SasView version 4.2 - Concepedia

Abstract

New in Version 4.2.0 -------------------- This release heralds many improvements and a host of bug fixes, along with some significant changes from previous versions. Further, as promised, it marks the end of support for 32 bit operating systems and is only available for 64 bit operating systems. With this version the change to the new model API and plugins infrastructure begun with 4.0 is essentially complete (though extensions are in the works, and more are likely, they should remain backwardly compatible with previous versions of SasView). Old-style plugin models, including old sum|multiply models, continue to be supported (i.e. SasView will run them) in 4.x, although our automatic on-the-fly translation may not cope in all use cases (see Known Issues below). However, this backward compatibility will be removed in 5.0 and users are therefore strongly encouraged to convert their custom models to the new API. Finally, the changes to orientation angles and orientational distribution definitions are now also complete. Changes ------- * The infrastucture for calculating 2D patterns from 3D orientated objects has been totally re-factored. It is now more accurate and consistent across models. * The way that SasView defines the orientation of anisometric and aligned objects has been completely overhauled. It now differs from previous versions. * Plugin models, including sum|multiply models, have completely migrated to the new infrastructure. NOTE that 3.x type models as well as early, intermediate 4.x type models, including those generated by sum|multiply will continue to be supported in 4.x but will likely no longer be supported after the move to 5.0. Users are strongly encouraged to migrate any custom models. * The NeXus loader has been removed as it is superseded by the NXcanSAS standard loader and SasView does not support the treatment of raw data. Improvements ------------ * The accuracy/speed of some numerical integrations have been improved. * An orientation viewer tool has been introduced to assist in understanding the new orientation framework. * Problems with the computation of magnetic scattering from some objects have been rectified. Some questions remain however. * The known issue with the core_shell_parallelepiped model is now fixed. * An error in the be_polyelectrolyte model was identified and rectified, but the fix is yet to be validated. * A number of issues and inconsistencies with the creation of sum|multiply models have been rectified. * A Boltzmann distribution has been added for polydispersity/orientational distributions. * Some batch slicing options have been introduced. * Correlation function analysis now computes both the 1D and 3D functions. * There are several data loading improvements. * There are several improvements to Save/Load Project. * The SasView version number now appears in Reports. * The Release Notes are now available from the program Help menu. * There have been numerous other bug fixes. Documentation ------------- Several sections of the help documentation have undergone significant checking and updating, particularly those relating to orientation, magnetic scattering, and polydispersity distributions. Detailed advanced instructions for plugin writing and some scripting instructions have also been added. Concerns about the intended versus implemented meaning of some parameters in the bcc_paracrystal, fcc_paracrystal, and sc_paracrystal models have been brought to our attention. These have yet to be resolved and so a Warning has been placed on each of these models. Anyone who feels they may have the requisite expertise to investigate these concerns is strongly encouraged to contact the Developers! Other Work ---------- * A Third-Party initiative has recently succeeded in getting SasView to run on Debian. More details at http://trac.sasview.org/wiki/DevNotes/Projects/Debian * With this release we have started to prepare for the inevitable move to Python 3, which will occur with the release of 5.0 * SasView 5.0 is currently in development. The two most significant features of this version will be (i) a move away from the present WxPython GUIs to new, completely rewritten, Qt5 GUIs, and (ii)implementation of the Beta-approximation for S(Q). Subject to resources, some limited access to the latter functionality may be available in a future SasView 4.x release. Bug Fixes --------- * Fixes # 14: Loading a saved project is really really slow * Fixes # 260: Box integration does not update when entering values in dialog * Fixes # 446: Saving plot as PGF (not PDF!) format throws error * Fixes # 467: Extend batch functionality to slicer * Fixes # 489: ABS reader (NIST 1D) does not handle negative dx properly (USANS slit smearing) * Fixes # 499: create sin(x)/x, 2*J1(x)/x and 3*j1(x)/x functions * Fixes # 510: Build PDF documentation along with HTML * Fixes # 525: Add GUI category defaults to models in sasmodels * Fixes # 579: clean up sasview directory * Fixes # 597: Need to document Combine Batch Fit * Fixes # 645: GUI logic problem in Batch vs single fit mode * Fixes # 648: Need to allow user input background value in Pr perspective * Fixes # 685: Fix data upload to marketplace * Fixes # 695: linear slope in onion model * Fixes # 735: Review new Corfunc documentation * Fixes # 741: Recalculate P(Q) and S(Q) components on model update. * Fixes # 767: Sum/Product Models don't do what they should * Fixes # 776: angular dispersity * Fixes # 784: Add 3D integral to Correlation Function analysis * Fixes # 786: core_shell_parallelepiped 1-D model is incorrect * Fixes # 818: report button followed by save makes an empty pdf file??? * Fixes # 830: Check compliance of loader against NXcanSAS-1.0 release * Fixes # 838: Fix model download from marketplace * Fixes # 848: can't save analysis when only one fit page * Fixes # 849: Load Folder should ignore files starting with . * Fixes # 852: More unit tests, especially for oriented or 2d models * Fixes # 854: remove unnecessary sleep() in fitting perspective * Fixes # 856: Reading SAS_OPENCL from custom_config sometimes raises an ERROR * Fixes # 861: cannot defined a structure factor plugin * Fixes # 864: New Model Editor (simple plugin editor) error parsing parameter line * Fixes # 865: Plugin live discovery issues * Fixes # 866: inform user when NaN is returned from compute * Fixes # 869: fit page computation thread cleanup * Fixes # 875: Possible weirdness with 1D NXcanSAS data * Fixes # 876: Add check for HDF5 format in dataloader * Fixes # 887: reorganize tree, separating the installed source from the build source * Fixes # 889: Refactor dataloader error handling infrastructure * Fixes # 890: use new orientation definition for asymmetric shapes * Fixes # 891: update docs for oriented shapes with new orientation definition * Fixes # 896: equations in core shell parallelepiped docs do not match code * Fixes # 898: Image Viewer Tool file selector issue * Fixes # 899: Igor Reader q calculation * Fixes # 902: IgorReader Q calculation needs fixing/improving * Fixes # 903: sasview - all non-gui tests should be converted to run in Python 3 * Fixes # 906: polydispersity not showing up in tabulated results * Fixes # 912: About box points to misleading contributors page on Github * Fixes # 913: Need to add Diamond developer and logo in relevant places * Fixes # 915: load project issues * Fixes # 916: Proper Logging * Fixes # 920: Logarithmic binning option in the slice viewer * Fixes # 921: Improve developer communication methods * Fixes # 922: Remove support for all data formats that are not in q space * Fixes # 923: Add CI and trac integrations to Slack * Fixes # 930: fitting help says chisq is normalized to number of points * Fixes # 931: Allow admins to edit all models and upload data etc on marketplace * Fixes # 932: Need to fix upload of data files to marketplace * Fixes # 934: Slurp tutorial repo for tutorials * Fixes # 935: Build new tutorials as PDF * Fixes # 943: Deep copy error on setting model after data is selected * Fixes # 950: Most of the readers don't close files properly. * Fixes # 954: cross check dll/opencl/python polydispersity and orientation results * Fixes # 956: Possible problem with new doc build process * Fixes # 961: sasmodels tests should fail if the parameter name does not exist * Fixes # 962: star polymer typo in docs * Fixes # 966: Inconsistent chi2 reporting * Fixes # 967: no uncertainties errors on fitting parameters * Fixes # 969: About Box not picking up dls_logo.png * Fixes # 970: ASCII loader doesn't handle ISIS 2D ASCII * Fixes # 974: blacklist Intel HD 620/630 for double precision * Fixes # 978: load project fails for pages which have not been defined * Fixes # 983: Remove Nexus Loader * Fixes # 984: PDF reports are not being properly generated on Windows * Fixes # 985: Saving Project Fails * Fixes # 986: Send to fitting overwrites theory page even if blank FitPage has focus * Fixes # 990: utest_sasview.py giving different results than run_one.py * Fixes # 993: Windows x64 versions not installing to correct folder * Fixes # 994: Error changing fit engine * Fixes # 995: OpenCL required on Linux even if turned off in GUI * Fixes #1006: multiplicity models don't work with SQ * Fixes #1007: spherical_sld model freezes SasView * Fixes #1008: plugin model scaling not working? * Fixes #1010: Win64 build script not creating working executable * Fixes #1011: sld_test failing on ubuntu * Fixes #1013: FileReaderBaseClass output[] not reset - same file loaded multiple times * Fixes #1018: add Boltzman