parameters 0.2.1

We consider it to be best practice to cleanly separate the parameters of a model from the model itself. At the least, parameters should be defined in a separate section at the start of a file. Ideally, they should be defined in a separate file entirely. This makes version control easier, since the model code typically changes less often than the parameters, and makes it easier to track a simulation project, since the parameter sets can be stored in a database, displayed in a GUI, etc.

The Parameters package provides Python classes to make it easier to work with parameter sets for complex models. In particular it provides tools for

• working with parameters for models that have a deep hierarchical structure;

• specifying that a parameter value should be drawn from a random distribution;

• specifying a range of values, for example for performing a sensitivity analysis;

• specifying the physical dimensions and range of permissible values of parameters;

• defining and iterating over multiple points in a parameter space;

• validation of parameter sets against a pre-defined schema.