This vignette discusses key differences with dust version 1. Version
2 of dust is a full rewrite, and some features have moved out of the
package, some have moved in from mcstate
and others have
not yet been implemented.
If you have not used previous versions of dust
and
mcstate
(e.g., via odin.dust
), you do not need
to read this vignette.
Dude, where’s my feature?
Features now found elsewhere:
- The random number generation support is now found in
monty
; this affects very few users.
Features now included:
- The particle filter is now fully implemented in dust, and no longer
part of
mcstate
(nowmonty
)
Not yet implemented:
- GPU compilation (a rewrite is planned for 2025)
- “Restart” a particle filter
- Multi-phase systems (not believed used except
sircovid
)
Change in meaning of time in discrete-time models
Previously, discrete time models used step
to count
steps forward as unsigned integers, usually from zero. Many systems
added a parameter (or constant) dt
representing the
timestep and then a variable time
which represented the
time as a real-valued number. For example you might have dt
of 0.25 and then your system stops at times
[0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1]
for steps
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
. This created a point of difference with
continuous time models, which were (and still are) based on real-valued
time, and was particularly confusing for “mixed time” systems with a mix
of both discrete-time and continuous-time components.
In dust2
, time in all systems is real valued, and starts
at 0 by default, though this can be set on initialisation. For discrete
time models, the default dt
is 1 (though this default can
be changed in the system generator, see
vignette("writing")
), which means that if you never thought
about dt
before you can use dust2
without
thinking any more about this.
New interface
The new interface is completely different, following feedback about the discoverability and documentation of features within the package. We’ve also generally tried to make the functions more self-contained, less magic, and easier to understand. Some lesser-used functions have been removed entirely. We apologise for the inconvenience that this will cause in migrating old code, but unfortunately this cannot be done automatically.
Previously, dust generators were “R6
classes”, which were created using $new()
and then
interacted with using methods (e.g., sys$run()
. In
contrast, dust2
uses free functions to create systems and
to interact with these systems once created.
In this table, consider the dust system sir
, which is
available via dust_example()
in both versions of the
package. In dust 1.0.0 we could allocate a system with 10 particles, set
the initial conditions, run it forward for 20 time units and return the
state matrix by writing:
sir <- dust_example("sir")
sys <- sir$new(pars = list(dt = 1), time = 0, n_particles = 10)
sys$run(10)
And in dust2 we could write
sir <- dust_example("sir")
sys <- dust_system_create(sir, pars = list(), time = 0, n_particles = 10)
dust_system_set_state_initial(sys)
dust_system_run_to_time(sys, 10)
dust_system_state(sys)
## [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6] [,7] [,8] [,9] [,10]
## [1,] 958 954 954 932 979 983 926 953 967 957
## [2,] 26 29 33 50 10 6 52 26 16 25
## [3,] 16 17 13 18 11 11 22 21 17 18
## [4,] 32 36 36 58 11 7 64 37 23 33
## [5,] 4 4 4 8 0 2 11 3 1 3
There are more lines here in version 2, but each is more predictable and it is easier to find documentation.
First the core methods that represent most usage:
Action | dust 1.x.x | dust2 |
---|---|---|
Allocate | $new() |
dust_system_create() (1) |
Run to time | $run() |
dust_system_create() (2) |
Simulate | $simulate() |
dust_system_simulate() |
Update state | $update_state() |
dust_system_set_state() (3) |
dust_system_set_state_initial() |
||
dust_system_set_time() |
||
dust_system_set_pars() |
||
Get state | $state() |
dust_system_state() |
Get time | $time() |
dust_system_time() |
Reorder | $reorder() |
dust_system_reorder() |
Get RNG state | $rng_state() |
dust_system_rng_state() |
Set RNG state | $set_rng_state() |
dust_system_set_rng_state() |
Get last pars | $pars() |
(not yet implemented) |
- No longer set initial conditions into the model
- No longer returns state at the end
- The
$update_state()
method was always too complex
Access to some read-only properties has changed slightly, typically just dropping the function call.
Action | dust 1.x.x | dust2 |
---|---|---|
Get name | $name() |
$name |
State size | $n_state() |
$n_state |
Number of particles | $n_particles() |
$n_particles (1) |
$n_particles_each() |
||
Number of groups | $n_pars() |
$n_groups |
Number of threads | $n_threads() |
$n_threads |
Supports compare | $has_compare() |
$properties$has_compare |
Supports OpenMP | $has_openmp() |
(not yet implemented) |
- Previously, the number of particles was much less well defined
(running multiple groups was always implemented after support for
running a single group).
n_particles
now represents the number of particles per group.
Some less used methods were removed entirely:
-
$shape()
: previously returned the dimension structure among groups. We do not currently support this concept and we do not believe anyone used it. -
$run_adjoint()
: this was to support proof-of-concept calculation of derivatives, which has moved intodust_likelihood_last_gradient()
-
$set_index()
,$index()
: the concept of an “index” was to support efficient running of the particle filter when that was implemented in R in themcstate
package. We had two “indexes” to consider - one for saving trajectories and the other for the comparison to data. With the particle filter now entirely written in C++ this is no longer needed. -
$set_stochastic_schedule()
: we had the concept of a “stochastic schedule” to support mixed time models. This schedule is now set viadt
on construction. -
$resample()
: this existed to debug the particle filter and is no longer needed. -
$info()
: was mostly used to return information about packing of variables within model state. This is now done with “packers”; seedust_unpack_state()
anddust_unpack_index()
-
$has_gpu_support()
,$uses_gpu()
,$get_gpu_info()
: we no longer support any GPU models -
$real_size()
: we no longer encourage running in single precision (this was needed for running on GPUs) -
$rng_algorithm()
: while you can change the random number generation algorithm, typically no-one did -
$set_data()
,$filter()
: these methods existed to support the previous version of the particle filter. Data is no longer set into a system and one would now usedust_filter_create()
ordust_unfilter_create()