---
# System prepended metadata

title: 'PlasmaPy Community Meeting | Tuesday 2021 March 02 at 18:00 UT'
tags: [community, ' minutes']

---

---
tags: community, minutes
---

# PlasmaPy Community Meeting | Tuesday 2021 March 02 at 18:00 UT

[![hackmd-github-sync-badge](https://hackmd.io/pq4T-t3jQR2zsoOsB179tg/badge)](https://hackmd.io/pq4T-t3jQR2zsoOsB179tg)


### Video Conference Information
* [Jitsi video conference link](https://meet.jit.si/plasmapy) with [call-in information](https://meet.jit.si/static/dialInInfo.html?room=plasmapy) 
* Instant messaging: [Matrix](https://app.element.io/#/room/#plasmapy:openastronomy.org) and [Gitter](https://gitter.im/PlasmaPy/Lobby)
* [GitHub Minutes Repository](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/plasmapy-project/tree/master/minutes)
    * ["Community" Sub-directory](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/plasmapy-project/tree/master/minutes/_community)
* [PlasmaPy on GitHub](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/plasmapy) ([pull requests](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/plasmapy/pulls), [issues](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/plasmapy/issues))
* [PlasmaPy Enhancement Proposals on GitHub](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy-PLEPs) 
* [PlasmaPy Google Calendar](https://calendar.google.com/calendar?cid=bzVsb3ZkcW0zaWxsam00ZTlrMDd2cmw5bWdAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ)

## Agenda (please feel free to edit or add items)

1. Introductions
2. 10-15 minutes for roadmap
    * drafting [roadmap](https://hackmd.io/@plasmapy
3. solicit "Project Issues"
    * Need to add Distribution overhaul
    * Particle factory (issue [687](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/issues/687)) **??**
4. Planning 0.6.0 release
    * release between March 6th-14th
    * What open PRs do we want to make it into the release?
        * Last Proton Radiography [PR 1049](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/1049) "mesh grids"
        * Thomson fitting w/o error estimates [PR 974](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/974)
5. Renaming of ionization stuff: issue [#1053](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/issues/1053)
    * More discussion at https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/discussions/1020
7. Meeting time after US time change
8. How to cite?
    * If functionality is based off of someone someone else's work, how do we communicate citation?
    * Thoughts on a `__citation__` dunder for appropriate functionality? Could be done with a decorator. Could be formatted in `bibtex`
9. ...
10. Issues
    1. [#990](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/issues/990): `fiducia` interoperability and filter diode array analysis
    2. [#1053](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/issues/1053): Ionization naming
11. Pull requests in progress 
    1. [PR 978](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/978): nuclear cross-sections & rates
    2. [PR 979](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/979): Relativistic Boris Pusher
    3. [PR 1000](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/1000): Paschen Curve
    4. [PR 1033](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/1033): `@particle_input` with CustomParticle
    5. [PR 1046](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/1046): IonicFraction refactor
    6. [PR 1049](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/1049): Proton radiography with mesh grids
    7. [PR 1052](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/1052): Live rendering of changelog 
12. Pull requests **MERGED**
    1. [PR 981](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/981): Grids #3
    2. [PR 1017](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/1017): Create `ParticleList`
    3. [PR 1027](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/1027): Grids #4
    4. [PR 1035](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/1035): PRad Bugfix
    5. [PR 1003](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/1003): Pre-commit documentation
    6. [PR 1036](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/1036): particle unicode
    
## Attendees

* Erik
* Nick
* Domink

## Action Items

***Erik***
> ***Continuation***
> * Open "Project Issue" on the distribution functions
> * refine roadmap for next weeks discussion
> * add OMFIT to affiliated pkgs
* Keep reviewing [PR 1000]
    * waiting on refactor before adding RTD stuff
* determine status for Khalil's old PRs
* open an Issue for a lexicon of formulary parameters...physical parameter being represented, parameter symbol, docstring description

***Dominik***
> ***Continuation***
> * add feedback to roadmap items "Transport" and "Particle Tracker"
> * Write tests, check formula for [PR 979](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/979) - "Relativistic Boris Pusher"
>    * started on this
> * PR on `plasmapy.plasma.geometry` for [exact Solov'ev equlibrium with an arbitrary boundary](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1908.04449.pdf)
* Investigate GitHub Actions new contributor bot for automatically adding comments for new contributors adding a PR (or the like).
    * message to users that checks don't need to pass right away (we'll work together to get things refined)
    * how to run pre-commit `isort` and `black`

***Nick***
> ***Continuation***
> * add feedback to roadmap items "Workshop" and "Simulations"
> * will assign himself to [PR 978](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/978) - "nuclear cross-sections & rates"
* put some effort towards the dev guide

## Minutes

* `ParticleInput` decorator
    * rip out QuantityInput from astropy, then rework for particles?
* Renaming of `IonicFraction`, `IonizationState`, and `IonizationStateCollection`
    * [#1053](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/issues/1053)
    * naming scheme is a little ambiguous
    * Currently works like...
        ```python
        >>> IonizationStateCollection(["H", "C", "W"])
        >>> IonizationState([C, C+, C++, C+++]) (isotope?)
        >>> IonicFraction: C+, n, T_e, T_i
        ```
    * Could `IonicFraction` be made private?
        * would relax naming **??**
        * But we allow iterating over `IonizationState` which yields `IonicFraction`
        * Since it's uses might be public, making it private is probably not the way to go.
    * Possible alternate naming schemes
        * `IsotopeCollection`
            * `IsotopeSomething`
                * `ChargeStates`
                * `ChargeLevels`
        * `SpeciesIonizationState`. `SpeciesChargeState`, `IonizationStateSingleSpecies`
        * `MultipleSpeciesIonizationState`, `MultipleSpeciesChargeState`, `IonizationStateMultipleSpecies`
    * Abundance in astro = how often do you find element compared to another (e.g. iron compared to hydrogen)
    * Peeters_2000:
        > In this paper the indices have the following meaning. A **species** is denoted by a Latin subscript, whereas a Greek subscript denotes a particular **charge state** of a species. This notation is convenient because we will average over the **charge states** in Sec. IV to obtain a set of equations that depend only on the species indices. All charge states of one species are assumed to have the same flux surface averaged temperature. flux surface can, however, be different for the different charge states. 
    * What is the true name of `IonizationStateCollection` in the language of the making, the language the dragons speak?
    * **The Current Naming Scheme**
        * `IonicFraction` -> `IonicLevel` 
        * ~~`IonizationState` -> `SpeciesIonizationState`~~ (not yet)
        * ~~`IonizationStateCollection` -> `MultipleSpeciesIonizationState`~~
    * Maybe later we can refactor `IonicLevel` to be related to a new `Species` class
    * https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/discussions/1020
    * in terms of building blocks: current `IonicFraction` is the quantum of functionality; we then have a collection of quanta and a collection of collections on top of that
* The moral of today's meeting: *state can mean different things!*
* changelog fixes
    * [Changelog 0.6.0](https://plasmapy--1052.org.readthedocs.build/en/1052/whatsnew/0.6.0.html)
    * [Stuart's comment on tagging](https://github.com/PlasmaPy/PlasmaPy/pull/1052#discussion_r585472920)
    * TODO rename grids note from PR 1027 to non-breaking (grids weren't in 0.5); same 