtypes of Real:

JULIA 

subtypes(Real)

OUTPUT 

4-element Vector{Any}:
 AbstractFloat
 AbstractIrrational
 Integer
 Rational

This way the types form a tree with abstract types on the nodes and concrete types as leaves. Have a look at this visualization of all subtypes of Number:

Is it Real?

For which of the following types T would the following return false?

JULIA 

1.0 isa T
  1. Real
  2. Number
  3. Float64
  4. Integer

The correct answer is 4: while 1 is an integer, 1.0 is a floating-point value.

Instances

So far Melissa only defined the layout of her new types Trebuchet and Environment. To actually create a value of this type she has to call the so called constructor, which is a function with the same name as the corresponding type and as many arguments as there are fields.

JULIA 

trebuchet = Trebuchet(500, 0.25pi)

OUTPUT 

Trebuchet(500.0, 0.7853981633974483)

Note, how the values will get converted to the specified field type.

JULIA 

environment = Environment(5, 100)

OUTPUT 

Environment(5.0, 100.0)

trebuchet is being called an instance or object of the type Trebuchet. There can only ever be one definition of the type Trebuchet but you can create many instances of that type with different values for its fields.

Creating a subtype

A concrete type can be made a subtype of an abstract type with the subtype operator <:. Since Trebuchet contains several fields that are mutable Melissa thinks it is a good idea to make it a subtype of AbstractVector.

Caveat: Redefining Structs

JULIA 

mutable struct Trebuchet <: AbstractVector{Float64}
  counterweight::Float64
  release_angle::Float64
end

ERROR 

ERROR: invalid redefinition of constant Trebuchet
Stacktrace:
[1] top-level scope
   @ REPL[9]:1

This error message is clear: you’re not allowed to define a struct using a name that’s already in use.

Restart the REPL

In Julia it is not very easy to redefine structs. It is necessary to restart the REPL to define the new definition of Trebuchet, or take a different name instead.

Melissa decides to keep going and come back to this later.

Key Points

  • “In Julia types have only one direct supertype.”

Content from Using the package manager

Last updated on 2024-11-15 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 20 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • “Where do I find packages?”
  • “How do I add packages?”
  • “How can I use packages?”

Objectives

  • “Learn to add packages using pkg-mode”
  • “Learn to resolve name conflicts”
  • “Learn to activate environments”

The package manager

The package Manager

This chapter focuses on the package mode available within the REPL.

A different aproach would be using the Pkg notation.

JULIA 

using Pkg
Pkg.add("Example")

If you prefer to use that method and want to know more, remember how to get help.

(for exp. ?Pkg.add)

Now it is time for Melissa and their mates to simulate the launch of the trebuchet. The necessary equations are really complicated, but an investigation on JuliaHub revealed that someone already implemented these and published it as the Julia package Trebuchet.jl. That saves some real work.

Melissa enters package mode by pressing ]:

JULIA 

]

The julia> prompt becomes a blue pkg> prompt that shows the Julia version that Melissa is running.

After consulting the documentation she knows that the prompt is showing the currently activated environment and that this is the global environment that is activated by default.

However, she doesn’t want to clutter the global environment when working on her project. The default global environment is indicated with (@v1.x) before the pkg> prompt, where x is the minor version number of julia, so on julia 1.7 it will look like (@v1.7). To create a new environment she uses the activate function of the package manager:

JULIA 

(@v1.x) pkg> activate projects/trebuchet
  Activating project at `~/projects/trebuchet`

In this environment she adds the Trebuchet package from its open source code repository on GitHub by typing

JULIA 

(trebuchet) pkg> add Trebuchet

Melissa quickly recognizes that far more packages are being installed than just Trebuchet. These are the dependencies of Trebuchet. From the output

OUTPUT 

[...]
Updating `[...]/projects/trebuchet/Project.toml`
  [98b73d46] + Trebuchet v0.2.1
  Updating `[...]/projects/trebuchet/Manifest.toml`
  [1520ce14] + AbstractTrees v0.3.3
  [79e6a3ab] + Adapt v1.1.0
  [...]

she sees that two files were created: Project.toml and Manifest.toml.

The project file Project.toml only contains the packages needed for her project, while the manifest file Manifest.toml records the direct and indirect dependencies as well as their current version, thus providing a fully reproducible record of the code that is actually executed. “That is really handy when I want to share my work with the others,” thinks Melissa.

After the installation finished she can check the packages present in her environment.

JULIA 

(trebuchet) pkg> status
Status `~/projects/trebuchet/Project.toml`
  [f6369f11] ForwardDiff v0.10.38
  [295af30f] Revise v3.6.3
  [98b73d46] Trebuchet v0.2.2

Why use GitHub?

Melissa could have added the GitHub version of Trebuchet.jl by typing

JULIA 

(trebuchet) pkg> add Trebuchet#master

In this case the JuliaHub version is the same as the GitHub version, so Melissa does not need to specify the installation.

If you know a package is stable, go ahead and install the default version registered on JuliaHub. Otherwise, it’s good to check how different that version is from the current state of the software project. Click through the link under “Repository” on the JuliaHub package page.

deactivate does not exist, instead …

Melissa can get back to the global environment using activate without any parameters. Note, that any packages that were loaded in the old environment are still loaded in the new environment.

JULIA 

(trebuchet) pkg> activate

Environments stack

What is installed in the default environment can also be loaded in other environments. That is useful for development time convenience packages like BenchmarkTools or JuliaFormatter.

Melissa now returns to her project environment.

JULIA 

(trebuchet) pkg> activate projects/trebuchet

Using and importing packages

Now that Melissa added the package to her environment, she needs to load it. Julia provides two keywords for loading packages: using and import.

The difference is that import brings only the name of the package into the namespace and then all functions in that package need the name in front (prefixed). But packages can define a list of function names to export, which means the functions should be brought into the user’s namespace when he loads the package with using. This makes working at the REPL more convenient.

Name conflicts

It may happen that name conflicts arise. For example Melissa defined a structure named Trebuchet, but the package she added to the environment is also named Trebuchet. Now she would get an error if she tried to import/using it directly. One solution is to assign a nickname or alias to the package upon import using the keyword as:

JULIA 

import Trebuchet as Trebuchets

Key Points

  • “Find packages on JuliaHub”
  • “add packages using pkg> add”
  • “use many small environments rather than one big environment”

Content from Write functions!

Last updated on 2024-11-14 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 20 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • “How do I call a function?”
  • “Where can I find help about using a function?”
  • “What are methods?”

Objectives

  • “usage of positional and keyword arguments”
  • “defining named and anonymous functions”
  • “reading error messages”

Working with functions

Now that Melissa successfully installed the package she wants to figure out what she can do with it.

Julia’s Base module offers a handy function for inspecting other modules called names. Let’s look at its docstring; remember that pressing ? opens the help?> prompt:

JULIA 

help?> names

OUTPUT 

   names(x::Module; all::Bool = false, imported::Bool = false)

    Get an array of the names exported by a Module, excluding deprecated names.
    If all is true, then the list also includes non-exported names defined in
    the module, deprecated names, and compiler-generated names. If imported is
    true, then names explicitly imported from other modules are also included.

    As a special case, all names defined in Main are considered "exported",
    since it is not idiomatic to explicitly export names from Main.

In Julia we have two types of arguments: positional and keyword, separated by a semi-colon.

  1. Positional arguments are determined by their position and thus the order in which arguments are given to the function matters.
  2. Keyword arguments are passed as a combination of the keyword and the value to the function. They can be given in any order, but they need to have a default value.

Challenge

Let’s take a closer look at the signature of the names function:

JULIA 

names(x::Module; all::Bool = false, imported::Bool = false)

It takes three arguments:

  1. x, a positional argument of type Module, followed by a ;
  2. all, a keyword argument of type Bool with a default value of false
  3. imported, another Bool keyword argument that defaults to false

Suppose Melissa wanted to get all names of the Trebuchets module, including those that are not exported. What would the function call look like?

  1. names(Trebuchets, true)
  2. names(Trebuchets, all = true)
  3. names(Trebuchets, all)
  4. names(Trebuchets; all = true)
  5. Answer 2 and 4
  1. Both arguments are present, but true is presented without a keyword. This throws a MethodError: no method matching names(::Module, ::Bool)
  2. This is a correct call.
  3. Two arguments are present, but the keyword all is not assigned a value. This throws a MethodError: no method matching names(::Module, ::typeof(all))
  4. This is also correct: you can specify where the positional arguments end with the ;, but you do not have to.
  5. This is the most correct answer.

Before starting to work in a new document, Melissa has to:

Activate her environment

JULIA 

using Pkg
Pkg.activate(joinpath(@__DIR__, "projects", "trebuchet"))
Pkg.instantiate()
  Activating project at `~/projects/trebuchet`

Importing the package under its modified name

JULIA 

import Trebuchet as Trebuchets

Defining the structures

JULIA 

mutable struct Trebuchet <: AbstractVector{Float64}
  counterweight::Float64
  release_angle::Float64
end

struct Environment
  wind::Float64
  target_distance::Float64
end

Now she can execute

JULIA 

names(Trebuchets)

OUTPUT 

6-element Vector{Symbol}:
 :Trebuchet
 :TrebuchetState
 :run
 :shoot
 :simulate
 :visualise

which yields the exported names of the Trebuchets module. By convention types are named with CamelCase while functions typically have snake_case. Since Melissa is interested in simulating shots, she looks at the shoot function from Trebuchets (again, using ?):

JULIA 

help?> Trebuchets.shoot

OUTPUT 

  shoot(ws, angle, w)
  shoot((ws, angle, w))

  Shoots a Trebuchet with weight w in kg. Releases the weight at the release
  angle angle in radians. The current wind speed is ws in m/s.
  Returns (t, dist), with travel time t in s and travelled distance dist in m.

Generic functions and methods

In the output we see that shoot has two different argument signatures: one with three arguments and one with a Tuple of three elements as its single argument. These two signatures correspond to two different implementations. In our case one is calling the other.

Functions of the same name with different argument signatures are called methods of a generic function of that name. In our example we have two methods of the shoot generic function.

Almost all function in Julia are generic functions and in particular all user defined functions. An example with particularly many methods is +. You can list its methods by executing methods(+), for example.

Julia determines which method to apply to a tuple of arguments according to set of rules, which are documented in the Julia Manual’s Methods section.

Now she is ready to fire the first shot.

JULIA 

Trebuchets.shoot(5, 0.25pi, 500)

OUTPUT 

(Trebuchet.TrebuchetState(Trebuchet.Lengths{Float64}(1.524, 2.0702016, 0.5334, 0.6096, 2.0826984, 0.8311896, 0.037947600000000005), Trebuchet.Masses{Float64}(226.796185, 0.14877829736, 4.8307587405), Trebuchet.Angles{Float64}(-0.4328124904398228, 1.1928977546511481, 1.437218009822302), Trebuchet.AnglularVelocities{Float64}(-6.80709816163242, 10.240657933288563, -22.420510883318446), Trebuchet.Constants{Float64}(5.0, 1.0, 1.0, 9.80665, 0.7853981633974482), Trebuchet.Inertias{Float64}(0.042140110093804806, 2.7288719786342384), Val{:End}(), 60.0, Trebuchet.Vec(114.88494815382731, -1.5239999999999991), Trebuchet.Vec(10.886295450427806, -21.290442812748466), Solution(387)
, 3.943408301947865, Val{:Released}()), 114.88494815382731)

That is a lot of output, but Melissa is actually only interested in the distance, which is the second element of the tuple that was returned. So she tries again and grabs the second element this time:

JULIA 

Trebuchets.shoot(5, 0.25pi, 500)[2]

OUTPUT 

114.88494815382731

which means the shot traveled approximately 118 m.

Defining functions

Melissa wants to make her future work easier and she fears she might forget to take the second element. That’s why she puts it together in a function like this:

JULIA 

function shoot_distance(windspeed, angle, weight)
       Trebuchets.shoot(windspeed, angle, weight)[2]
end

OUTPUT 

shoot_distance (generic function with 1 method)

Implicit return

Note that Melissa didn’t have to use the return keyword, since in Julia the value of the last line will be returned by default. But she could have used an explicit return and the function would behave the same.

Now Melissa can just call her wrapper function:

JULIA 

shoot_distance(5, 0.25pi, 500)

OUTPUT 

114.88494815382731

Adding methods

Since Melissa wants to work with the structs Trebuchet and Environment, she adds another convenience method for those:

JULIA 

function shoot_distance(trebuchet::Trebuchet, env::Environment)
     shoot_distance(env.wind, trebuchet.release_angle, trebuchet.counterweight)
end

OUTPUT 

shoot_distance (generic function with 2 methods)

This method will call the former method and pass the correct fields from the Trebuchet and Environment structures.

Slurping and splatting

By peeking into the documentation, Melissa discovers that she doesn’t need to explicitly declare all the input arguments. Instead she can slurp the arguments in the function definition and splat them in the function body using three dots (...) like this:

JULIA 

function shoot_distance(args...) # slurping
     Trebuchets.shoot(args...)[2] # splatting
end

OUTPUT 

shoot_distance (generic function with 3 methods)

Anonymous functions

Sometimes it is useful to have a new function and not have to come up with a new name. These are anonymous functions. They can be defined with either the so-called stabby lambda notation,

JULIA 

(windspeed, angle, weight) -> Trebuchets.shoot(windspeed, angle, weight)[2]

OUTPUT 

#1 (generic function with 1 method)

or in long form, by omitting the name:

JULIA 

function (windspeed, angle, weight)
      Trebuchets.shoot(windspeed, angle, weight)[2]
end

OUTPUT 

#3 (generic function with 1 method)

Calling methods

Now, that she defined all these methods she tests calling a few

JULIA 

shoot_distance(5, 0.25pi, 500)

OUTPUT 

114.88494815382731

JULIA 

shoot_distance([5, 0.25pi, 500])

OUTPUT 

114.88494815382731

For the other method she needs to construct Trebuchet and Environment objects first

JULIA 

env = Environment(5, 100)

OUTPUT 

Environment(5.0, 100.0)

JULIA 

trebuchet = Trebuchet(500, 0.25pi)

ERROR 

MethodError: no method matching size(::Trebuchet)

Closest candidates are:
  size(::AbstractArray{T, N}, !Matched::Any) where {T, N}
   @ Base abstractarray.jl:42
  size(!Matched::Union{LinearAlgebra.QR, LinearAlgebra.QRCompactWY, LinearAlgebra.QRPivoted})
   @ LinearAlgebra /opt/hostedtoolcache/julia/1.9.4/x64/share/julia/stdlib/v1.9/LinearAlgebra/src/qr.jl:582
  size(!Matched::Union{LinearAlgebra.QR, LinearAlgebra.QRCompactWY, LinearAlgebra.QRPivoted}, !Matched::Integer)
   @ LinearAlgebra /opt/hostedtoolcache/julia/1.9.4/x64/share/julia/stdlib/v1.9/LinearAlgebra/src/qr.jl:581
  ...

Errors and finding documentation

This error tells her two things:

  1. a function named size was called
  2. it didn’t have a method for Trebuchet

Melissa wants to add the missing method to size but she doesn’t know where it is defined. There is a handy macro named @which that obtains the module where the function is defined.

Macros

Macro names begin with @ and they don’t need parentheses or commas to delimit their arguments. Macros can transform any valid Julia expression and are quite powerful. They can be expanded by prepending @macroexpand to the macro call of interest.

JULIA 


@which size

OUTPUT 

Base

Now Melissa knows she needs to add a method to Base.size with the signature (::Trebuchet).

She can also lookup the docstring using the @doc macro

JULIA 

@doc size

OUTPUT 

  size(A::AbstractArray, [dim])

  Return a tuple containing the dimensions of A. Optionally you can specify a
  dimension to just get the length of that dimension.

  Note that size may not be defined for arrays with non-standard indices, in
  which case axes may be useful. See the manual chapter on arrays with custom
  indices.

  See also: length, ndims, eachindex, sizeof.

  Examples
  ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡

  julia> A = fill(1, (2,3,4));

  julia> size(A)
  (2, 3, 4)

  julia> size(A, 2)
  3

  size(cb::CircularBuffer)

  Return a tuple with the size of the buffer.

  size(g, i)

  Return the number of vertices in g if i=1 or i=2, or 1 otherwise.

  Examples
  ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡

  julia> using Graphs

  julia> g = cycle_graph(4);

  julia> size(g, 1)
  4

  julia> size(g, 2)
  4

  julia> size(g, 3)
  1

With that information she can now implement this method:

JULIA 

function Base.size(::Trebuchet)
     return tuple(2)
end

But that is a 3 lines of text for a very short definition. Melissa can also using the short form notation to fit this in a single line:

JULIA 

Base.size(::Trebuchet) = tuple(2)

!!! callout Omitting unneeded arguments Melissa could also name the argument in the signature. Like this: (trebuchet::Trebuchet), but since the argument is not needed to compute the output of the function she can omit it. The argument is in this case only used to dispatch to the correct method. Now she can try again

JULIA 

trebuchet = Trebuchet(500, 0.25pi)

ERROR 

CanonicalIndexError: getindex not defined for Trebuchet

Again, there is an error but this time the error message is different: It’s no longer a method for size that is missing but for getindex. She looks up the documentation for that function

JULIA 

@doc getindex

OUTPUT 

  getindex(type[, elements...])

  Construct a 1-d array of the specified type. This is usually called with the
  syntax Type[]. Element values can be specified using Type[a,b,c,...].

  Examples
  ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡

  julia> Int8[1, 2, 3]
  3-element Vector{Int8}:
   1
   2
   3

  julia> getindex(Int8, 1, 2, 3)
  3-element Vector{Int8}:
   1
   2
   3

  getindex(collection, key...)

  Retrieve the value(s) stored at the given key or index within a collection.
  The syntax a[i,j,...] is converted by the compiler to getindex(a, i, j,
  ...).

  See also get, keys, eachindex.

  Examples
  ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡

  julia> A = Dict("a" => 1, "b" => 2)
  Dict{String, Int64} with 2 entries:
    "b" => 2
    "a" => 1

  julia> getindex(A, "a")
  1

  getindex(A, inds...)

  Return a subset of array A as specified by inds, where each ind may be, for
  example, an Int, an AbstractRange, or a Vector. See the manual section on
  array indexing for details.

  Examples
  ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡

  julia> A = [1 2; 3 4]
  2×2 Matrix{Int64}:
   1  2
   3  4

  julia> getindex(A, 1)
  1

  julia> getindex(A, [2, 1])
  2-element Vector{Int64}:
   3
   1

  julia> getindex(A, 2:4)
  3-element Vector{Int64}:
   3
   2
   4

  getindex(tree::GitTree, target::AbstractString) -> GitObject

  Look up target path in the tree, returning a GitObject (a GitBlob in the
  case of a file, or another GitTree if looking up a directory).

  Examples
  ≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡≡

  tree = LibGit2.GitTree(repo, "HEAD^{tree}")
  readme = tree["README.md"]
  subtree = tree["test"]
  runtests = subtree["runtests.jl"]

  observable[]

  Returns the current value of observable.

  getindex(A::ArrayPartition, i::Colon, j...)

  Returns the entry at index j... of every partition of A.

  getindex(A::ArrayPartition, ::Colon)

  Returns a vector with all elements of array partition A.

  v = sd[k]

  Argument sd is a SortedDict and k is a key. In an expression, this retrieves
  the value (v) associated with the key (or KeyError if none). On the
  left-hand side of an assignment, this assigns or reassigns the value
  associated with the key. (For assigning and reassigning, see also insert!
  below.) Time: O(c log n)

  cb[i]

  Get the i-th element of CircularBuffer.

    •  cb[1] to get the element at the front

    •  cb[end] to get the element at the back

  getindex(tree, ind)

  Gets the key present at index ind of the tree. Indexing is done in
  increasing order of key.

  g[iter]

  Return the subgraph induced by iter. Equivalent to induced_subgraph(g,
  iter)[1].

Note that the documentation for all methods gets shown and Melissa needs to look for the relevant method first. In this case its the paragraph starting with

getindex(A, inds...)

After a bit of pondering the figures it should be enough to add a method for getindex with a single number.

getindex(trebuchet::Trebuchet, i::Int)

Syntactic sugar

In Julia a[1] is equivalent to getindex(a, 1) and a[2] = 3 to setindex!(a, 3, 2) Likewise a.b is equivalent to getproperty(a, :b) and a.b = 4 to setproperty!(a, :b, 4).

Key Points

  • “You can think of functions being a collection of methods”
  • “Methods are defined by their signature”
  • “The signature is defined by the number of arguments, their order and their type”
  • “Keep the number of positional arguments low”
  • “Macros transform Julia expressions”

Content from Interfaces & conditionals

Last updated on 2023-09-15 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 60 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • “How to use conditionals?”
  • “What is an interface?”

Objectives

Conditionals

Before starting to work in a new document, Melissa has to:

Activate her environment

JULIA 

using Pkg
Pkg.activate(joinpath(@__DIR__, "projects", "trebuchet"))
Pkg.instantiate()
  Activating project at `~/projects/trebuchet`

Importing the package under its modified name

JULIA 

import Trebuchet as Trebuchets

Defining the structures

JULIA 

mutable struct Trebuchet <: AbstractVector{Float64}
  counterweight::Float64
  release_angle::Float64
end

struct Environment
  wind::Float64
  target_distance::Float64
end

Base.size(::Trebuchet) = tuple(2)

Now that Melissa knows that she has to add a method for

getindex(trebuchet::Trebuchet, i::Int)

she thinks about the implementation.

If the index is 1 she wants to get the counterweight field and if the index is 2 she wants to get release_angle and since these are the only two fields she wants to return an error if anything else comes in. In Julia the keywords to specify conditions are if, elseif and else, closed with an end. Thus she writes

JULIA 

function Base.getindex(trebuchet::Trebuchet, i::Int)
    if i === 1
        return trebuchet.counterweight
    elseif i === 2
        return trebuchet.release_angle
    else
        error("Trebuchet only accepts indices 1 and 2, yours is $i")
    end
end

And tries again:

JULIA 

trebuchet = Trebuchet(500, 0.25pi)

OUTPUT 

2-element Trebuchet:
 500.0
   0.7853981633974483

Notice, that the printing is different from our trebuchet in the former episode.

Interfaces

Why is that? By subtyping Trebuchet as AbstractVector we implicitly opted into a widespread interface in the Julia language: AbstractArrays. An interface is a collection of methods that should be implemented by all subtypes of the interface type in order for generic code to work. For example, the Julia manual lists all methods that a subtype of AbstractArray need to implement to adhere to the AbstractArray interface:

  • size(A) returns a tuple containing the dimensions of A
  • getindex(A, i::Int) returns the value associated with index i
  • setindex!(A, v, i::Int) writes a new value v at the index i (optional)

Now, that Melissa implemented the mandatory methods for this interface for the Trebuchet type, it will work with every function in Base that accepts an AbstractArray. She tries a few things that now work without her writing explicit code for it:

JULIA 

trebuchet + trebuchet

OUTPUT 

2-element Vector{Float64}:
 1000.0
    1.5707963267948966

JULIA 

using LinearAlgebra
dot(trebuchet, trebuchet)

OUTPUT 

250000.61685027508

JULIA 

trebuchet * transpose(trebuchet)

OUTPUT 

2×2 Matrix{Float64}:
 250000.0    392.699
    392.699    0.61685

That is, it now behaves like you would expect from an ordinary matrix.

Now she goes about implementing the missing optional method for setindex! of the AbstractArray interface.

Implement setindex!

Write the missing method for setindex(trebuchet::Trebuchet, v, i::Int) similar to Melissas getindex function.

JULIA 

function Base.setindex!(trebuchet::Trebuchet, v, i::Int)
     if i === 1
         trebuchet.counterweight = v
    elseif i === 2
        trebuchet.release_angle = v
    else
        error("Trebuchet only accepts indices 1 and 2, yours is $i")
    end
end

With the new Trebuchet defined with a complete AbstractArray interface, Melissa tries her new method to modify a counterweight by index:

JULIA 

trebuchet[1] = 2

OUTPUT 

2

JULIA 

trebuchet

OUTPUT 

2-element Trebuchet:
 2.0
 0.7853981633974483

Key Points

  • “Interfaces are informal”
  • “Interfaces facilitate code reuse”
  • “Conditions use if, elseif, else and end”

Content from Loops

Last updated on 2024-11-15 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 60 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • “What are for and while loops?”
  • “What is a comprehension?”

Objectives

Before starting to work in a new document, Melissa has to:

Activate her environment

JULIA 

using Pkg
Pkg.activate(joinpath(@__DIR__, "projects", "trebuchet"))
Pkg.instantiate()
  Activating project at `~/projects/trebuchet`

Importing the package under its modified name

JULIA 

import Trebuchet as Trebuchets

Defining the structures

JULIA 

mutable struct Trebuchet <: AbstractVector{Float64}
  counterweight::Float64
  release_angle::Float64
end

struct Environment
  wind::Float64
  target_distance::Float64
end

Base.size(::Trebuchet) = tuple(2)
function Base.getindex(trebuchet::Trebuchet, i::Int)
    if i === 1
        return trebuchet.counterweight
    elseif i === 2
        return trebuchet.release_angle
    else
        error("Trebuchet only accepts indices 1 and 2, yours is $i")
    end
end
function Base.setindex!(trebuchet::Trebuchet, v, i::Int)
     if i === 1
         trebuchet.counterweight = v
    elseif i === 2
        trebuchet.release_angle = v
    else
        error("Trebuchet only accepts indices 1 and 2, yours is $i")
    end
end
function shoot_distance(trebuchet::Trebuchet, env::Environment)
     shoot_distance(env.wind, trebuchet.release_angle, trebuchet.counterweight)
end
function shoot_distance(args...) # slurping
     Trebuchets.shoot(args...)[2] # splatting
end

OUTPUT 

shoot_distance (generic function with 2 methods)

Now Melissa knows how to shoot the virtual trebuchet and get the distance of the projectile, but in order to aim she needs to take a lot of trial shots in a row. She wants her trebuchet to only shoot a hundred meters.

She could execute the function several times on the REPL with different parameters, but that gets tiresome quickly. A better way to do this is to use loops.

The first thing that comes to her mind is to randomly sample points of the parameter space of the trebuchet. The function rand() will give her a random number between 0 and 1 that is uniformly distributed. So

JULIA 

Trebuchet( rand() * 500, rand() * pi/2 )

OUTPUT 

2-element Trebuchet:
 228.38576259167743
   1.0428133782844782

will give her a Trebuchet with a weight between 0 and 500 and a release angle between 0 and pi/2 radians at random.

Now she can store the results of 3 random trebuchets in an array like this

JULIA 

env = Environment(5, 100)
distances = [shoot_distance(Trebuchet(rand() * 500, rand() * pi / 2), env) for _ in 1:3]

OUTPUT 

3-element Vector{Float64}:
 75.81435701587722
 83.01842049268829
 67.14411448705451

This is called an array comprehension. To get the information of the parameters and the results in one place she writes that again a bit differently

JULIA 

N = 10
weights = [rand() * 500 for _ in 1:N]
angles = [rand() * pi/2 for _ in 1:N]
distances = [(w,a) => shoot_distance(Trebuchet(w, a), env) for (w, a) in zip(weights, angles)]

OUTPUT 

10-element Vector{Pair{Tuple{Float64, Float64}, Float64}}:
  (3.3334597480246253, 0.7838682352298685) => 0.6815707596179541
   (210.78228935379622, 1.381946534840864) => 35.85286633327975
   (401.5993709331619, 0.2185755446723246) => 96.9029165112703
   (174.8500444474639, 1.3802675063026215) => 34.83498096430634
   (459.5195474131575, 0.6388081196321991) => 117.62925382680423
   (325.9792258612826, 1.4742042308383514) => 23.118879918525415
 (424.04535348026496, 0.13367159006587603) => 84.32898973441384
    (367.203106692998, 0.6088354356429886) => 117.46105246416498
  (12.984772128024124, 1.5235451260228559) => 0.6815707596179541
  (10.485349585032166, 0.6353974863672037) => 0.6815707596179541

Gradient descent

That is working out so far, but Melissa wonders if she can improve her parameters more systematically.

Digression: Gradients

The shoot_distance function takes three input parameters and returns one value (the distance). Whenever we change one of the input parameters, we will get a different distance.

The gradient of a function gives the direction in which the return value will change when each input value changes.

Since the shoot_distance function has three input parameters, the gradient of shoot_distance will return a 3-element Array: one direction for each input parameter.

Thanks to automatic differentiation and the Julia package ForwardDiff.jl gradients can be calculated easily.

Melissa uses the gradient function of ForwardDiff.jl to get the direction in which she needs to change the parameters to make the largest difference.

Do you remember?

What does Melissa need to write into the REPL to install the package ForwardDiff?

  1. ] install ForwardDiff
  2. add ForwardDiff
  3. ] add ForwardDiff.jl
  4. ] add ForwardDiff

The correct solution is 4: ] to enter pkg mode, then

JULIA 

pkg> add ForwardDiff

JULIA 

using ForwardDiff: gradient


imprecise_trebuchet = Trebuchet(500.0, 0.25pi);
environment = Environment(5.0, 100.0);

grad = gradient(x ->(shoot_distance([environment.wind, x[2], x[1]])
                      - environment.target_distance),
                imprecise_trebuchet)

OUTPUT 

2-element Vector{Float64}:
  -0.12516519503998055
 -49.443442438172205

Melissa now changes her arguments a little bit in the direction of the gradient and checks the new distance.

JULIA 

better_trebuchet = imprecise_trebuchet - 0.05 * grad;

shoot_distance([5, better_trebuchet[2], better_trebuchet[1]])

OUTPUT 

-2.785549535224487

Great! That didn’t shoot past the target, but instead it landed a bit too short.

Experiment

How far can you change the parameters in the direction of the gradient, such that it still improves the distance?

JULIA 

better_trebuchet = imprecise_trebuchet - 0.04 * grad
shoot_distance([environment.wind, better_trebuchet[2], better_trebuchet[1]])
120.48753521261001

JULIA 

better_trebuchet = imprecise_trebuchet - 0.03 * grad
shoot_distance([environment.wind, better_trebuchet[2], better_trebuchet[1]])
107.80646596787481

JULIA 

better_trebuchet = imprecise_trebuchet - 0.02 * grad
shoot_distance([environment.wind, better_trebuchet[2], better_trebuchet[1]])
33.90699307740854

JULIA 

better_trebuchet = imprecise_trebuchet - 0.025 * grad
shoot_distance([environment.wind, better_trebuchet[2], better_trebuchet[1]])
75.87613276409223

Looks like the “best” trebuchet for a target 100 m away will be between 2.5% and 3% down the gradient from the imprecise trebuchet.

For loops

Now that Melissa knows it is going in the right direction she wants to automate the additional iterations. She writes a new function aim, that performs the application of the gradient N times.

JULIA 

function aim(trebuchet, environment; N = 5, η = 0.05)
           better_trebuchet = copy(trebuchet)
           for _ in 1:N
               grad = gradient(x -> (shoot_distance([environment.wind, x[2], x[1]])
                                     - environment.target_distance),
                               better_trebuchet)
               better_trebuchet -= η * grad
           end
           return Trebuchet(better_trebuchet[1], better_trebuchet[2])
       end

better_trebuchet  = aim(imprecise_trebuchet, environment);

shoot_distance(environment.wind, better_trebuchet[2], better_trebuchet[1])

OUTPUT 

-2.2195176928658915

Explore

Play around with different inputs of N and η. How close can you come?

This is a highly non-linear system and thus very sensitive. The distances across different values for the counterweight and the release angle α look like this:

Aborting programs

If a call takes too long, you can abort it with Ctrl-c

While loops

Melissa finds the output of the above aim function too unpredictable to be useful. That’s why she decides to change it a bit. This time she uses a while-loop to run the iterations until she is sufficiently near her target.

(Hint: ε is \epsilontab, and η is \etatab.)

JULIA 

function aim(trebuchet, environment; ε = 0.1, η = 0.05)
    better_trebuchet = copy(trebuchet)
    hit = x -> (shoot_distance([environment.wind, x[2], x[1]])
                          - environment.target_distance)
            while abs(hit(better_trebuchet)) > ε
                grad = gradient(hit, better_trebuchet)
                better_trebuchet -= η * grad
            end
            return Trebuchet(better_trebuchet[1], better_trebuchet[2])
        end

better_trebuchet = aim(imprecise_trebuchet, environment);

shoot_distance(better_trebuchet, environment)

OUTPUT 

100.05601729579894

That is more what she had in mind. Your trebuchet may be tuned differently, but it should hit just as close as hers.

Key Points

  • “Use for loops for a known number of iterations and while loops for an unknown number of iterations.”

Content from Using Modules

Last updated on 2023-09-15 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 15 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • “What’s the purpose of modules?”

Objectives

  • “Structure your code using modules”
  • “Use Revise.jl to track changes”

Modules

Melissa now has a bunch of definitions in her running Julia session and using the REPL for interactive exploration is great, but it is more and more taxing to keep in mind what is defined, and all the definitions are lost once she closes the REPL.

That is why she decides to put her code in a file. She opens up her text editor and creates a file called aim_trebuchet.jl in the current working directory and pastes the code she got so far in there. This is what it looks like:

JULIA 

using Pkg
Pkg.activate("projects/trebuchet")
import Trebuchet as Trebuchets
using ForwardDiff: gradient

mutable struct Trebuchet <: AbstractVector{Float64}
  counterweight::Float64
  release_angle::Float64
end

Base.size(trebuchet::Trebuchet) = tuple(2)

Base.getindex(trebuchet::Trebuchet, i::Int) = getfield(trebuchet, i)

function Base.setindex!(trebuchet::Trebuchet, v, i::Int)
    if i === 1
        trebuchet.counterweight = v
    elseif i === 2
        trebuchet.release_angle = v
    else
        error("Trebuchet only accepts indices 1 and 2, yours is $i")
    end
end

struct Environment
  wind::Float64
  target_distance::Float64
end

function shoot_distance(args...)
    Trebuchets.shoot(args...)[2]
end

function shoot_distance(trebuchet::Trebuchet, env::Environment)
    shoot_distance(env.wind, trebuchet.release_angle, trebuchet.counterweight)
end

function aim(trebuchet::Trebuchet, environment::Environment; ε = 1e-1, η = 0.05)
    better_trebuchet = copy(trebuchet)
    hit = x -> (shoot_distance([environment.wind, x[2], x[1]]) - environment.target_distance)
    while abs(hit(better_trebuchet)) > ε
        grad = gradient(hit, better_trebuchet)
        better_trebuchet -= η * grad
    end
    return Trebuchet(better_trebuchet[1], better_trebuchet[2])
end

imprecise_trebuchet = Trebuchet(500.0, 0.25pi)

environment = Environment(5, 100)

precise_trebuchet = aim(imprecise_trebuchet, environment)

shoot_distance(precise_trebuchet, environment)

Now Melissa can run include("aim_trebuchet.jl") in the REPL to execute her code.

She also recognizes that she has a bunch of definitions at the beginning that she doesn’t need to execute more than once in a session and some lines at the end that use these definitions which she might run more often. She will split these in two separate files and put the definitions into a module. The module will put the definitions into their own namespace which is the module name. This means Melissa would need to put the module name before each definition if she uses it outside of the module. But she remembers from the Using the package manager Episode that she can export names that don’t need to be prefixed.

She names her module MelissasModule and accordingly the file MelissasModule.jl. From this module she exports the names aim, shoot_distance, Trebuchet and Environment. This way she can leave her other code unchanged.

JULIA 

module MelissasModule

using Pkg
Pkg.activate("projects/trebuchet")
import Trebuchet as Trebuchets
using ForwardDiff: gradient

export aim, shoot_distance, Trebuchet, Environment

mutable struct Trebuchet <: AbstractVector{Float64}
  counterweight::Float64
  release_angle::Float64
end

Base.size(trebuchet::Trebuchet) = tuple(2)

Base.getindex(trebuchet::Trebuchet, i::Int) = getfield(trebuchet, i)

function Base.setindex!(trebuchet::Trebuchet, v, i::Int)
    if i === 1
        trebuchet.counterweight = v
    elseif i === 2
        trebuchet.release_angle = v
    else
        error("Trebuchet only accepts indices 1 and 2, yours is $i")
    end
end

struct Environment
  wind::Float64
  target_distance::Float64
end

function shoot_distance(args...)
    Trebuchets.shoot(args...)[2]
end

function shoot_distance(trebuchet::Trebuchet, env::Environment)
    shoot_distance(env.wind, trebuchet.release_angle, trebuchet.counterweight)
end

function aim(trebuchet::Trebuchet, environment::Environment; ε = 1e-1, η = 0.05)
    better_trebuchet = copy(trebuchet)
    hit = x -> (shoot_distance([environment.wind, x[2], x[1]]) - environment.target_distance)
    while abs(hit(better_trebuchet)) > ε
        grad = gradient(hit, better_trebuchet)
        better_trebuchet -= η * grad
    end
    return Trebuchet(better_trebuchet[1], better_trebuchet[2])
end
end # MelissasModule

The rest of the code goes to a file she calls MelissasCode.jl.

JULIA 

using .MelissasModule

imprecise_trebuchet = Trebuchet(500.0, 0.25pi)
environment = Environment(5, 100)
precise_trebuchet = aim(imprecise_trebuchet, environment)
shoot_distance(precise_trebuchet, environment)

Now she can include MelissasModule.jl once, and change and include MelissasCode.jl as often as she wants. But what if she wants to make changes to the module? If she changes the code in the module, re-includes the module and runs her code again, she only gets a bunch of warnings, but her changes are not applied.

Revise.jl

Revise.jl is a package that can keep track of changes in your files and load these in a running Julia session.

Melissa needs to take two things into account:

  • using Revise must come before using any Package that she wants to be tracked
  • she should use includet instead of include for included files (t for “tracking”)

Thus she now runs

JULIA 

using Revise


includet(joinpath(path,"MelissasModule.jl"))
include(joinpath(path,"MelissasCode.jl"))

OUTPUT 

100.05601729579894

where path is the path to her files.

and any change she makes in MelissasModule.jl will be visible in the next run of her code.

Did I say any changes?

Well, almost any. Revise can’t track changes to structures.

Key Points

  • “Modules introduce namespaces”
  • “Public API has to be documented and can be exported”

Content from Creating Packages

Last updated on 2023-09-15 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 30 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • “How to create a package?”

Objectives

  • “Learn setting up a project using modules.”
  • “Learn common package structure.”
  • “Learn to browse GitHub or juliahub for packages and find documentation.”

Melissa is now confident that her module is fine and she wants to make it available for the rest of her physics club. She decides to put it in a package. This way she can also locally use Julia’s package manager for managing her module.

From project to package

The path from having a module to having a package is actually very short: Packages need a name and a uuid field in their Project.toml.

A UUID is a universally unique identifier. Thankfully Julia comes with the UUIDs package, that can generate uuids for Melissa via UUIDs.uuid4().

In addition Melissa needs to have a specific directory structure. She looks at the example package Example.jl which has the following structure:

├── docs
│   ├── make.jl
│   ├── Project.toml
│   └── src
│       └── index.md
├── LICENSE.md
├── Project.toml
├── README.md
├── src
│   └── Example.jl
└── test
    └── runtests.jl

Make it a package

Open your Project.toml and add name = <your name>, uuid = <your uuid> and optionally an authors field, each on a separate line.

  Generating  project MelissasPackage:
    MelissasPackage/Project.toml
    MelissasPackage/src/MelissasPackage.jl

Now Melissa can use

JULIA 

pkg> dev . # or path to package instead of `.`

instead of needing to includet MelissasModule.jl, and she can write using MelissasModule instead of .using MelissasModule.

Register a package

In order for her friends to be able to get the package, Melissa registers the package in the general registry. This can be done either via JuliaHub or by making a pull request on GitHub which can also be automated by the Julia Registrator.

Creating a new package

Melissa thinks next time she will start with a package right away.

Browsing the packages she found PkgTemplates.jl and PkgSkeleton.jl which makes setting up the typical folder structure very easy.

Create your own package

Look at the documentation of the package creation helper packages and create a new package using generate.

Key Points

  • “The general registry is hosted on GitHub.”
  • “Packaging is easy”

Content from Adding tests

Last updated on 2024-11-15 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 40 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • “What are unit tests?”
  • “How are tests organized in Julia?”

Objectives

  • “Learn to create unit tests and test-sets using the Test standard library”

Unit tests

Now that Melissa has released her first package she fears that future changes will impact the existing functionality of her package. This can be prevented by adding tests to her package.

Looking at the structure of other packages Melissa figured out that tests usually go in a separate test folder next to the src folder. This should contain a runtests.jl file.

The standard library Test provides the functionality for writing tests: namely, the macros @test and @testset.

@test can be used to test a single equality, such as

JULIA 

using Test
@test 1 + 1 == 2

OUTPUT 

Test Passed

Several tests can be grouped in a test-set with a descriptive name

JULIA 

using Test
@testset "Test arithmetic equalities" begin
    @test 1 + 1 == 2
end

OUTPUT 

Test.DefaultTestSet("Test arithmetic equalities", Any[], 1, false, false, true, 1.731669987513481e9, 1.731669987543832e9, false)

With this Melissa can run her test using the pkg mode of the REPL:

JULIA 

(MelissasModule) pkg> test

Test specific dependencies

Melissa needed to add Test to her package in order to run the code above, but actually Test is not needed for her package other than testing. Thus it is possible to move the Test entry in the Project.toml file from [deps] to an [extras] section and then add another entry:

JULIA 

[targets]
test = ["Test"]

Check out the sample project file for a complete example.

Challenge

Create a test for MelissasModule Create a test that ensures that shoot_distance returns a value that is between target - ε and target + ε.

JULIA 

using MelissasModule
using Test

@testset "Test hitting target" begin
   imprecise_trebuchet = Trebuchet(500.0, 0.25pi)
   environment = Environment(5, 100)
   precise_trebuchet = aim(imprecise_trebuchet, environment)
   @test 100 - 0.1 <= shoot_distance(precise_trebuchet, environment) <= 100 + 0.1
   # default ε is 0.1
end

Key Points

  • “Tests are important”

Content from Wrapping Up and Moving Forward

Last updated on 2023-09-15 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 5 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • “What have I accomplished in this tutorial?”
  • “Where can I continue to learn Julia?”
  • “Who else is using Julia in my field?”

Objectives

  • “Review the progress you have made”
  • “Find other Julia resources to use in your own work”

Congratulations! You have taken your first steps in the Julia language

Learning any new programming language can be intimidating, and the learning process is never over. However, finishing this workshop is worth celebrating! To review, you have learned:

  • How to write and run Julia code
  • How to install packages from Julia’s repository
  • How important Types are in Julia and how to handle them
  • How to write if statements, for loops, and functions
  • How to organize code into modules and make sure that code is robust to tests

We hope this is just the beginning of your journey in Julia. Below, we detail some ways you can stay connected with the Julia community, connect with other Julia-users in your field, and find resources for writing your own Julia code.

The Julia Community

As you learn Julia, we encourage you to connect with other users, share questions, and stay involved. Here are a few places you can participate:

  • The JuliaLang Discourse forum is a great place to ask Julia-specific questions, read about new Julia packages, and stay up-to-date on community events

  • The Julia Slack is very active, and people will often respond to questions within minutes

  • Likewise you can connect via the Julia Zulip or discord.

  • It is a good idea to look out for channels called #helpdesk or similar.

  • The official Julia Documentation is a more comprehensive overview of programming in Julia, and a good next step to continue learning

  • JuliaCon is an annual in-person conference of Julia users, but talks are also streamed online

You can also get Julia help on Stack Overflow, as with other coding languages.

Domain-specific Julia Organizations

Julia users have also created domain-specific organizations, to better develop packages for specific fields. These can be a great place to go to learn more about the specific Julia packages available for your work. As just a sample:

And many more that you can explore here!