Broadcasting and operations on different Field types about oceananigans.jl HOT 5 CLOSED

Maybe we should take a step back and think about what our goal is? What do we want from this system? Will this simplify the MITgcm algorithm?

from oceananigans.jl.

I think broadcasting for same-field operators, e.g. CellField .+ CellField would be really useful and make the code more readable. The simplification here is fewer loops to look at which is a big plus I think.

But cross-field broadcasting is a bit trickier so might be better to leave it unimplemented especially as it's not a very common operation, I only use it when adding f .* v to Gu or f .* u to Gv. Without it you would have to explicitly write u .+ avgx(avgy(v)) so if you forget it then it might make finding the bug a bit harder. With it, you can just write u .+ v with the averaging happening behind the scenes, so you might apply it by mistake without realizing it. Another potentially difficult bug to find.

I feel like everyone has a different opinion on this but in my mind, I'm thinking this would make the code easier to read and write (short-term), and ultimately easier to extend by users (long-term).

I just sometimes use issues leave random TODO notes and ramble.

from oceananigans.jl.

Will not implement cross-field operations for now, e.g. FaceFieldX .+ CellField. Too complex and rarely used.

from oceananigans.jl.

Reopening as this is becoming relevant for online diagnostics which may need a lot of these operations. E.g. w*T as @glwagner points out.

from oceananigans.jl.

This was resolved in PR #463.

from oceananigans.jl.