[ImageJ-devel] Massive change of imglib merged into master

[Stephan Preibisch]

Hi everybody,

the massive changes Saalfeld and me did during the Hackathon are now
officially pushed to master. Most of the changes are not visible, only the
new hierarchy of numeric values:

NumericType <- ComplexType <- RealType <- IntegerType

Typically you can make your stuff running again by changing NumericType to
RealType...
and
OutsideStrategy is now OutOfBoundsStrategy
And
CubeContainer is now CellContainer

I just want to comment on the idea behind it, for that I attach a document
that shows my Skype discussion with Albert for now who had to adapt his code
for the new structure ... I think that conversation was not so bad as Albert
points out at the end :)

Have fun,
Stephan & Stephan

[4/13/2010 3:39:24 AM] Albert Cardona: Stephan
[4/13/2010 3:39:29 AM] Albert Cardona: generics issues with imglib
[4/13/2010 3:39:39 AM] Albert Cardona: can you check your email? I am stuck
in a huge code mess because of it
[4/13/2010 3:39:49 AM] Albert Cardona: would help me move on
[4/13/2010 3:41:52 AM] Stephan Preibisch: hi albert
[4/13/2010 3:42:09 AM] Stephan Preibisch: this is the new numeric type
structure we did in heidelberg
[4/13/2010 3:42:13 AM] Albert Cardona: sure
[4/13/2010 3:42:17 AM] Albert Cardona: and how is it used?
[4/13/2010 3:42:29 AM] Stephan Preibisch: NumericType <- ComplexType <-
RealType <- IntegerType
[4/13/2010 3:42:31 AM] Albert Cardona: is it documented somewhere? I need to
adapt two classes from old to new
[4/13/2010 3:42:46 AM] Stephan Preibisch: simply replace NumericType with <T
extends RealType<T>
[4/13/2010 3:42:49 AM] Albert Cardona: ij3d.ImgLibVolume and Jean Yves'
[4/13/2010 3:42:59 AM] Albert Cardona: ok
[4/13/2010 3:43:00 AM] Stephan Preibisch: <T extends NumericType<T> with <T
extends RealType<T>
[4/13/2010 3:43:00 AM] Albert Cardona: doing that
[4/13/2010 3:43:53 AM] Stephan Preibisch: and for the ShapeContainer
[4/13/2010 3:43:55 AM] Albert Cardona: so ComplexType is not a RealType
[4/13/2010 3:44:06 AM] Stephan Preibisch: no it is not
[4/13/2010 3:44:15 AM] Stephan Preibisch: RealType is a specialization of
ComplexType
[4/13/2010 3:44:19 AM] Albert Cardona: ok
[4/13/2010 3:44:26 AM] Stephan Preibisch: OutsideStrategy
[4/13/2010 3:44:33 AM] Stephan Preibisch: is now OutOfBoundsStrategy
[4/13/2010 3:44:39 AM] Albert Cardona: I saw it
[4/13/2010 3:45:30 AM] Albert Cardona: thanks
[4/13/2010 3:45:39 AM] Stephan Preibisch: no problem :)
[4/13/2010 3:45:47 AM] Albert Cardona: so RealType doesn't have a getReal()
now?
[4/13/2010 3:45:52 AM] Albert Cardona: so what does it have to get a float?
[4/13/2010 3:45:58 AM] Stephan Preibisch: getRealFloat()
[4/13/2010 3:46:06 AM] Stephan Preibisch: or getRealDouble()
[4/13/2010 3:46:06 AM] Albert Cardona: ugh
[4/13/2010 3:46:09 AM] Albert Cardona: that's ugly
[4/13/2010 3:46:20 AM] Albert Cardona: getFloat and getDouble would do no?
[4/13/2010 3:46:22 AM] Stephan Preibisch: no, necessary as Java does not
distinguish
[4/13/2010 3:46:45 AM] Stephan Preibisch: for setting it works without
testing
[4/13/2010 3:47:01 AM] Stephan Preibisch: we did not want to enforce to
having to compute with Doubles
[4/13/2010 3:47:10 AM] Albert Cardona: I just complain about the names
[4/13/2010 3:47:12 AM] Albert Cardona: so long
[4/13/2010 3:47:15 AM] Albert Cardona: and redundant
[4/13/2010 3:47:17 AM] Stephan Preibisch: no
[4/13/2010 3:47:22 AM] Albert Cardona: a Float is a Real, so why
getRealFloat?
[4/13/2010 3:47:34 AM] Stephan Preibisch: because there is also a
getRealComplex()
[4/13/2010 3:47:39 AM] Albert Cardona: is like saying getRealFloatNumber
[4/13/2010 3:47:45 AM] Stephan Preibisch: getComplexFloat()
[4/13/2010 3:47:52 AM] Stephan Preibisch: getRealFloat()
[4/13/2010 3:47:55 AM] Albert Cardona: uf
[4/13/2010 3:48:05 AM] Albert Cardona: very verbose, but whatever
[4/13/2010 3:48:11 AM] Albert Cardona: is not like I can change it
[4/13/2010 3:48:30 AM] Stephan Preibisch: but getFloat() is not clear
[4/13/2010 3:48:40 AM] Stephan Preibisch: if it is the complex or the real
part
[4/13/2010 3:49:29 AM] Albert Cardona: getComplexFloat returns what?
[4/13/2010 3:49:33 AM] Albert Cardona: a Complex number?
[4/13/2010 3:49:37 AM] Albert Cardona: or just the complex part of the
float?
[4/13/2010 3:50:05 AM] Stephan Preibisch: the idea is ( how it really is )
[4/13/2010 3:50:18 AM] Stephan Preibisch: a real number is also a complex
number
[4/13/2010 3:50:22 AM] Stephan Preibisch: a subset of it
[4/13/2010 3:50:29 AM] Albert Cardona: hum yes
[4/13/2010 3:50:29 AM] Albert Cardona: true
[4/13/2010 3:50:31 AM] Stephan Preibisch: RealType extends ComplexType
[4/13/2010 3:50:51 AM] Albert Cardona: so getComplexFloat returns 0 for just
real numbers.
[4/13/2010 3:51:02 AM] Stephan Preibisch: exactly
[4/13/2010 3:51:02 AM] Albert Cardona: i..e the complex part is o * i
[4/13/2010 3:51:06 AM] Stephan Preibisch: yes
[4/13/2010 3:51:09 AM] Albert Cardona: ok
[4/13/2010 3:51:12 AM] Albert Cardona: got ti
[4/13/2010 3:51:20 AM] Stephan Preibisch: and the math you write for complex
stuff is still correct and works
[4/13/2010 3:51:29 AM] Albert Cardona: xD
[4/13/2010 3:51:35 AM] Albert Cardona: generic image library indeed.
[4/13/2010 3:51:46 AM] Stephan Preibisch: so math for complex numbers should
work on real numbers
[4/13/2010 3:51:50 AM] Stephan Preibisch: and it does
[4/13/2010 3:52:04 AM] Stephan Preibisch: it is just a specialization
[4/13/2010 3:52:15 AM] Stephan Preibisch: and integerType is even more
specialized
[4/13/2010 3:52:38 AM] Stephan Preibisch: but you can still treat it like a
real type
[4/13/2010 3:52:55 AM] Stephan Preibisch: it will just not be stored with
high precision
[4/13/2010 3:53:06 AM] Albert Cardona: woah
[4/13/2010 3:53:13 AM] Albert Cardona: be sure to document all that :)
[4/13/2010 3:53:18 AM] Albert Cardona: it's good, but it's also a gotcha
[4/13/2010 3:53:31 AM] Stephan Preibisch: by that, a gaussian convolution
for example is written for RealType
[4/13/2010 3:53:51 AM] Stephan Preibisch: and works on Integer Types as
well, computing with Doubles internally but saving as ints
[4/13/2010 3:55:00 AM] Stephan Preibisch: but there is still some
documentation needed indeed 
[4/13/2010 3:55:49 AM] Albert Cardona: lots of :)
[4/13/2010 3:55:56 AM] Albert Cardona: the above explanations were very
clear Stephan
[4/13/2010 3:56:00 AM] Albert Cardona: just copy paste them to the wiki :)