General utilities

Common routines for Colossus modules.

Module contents

printLine()	Print a line to the console.
getHomeDir()	Finds the home directory on this system.
getCodeDir()	Returns the path to this code file.
isArray(var)	Tests whether a variable is iterable or not.
getArray(var)	Convert a variable to a numpy array, whether it already is one or not.
safeLog(x)	Natural log with check for overrun.
safeExp(x)	Natural exp with check for overrun.

Module reference

utils.utilities.max_float_exp = 100.0

Highest exponent that is safe for the log/exp functions in numpy. Overflows can occur when higher exponentials are called.

utils.utilities.printLine()

Print a line to the console.

utils.utilities.parseVersionString(version_str)

Parse a version string into numbers.

There are more official functions to parse version numbers that use regular expressions and can handle more formats according to PEP 440. Since Colossus versions are always composed of three numbers and no letters, we implement a comparison manually to avoid needing to include non-standard libraries.

Parameters

version_str: str

The version string to be converted.

Returns

nums: array_like

A list of the three version numbers.

utils.utilities.versionIsOlder(v1, v2)

Compare two version strings.

Parameters

v1: str

A version string.

v2: str

A second version string.

Returns

is_older: bool

True if v2 is older than v1, False otherwise.

utils.utilities.getHomeDir()

Finds the home directory on this system.

Returns

pathstring

The home directory, or None if home cannot be found.

utils.utilities.getCodeDir()

Returns the path to this code file.

Returns

path: string

The code directory.

utils.utilities.isArray(var)

Tests whether a variable is iterable or not.

Parameters

var: array_like

Variable to be tested.

Returns

is_array: boolean

Whether var is a numpy array or not.

utils.utilities.getArray(var)

Convert a variable to a numpy array, whether it already is one or not.

Parameters

var: array_like

Variable to be converted to an array.

Returns

var_ret: numpy array

A numpy array with one or more entries.

is_array: boolean

Whether var is a numpy array or not.

utils.utilities.safeLog(x)

Natural log with check for overrun.

This function checks whether any elements in a given numpy array are larger than the maximum (positive or negative) exponent. If so, the corresponding elements are set to the min and max floats that are allowed.

Parameters

x: array_like

Variable to be taken the log of.

Returns

log: array_like

Log of x

utils.utilities.safeExp(x)

Natural exp with check for overrun.

This function checks whether any elements in a given numpy array are larger than the maximum (positive or negative) exponent. If so, the corresponding elements are set to the min and max floats that are allowed.

Parameters

x: array_like

Variable to be taken the exponential of.

Returns

log: array_like

Exponential of x