Jacob Hummel edited Framework.tex  about 8 years ago

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\section{A Framework built on pandas}  \label{framework}  There are several motivations for building an analysis framework around the \code{pandas DataFrame}.  The guiding principle underlying the design of this framework is to enable exploratory investigation.  This requires both intelligent memory management for handling out-of-core datasets, and a robust indexing system to ensure that particle properties do not become misaligned in memory. There are several motivations for building an analysis framework around Using  the \code{pandas.DataFrame}.   Most important, \code{pandas DataFrame} as the primary data container rather than separate \code{numpy} arrays makes it much easier to keep different particle properties indexed correctly while still affording the flexibility to load and remove data from memory at will.  In addition,  \code{pandas} itself is a thoroughly documented, open-source, BSD-licensed library providing high-performance, easy-to-use data structures and analysis tools, and has a strong community of developers working to improve it. Secondly, More broadly,  as \code{pandas} is becoming the de-facto standard for data analysis in python, doing so simplifies interoperability with the rest of the tools provided by the broader scientific python ecosystem.Finally, using \code{pandas.DataFrame} as the primary data container rather than \code{numpy} arrays makes it much easier to keep different particle properties indexed correctly while still affording the flexibility to load and remove data from memory at will.