Change default sig_figs value to 8 #1308
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also need to change the CmdStan docs |
Yes, will change several places if this gets merged |
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whatever you and Bob think is best.
cheers,
Mitzi
…On Tue, Jan 14, 2025 at 8:42 PM Brian Ward ***@***.***> wrote:
also need to change the CmdStan docs
Yes, will change several places if this gets merged
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Soliciting more opinions @bob-carpenter @SteveBronder @avehtari |
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Can you try with the example in stan-dev/cmdstanr#420 (it's an issue in CmdStanR repo, but can be tested with any approach calling standalone generated quantities)? |
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@avehtari for the specific example you link, it does appear to be resolved by this PR (passed over 100 times in a row) |
| _default = "-1"; | ||
| _default_value = -1; | ||
| = "0 <= integer <= 18, or -1 to use the system library's default " | ||
| "number of significant figures (usually 6)."; |
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shouldn't this 6 be an 8?
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No, -1 is preserved to do the same thing as before, which is to just not specify any target precision when the stream is created, leaving it with whatever your OS defaults to. This is why it’s the “system library’s default”, not ours — 6 comes from glibc and friends.
If we want, we can make -1 synonymous with our default (8) instead
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(Though I should note, if you want to use Stan’s default, a reasonable option is just not pass this argument at all…)
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I don't think this is a huge backward compatiblity concern and it would certainly be simple to have just one default. In which case, I don't think we'd need a behavior for -1, which would simplify the doc.
Having said that, I think it's OK for "unspecified" to be the Stan default and -1 the system default as long as it's a bit more clearly stated in the doc that the system default is the underlying system default, not the Stan default.
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I would prefer to just not allow -1 at all, but removing a valid value would definitely break at least somebody’s code
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Good point---I missed that was the old default!
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I've updated the wording. Here's what the full help text reads as now:
sig_figs=<int>
The number of significant figures used for the output CSV files.
Valid values: 0 <= integer <= 18, or -1 to use the current operating system's default number of significant figures (This will vary, but on many systems it is 6).
Defaults to 8
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I still find two things about this confusing:
- the use of "integer"---is that in other ones of these?
- there's no mention that the platform default is not the Stan default
But if you want to go with it like this, I'm just going to approve because it's not worth a lot of back and forth.
Submisison Checklist
./runCmdStanTests.py src/testSummary:
Closes #1307
Intended Effect:
Increase the number of outputs saved by default
How to Verify:
Run a model without changing the sig_figs argument
Side Effects:
Additional storage may be required
Documentation:
TBD
Copyright and Licensing
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Simons Foundation
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