Contributor Guide

You can contribute to this package even if you not are very good with coding with Julia.

Reporting Bugs and other Issues

The easiest and most common way to improve this package is simply by using it and reporting any unexpected behavior! You can use the DynamicalSystems.jl Issues page or, if you think it is something minor not worth opening an issue, just come over to our gitter chatroom and let us know what the problem is.

Contributing New Methods and Algorithms

The ultimate goal for DynamicalSystems.jl is to be a useful tool for scientists working on chaos, nonlinear dynamics and in general dynamical systems.

For such a feat to be accomplished, many different methods across this interdisciplinary field have to be not only implemented but suggested in the first place!

For a something to be implemented in this package, the following steps have to happen:

  1. A suggestion that a method should be included has to be brought upon notice of the developers. Since the current amount of developers actively maintaining the package is small, so is the amount of knowledge of important methods.
  2. An algorithm that describes how the method will be implemented has to be formulated. This algorithm most probably already exist in the papers that first introduce the method, however it may not be trivial to transform this algorithm from a mathematical abstraction to something realistic and applicable in a computational manner.
  3. The source code for the above has to be implemented in Julia. In general, the speed of the implementation is important, but not as important as the reliability of the implementation.

It is clear that one can contribute to DynamicalSystems.jl by contributing in steps (1) and (2). Neither of those require any hardcore coding knowledge with Julia.

For step (1), you can open a new issue at the DynamicalSystems.jl Issues page. All issues that refer methods that we would want to have in our package are labeled as "wanted_feature". You can view the current wanted features here and see for yourself if you can contribute to some of them!

If you have any idea about how to improve this package please do not hesitate to join our chatroom and share your ideas!

Examples of new things you could contribute

  • Any method that calculates a quantity that has been used in at least one scientific (and peer-reviewed) journal.
  • Any kind of new Type of Dynamical system, provided it is also used in research. If you do want to make something like this, please make it a subtype of DynamicalSystem. I have created the discrete and continuous general types, but more specialized types would allow for specialized methods.
  • Any kind of existing discrete or continuous system that have been used in published literature at least once and you find it useful (put this in the famous_systems.jl file).

Notice that the above are not conclusive, but only examples!

How you should contribute code

Code should be contributed to the appropriate repository, e.g. DynamicalSystemsBase.jl, ChaosTools.jl etc.. Recall that the repository of DynamicalSystems.jl is mainly a documentation host.

  • For new methods and systems please follow the convention of the documentation strings (do e.g. ?lyapunov to see how they are structured).
  • Have enough comments in your code so that somebody that knows the method, can also understand the code immediately.
  • Always have a reference to the original work that first introduces the method or the system that you are using. You should put this reference to the main function's documentation string. See the existing documentation strings and do it in an identical manner.

When enhancing already existing code, make sure to:

  • Have enough comments at parts that are not easily understood, so that somebody else may continue your work in the future.