stan-dev / stan-dev/rstan

doc scope requirements for parallelism

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Description

The real issue behind the closed issue #257 is that there needs to be doc on the initialization functions for stan() and related functions that indicate the scope requirements on functions. I'm not sure what they are, or I'd list them!

@bgoodri commented https://github.com/stan-dev/rstan/issues/257#issuecomment-178158365, which I repeat here:

I think this

Error in init() : object 'ThetaInit' not found

error in specifying arguments; sampling not done

occurs because ThetaInit is an object in the GlobalEnv of the parent R process and cannot be accessed via the usual scoping mechanisms by any of the child R processes. In other words, the init function is exported to the child R processes so that it can be called but it can only refer to chain_id because everything else in the parent process is out of scope.

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reading closed issue #257 and the linked comment, then inspect the documentation for stan() and related initialization functions. Clarify which objects and arguments are available when initialization functions run in child R processes, and update the relevant documentation so those scope requirements are explicit.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
r
Domain
documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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