Known issues: https://github.com/PredictiveEcology/SpaDES.core/issues

version 1.0.0
=============

## new features

* several efforts made to reduce memory leaks over long simulations; if memory leaks are a problem, setting `options('spades.recoveryMode' = 0)` may further help
* Updates to deal with new backend with `reproducible`
* better assertions inside list elements of `simInit`, e.g., `simInit(times = list(start = "test"))` now fails because times must be a list of 2 `numeric` objects
* messaging is now all with `message` instead of a mixture of `message`, `cat` and `print`. This allows for easier suppressing of messaging, e.g., via `suppressMessages`. This was requested in a downstream package, `SpaDES.experiment` that was submitted to CRAN but rejected due to the now former inability to suppress messages.

## dependencies

* moved packages from Imports to Suggests: `codetools`, `future`, `httr`, `logging`, and `tcltk`
* removed `archivist`

## deprecated

`.objSizeInclEnviros` and removed

## bug fixes

* removed mention of 'demo' from intro vignette (#110)
* `objectSynonyms` caused a breakage under some conditions related to recovering a module from `Cache`.

version 0.2.8
=============

## new features

* Changed all internal `print` and `cat` statements to message to allow use of `suppressMessages`, as recommended by CRAN
* added file based logging via `logging` package, invoked by setting `debug` argument in `spades` function call to a `list(...)`. `?spades` describes details

## bug fixes

* `restartR` minor bug fixes

version 0.2.7
=============

## dependencies

* Removed dependency packages `DEoptim`, `future.apply`, `Matrix`, `parallel`, `pryr`, `purrr`, and `rgenoud`, which are no longer required.
  See "deprecated" info below.
* added `whisker` to Imports to facilitate module file templating (#100)

## new features

* memory and peak memory estimation is now available for *nix-type systems, when `future` is installed.
  See new vignette `iv-advanced` and `?memoryUse`.
* new function and capacity: `restartR`.
  Restarts R mid-stream to deal with apparent memory leaks in R.
  In our experience with large projects that have long time horizons, there appears to be a memory leak at a low level in R (identified here: <https://github.com/r-lib/fastmap>).
  This has prevented projects from running to completion. Without diagnosing the root cause of the memory inflation, we have noticed that interrupting a simulation, saving the simList, restarting R, resets the memory consumption back to levels near the start of a simulation.
  The new functionality allows a user who is hitting this memory leak issue to restart R as a work around.
  See `?restartR` for instructions.
* new function `newProject` to initialize a SpaDES project with subdirectories `cache/`, `inputs/`, `modules/`, and `outputs/`, and `setPaths()` accordingly.

## bug fixes

* `newModule()` now uses `open = interactive()` as default to prevent files being left open during tests.
* various bug fixes and improvements.

## deprecated

* `experiment()`, `experiment2()`, and `POM()` have been moved to the `SpaDES.experiment` package

version 0.2.6
=============

## dependencies

* R 3.5.0 is the minimum version required for `SpaDES.core`.
  Too many dependency packages are not maintaining their backwards compatibility.
* added `backports` to Imports for R-oldrel support
* removed `googledrive` dependency (this functionality moved to `reproducible`)

## documentation

* improved documentation for `P`, `params`, and `parameters`, thanks to Louis-Etienne Robert.

## new features

* update `objSize.simList` method with 2 new arguments from `reproducible` package
* `.robustDigest` method for `simList` class objects now does only includes parameters that are listed within the module metadata, if `Cache` or `.robustDigest` is called within a module. This means that changes to parameter values in "other" modules will not affect the Caching of "the current" module.
* New function `outputObjectNames` will extract just the object names of all `outputObjects` across modules
* New function `restartSpades` and its associated `options(spades.recoveryMode = 1)`, the new default, which is still experimental. Its purpose is to be able to restart a simulation in the case of an error or interruption. 
* Now gives better errors if modules are missing main .R file or if they are missing entirely 
* More silent tests
* `mod` is now an active binding to `sim[[currentModule(sim)]]$.objects` (move from `sim[[currentModule(sim)]]`) and its parent environment is `emptyenv()`. This should cause no changes to users who use `mod$...`, but it will cause a change if user was calling objects directly via `sim[[currentModule(sim)]]$...`. This change is to separate the function enclosing environments and object enclosing environments, which should be different.
* `sim@completed` is now an environment instead of a list. Of the three event queues, this one can become the largest. The `list` would get increasingly slow as the number of completed events increased. There should be no user visible changes when using `completed(sim)`

## User visible changes to default options

`spades.debug` is now set to 1
`spades.recoveryMode` is new and set to 1 (i.e., the current event will be kept at its initial state)

## bug fixes

* Internal bugs during `simInit` especially in some weird cases of `childModules`.
* packages listed in `reqdPkgs` not being loaded when only listed in child modules. Fixed in `5cd79ac95bc8d190e954313f125928458b0108d2`.
* fixed issue with saving simulation outputs at simulation end time.

version 0.2.5
=============

* improved messaging and fixed test failures when GLPK installed but not used by `igraph`
* compatibility with `RandomFields` >= 3.3.4

version 0.2.4
=============

## package dependencies

* `archivist` and `devtools` added to Suggests because they are used in vignettes
* minimium `reproducible` version 0.2.6

## new features

* new vignette on caching `SpaDES` simulations moved from `SpaDES` package.
* `simList` environment now has `emptyenv()` as its `parent.env`. The biggest user-facing changes are:
  
    - functions placed in the `envir(sim)` (unusual, but may occur) won't find objects in the `.GlobalEnv`;
    - lighter memory footprint, as functions take RAM due to the objects in the `parent.env` in which they are defined (little know fact identified here: http://adv-r.had.co.nz/memory.html#gc identified as a possible source of memory leaks).

* module's function environment in the simList now has its parent `asNamespace("SpaDES.core")` instead of the `envir(sim)` (as mentioned above), i.e,. `parent.env(sim[[currentModule(sim)]])` is `asNamespace("SpaDES.core")`. The main user-noticeable changes of this are that module functions will not accidentally find objects in the `simList` unless they are actually passed in explicitly as arguments.
* New active binding, `mod` that works as a module-specific variable, similar to a private object, *i.e.*, `mod$a` is a local object inside the module that persists across events. It is a pointer to `sim[[currentModule(sim)]]$a`
* New function `scheduleConditionalEvent`, which allows an event to be scheduled based on a condition. Still experimental.
* An experimental new function and feature, `objectSynonyms`, which will create active bindings of two names to a single object
* User can now specify `modulePath` as a character vector, e.g., `simInit(..., paths = list(modulePath = c(".", "test")))`. This means that a user can organize the modules in different locations.
* `modulePath` now has a new argument, `module`, where user can specify (a) specific module(s)'s path. Modifications were implemented to `dataPath` to utilize this new feature
* `simInit` and `spades` now call `setPaths(paths)` or `setPaths(sim$paths)`, unsetting them `on.exit` internally to make the paths used for functions e.g., `reproducible::Cache` to use the correct path
* under-the-hood speed improvements for the DES (about 20% faster) -- 38 microseconds per event under ideal conditions
* improved default path settings in `.inputObjects` (#83)
* following `reproducible` package updates, now uses `data.table::setattr` internally to avoid copying of
objects (this may have very little/no effect on simList objects)
* `suppliedElsewhere` has a new argument, `returnWhere`, a logical which will cause a logical of length 3 to be returned, indicating in which of the 3 other places the object may have been supplied, instead of length 1, still the default.

## bug fixes

* fix to work with latest `data.table` v1.12.0 (#85, @mattdowle)
* several minor, including to `Copy` (error existed because function inheritance persisted even though the location of the function was moved)

version 0.2.3
=============

## package dependencies

* add `RandomFields` to Suggests, as it is in the Suggests of `SpaDES.tools` and used in examples/tests.

## new features

* new option and default setting: `options("spades.saveSimOnExit" = TRUE)`. This will save the state of the `simList` to an object as `SpaDES.core:::.pkgEnv$.sim`, with a message, if there is a hard exist. There is virtually no computational cost to this, as the object is already in RAM.
* `simList` internals changed. It now inherits from `environment`. Amongst other things, this means that tab autocomplete in RStudio now works for objects in the `simList`. Also, we removed several associated methods, `$`, `[[`, `ls`, `ls.str`, `objects`, as the defaults for environments work correctly with the `simList` now
* `debug` arg in `spades` call can now take numeric, currently 1 or 2, giving a few pre-packaged informative messaging each event
* new function `elapsedTime` which gives a summary of the clock time used by each module or event
* most metadata entries now have accessor of same name, e.g., inputObjects(sim) returns the inputObjects data.frame.
* new function `citation` replaces `utils::citation` with an S4 generic. If `package` arg is a `character`, it dispatches `utils::citation`; if a `simList`, it gives the citation for the module(s)
* improved messaging when GLPK not installed (*e.g.*, on macOS)
* `downloadModule()` now prints the module version downloaded (#77)
* 

## bug fixes

* resolved `.inputObjects()` name conflict (internal `.inputObjects` renamed to `._inputObjectsDF`; `.outputObjects` renamed to `._outputObjectsDF`)
* module `.inputObjects` evaluated based on module load order (#72)
* `.robustDigest` fix for simLists -- needed to omit `._startClockTime` and `.timestamp`

version 0.2.2
=============

## package dependencies

* remove `sp` from imports

## new features

* none

## bug fixes

* fix issues with failing tests on macOS

version 0.2.1
=============

## package dependencies

* requires new version of `reproducible` (>=0.2.2)

## new features

* new option `spades.useRequire`: a logical which causes `simInit` to load packages with `Require` or `require`. Lower case is generally faster, but will not handle the case of uninstalled packages, so should only be used once all packages are installed.
*    - * new option `spades.keepCompleted`: a logical which causes `spades()` to keep (`TRUE`) or not keep a record of completed events. Keeping track of completed events when they are many (>1e5) gets slow enough that it may be worth turning it off.

* more robust and faster tests are used now, care of helper functions in `tests`
* `all.equal.simList` now removes all time dependent attributes, *e.g.*, `._startClockTime` and `.timestamp`
* speed enhancements for Discrete Event Simulator; now overhead is 1.3 seconds for 5000 events or, per event, 260 microseconds (185 microseconds if `options("spades.keepCompleted" = FALSE)`

## bug fixes

* Improvements to caching of functions with `simList` objects:

    - Cached functions with a `simList` in the arguments would erroneously return cached copies of functions. These now are copied through from argument `simList`, rather than cached `simList`. This means that changes to the function definitions in a module will persist (e.g., debugging via `browser()` will work correctly)
    - functions with `simList` in arguments that return a `simList` will now do a post digest of the output. This will be compared with the predigest, and only those object which changed in the `simList` will be modified.
    - caching of `.inputObjects` function was incorrect. Fixed.

version 0.2.0
=============

## new features

* module metadata now in *named* lists inside `depends(sim)`
* new debugging -- if debug is not `FALSE`, then any error will trigger a `browser()` call inside the event function. User can continue (`c`) or quit (`Q`) as per normal. `c` will trigger a reparse and events will continue as scheduled.
* introduction of code checking for modules, currently turned on or off by an option `spades.moduleCodeChecks`, which is `TRUE` by default. Code checking includes various types:
    
    - use `codetools` to check for various code problems
    - detects conflicts with known common functions (`raster::level`, `raster::scale`, `quickPlot::Plot`)
    - use `checkCodeEnv` on every function inside a module
    - checking for `sim$xxx` occurrences in modules, comparing to `outputObjects` in metadata if used in assignment (i.e., left hand side of assign operator), or comparing to `inputObjects` if used on the right hand side
    - check that all objects declared in `inputObjects` have default values assigned in the `.inputObjects` function
    - messages colour coded, and separated by file with absolute path explicit
    
* option `spades.debug` set to `TRUE` by default, instead of `FALSE`. This is better for new users.
* `moduleMetadata` argument order changed, so `sim` is first, more consistent with all other `simList` accessors.
* `downloadData` has changed dramatically, now it is a wrapper around `reproducible::prepInputs` which does more checking.
* `extractURL` will extract the sourceURL from metadata, given an object name.
* `makeMemoiseable` and `unmakeMemoisable`, new methods, each the inverse of the other, to deal with imperfect memoised returns under some cases of `simList`.
* new option, `spades.keepCompleted`, `TRUE` by default, which can be useful for dramatically speeding up the DES when there are many (>10,000) events.

## deprecated, defunct, and removed features

* remove `fileExt` -- use `tools::file_ext` instead

## bug fixes

* fix tests based on `data.table` changes (@mattdowle, #64).
* re-export `start` and `end`.
* `newModule` template modified slightly based on workshop feedback.
* `setPaths` now only sets the directories that are passed into it.
* `all.equal.simList` method strips a small number of attributes that are used internally that create false failures.
* speed enhancements.
* other minor bug fixes.

## package dependency changes

* add package imports `tools`, `pryr`.
* removed package imports `rgeos`, `RCurl` and `googledrive`.

version 0.1.1
=============

* uses `reproducible::Require` instead of `SpaDES.core::loadPackages` to load required packages. Currently, does not use version control for packages, but does use installing (from CRAN or GitHub), and loading (via require). This means a module can indicate a github package, e.g,. `achubaty/amc@development`
* environments in modules are now as follows: 
    
    - Functions defined in a module are sourced into an environment located here: `sim@.envir$<moduleName>`, and it is a is a child of `sim@.envir`. Functions can be found in this environment, but prefixing functions is not necessary, because modules functions are within this environment already. 
    - `sim@.envir` is a child of `SpaDES.core`
    
* scoping from within a function that is defined in a module is thus: 

    - `sim@.envir$<moduleName>` --> `sim@.envir` --> `SpaDES.core` --> all imported packages including `base` --> `.GlobalEnv` --> `search()`

* speed improvements:

    - the core DES is now built around lists, rather than `data.table` objects. For small objects (e.g., the eventQueue) that have fewer than 200 objects, lists are faster. Accessors (e.g., `events(sim)`, `completed(sim)`) of the event queues still show `data.table` objects, but these are made on the fly.
    - `.parseModule` and `.parseModuePartial` now put their parsed content into a temporary environment (`sim@.envir$.parsedFiles$<Full Filename>)` during the `simInit`, which gets re-used. Previously, files were parsed multiple times in a given `simInit` call. Several functions now have `envir` argument to pass this through (including `moduleVersion`, `packages`, `checkParams`)

* parsing of modules is now more intelligent, allowing for modules to contain functions (the current norm) and but they can also create objects at the module level. These can use the sim object in their definition. These objects can, for example, be used to help define parameters, for example, e.g., `startSimPlus1 <- start(sim) + 1` can be defined in the module and used in `defineModule`
* remove `grDevices` from Imports as it was not used (#1)
* remove `chron` and `CircStats` dependencies
* remove functions `dwrpnorm2` and move to package `SpaDES.tools`
* remove unused function `F()` due to conflicts with `F`/`FALSE`.
* improved download of module data: added new `quickCheck` argument
* improved download of modules: use fuzzy matching
* new option: `spades.switchPkgNamespaces` which allows the user to turn off the `SpaDES` feature that loads and unloads libraries specific to each module. While useful, it slows down computations, in some cases, by a lot.
* bug fixes:

    - in `zipModule` that omitted the checksum file from being included when `data = FALSE` (#3)
    - caching of `.inputObjects` functions was evaluating outputObjects instead of inputObjects. Now corrected.

* If `.inputObjects` contains arguments other than just sim, these will be evaluated as function inputs by the Cache mechanism (via .useCache), therefore correctly assessing when those inputs changed, e.g., if they are files and the arg is wrapped in `asPath`, then any change to the underlying file will cause a re-cache.  e.g., `.inputObjects <- function(sim, importantFile = asPath(file.path(inputPath(sim), "theFile.rdata"))) { ... }`
* default `debug` option in `spades()` now uses the package option `spades.debug` and default is set to `FALSE` (#5)
* various other speed improvements and bug fixes
* convert `P` to a function, rather than S4 generic and method, for speed.
* importFrom only used functions from `utils` due to name conflicts with `raster::stack` and `utils::stack`
* new function `remoteFileSize` to check the size of remote files
* new namespaced function `dataPath` will return `file.path(modulePath(sim), currentModule(sim), "data")`, which will return a different path, depending on which module it is placed inside.
* add crayon to imports -- now messages are more colour coded
* bug fix in 'inputs' for the case of loading objects from the global environment, either from the same object to the same object, or from different global objects overwriting on the same simList object


version 0.1.0
=============

* A new package, which takes all core DES functionality out of the `SpaDES` package:

    - see `?SpaDES.core` for an overview

* various speed improvements and bug fixes
