Glossary¶
A glossary of terms used with pymt. Because pymt is a Python package, more information on many of these terms can be found in the Python Glossary.
- $¶
The default shell prompt.
- >>>¶
The default Python prompt.
- …¶
The Python prompt for interactively entering code in an indeted code block.
- Anaconda¶
A Python distribution that includes libraries for scientific computing and a package manager. See https://www.anaconda.com/distribution for more information.
- Basic Model Interface (BMI)¶
A set a functions that are used to interact with and control a model. See https://bmi.readthedocs.io for more information.
- Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS)¶
CSDMS is an NSF-funded program that seeks to transform the science and practice of earth-surface dynamics modeling. For more information, visit https://csdms.colorado.edu.
- class¶
A program that acts as a template for creating objects.
- conda¶
The package manager for Anaconda. Also an informal name for an Anaconda installation.
- conda-forge¶
A community-led collection of recipes, build infrastructure, and distributions for the conda package manager. See https://conda-forge.org.
- conda environment¶
A conda sub-installation that isolates a group of packages from the main conda installation. See also Conda environments.
- configuration file¶
A file that contains information for setting up a model.
- coupling¶
See model coupling.
- CSDMS¶
- CSDMS Workbench¶
An integrated system of software tools, technologies, and standards for building and coupling models. See https://csdms.colorado.edu/wiki/Workbench for more information.
- data¶
Information held by an object.
- import¶
The process of bringing code from a Python module into another module or into an interactive Python session.
- instance¶
See object.
- Jupyter Notebook¶
Jupyter Notebook is an open-source web application for creating and sharing documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations, and narrative text. See https://jupyter.org/.
- mamba¶
A faster, open-source, alternative to the conda package manager. See https://mamba.readthedocs.io.
- Matplotlib¶
A Python plotting library used in pymt. For more information, see https://matplotlib.org.
- method¶
- model¶
A computer program that attempts to describe a physical process with mathematical relationships that evolve over time and are solved numerically. For more information, see, for example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerical_modeling_(geology).
- model configuration file¶
A file, usually in a text-based format, that lists the tunable parameters of a model and supplies their initial values.
- model coupling¶
Models are coupled when they exchange inputs and outputs, often at the resolution of individual time steps. One-way coupling occurs when the outputs from one model are used as inputs to another model. Two-way coupling is when outputs from one model are used as inputs for another model, which in turn supplies its outputs to the first model as inputs, producing a feedback.
- module¶
A file (with the
.py
extension) that contains Python code.- NumPy¶
A Python library that provides arrays. Outputs from pymt are NumPy arrays. See also http://www.numpy.org.
- object¶
A variable that is a concrete example of a class. Objects have data and methods that act upon those data.
- package¶
A directory of Python modules that contains a package definition file. Packages can be installed into a Python distribution and imported into a Python session. Packages may define subpackages, each with their own package definition file.
- package definition file¶
A file named
__init__.py
that denotes a directory contains a Python package.- Standard Names¶
A semantic mediation technology developed at CSDMS for precisely matching variable names between models. For more information, see https://csdms.colorado.edu/wiki/CSDMS_Standard_Names.
- tarball¶
An archive file that contains several other files, usually compressed.