Checkconfig

The purpose of this page is just to serve as todo or scratch pad for the development project and to list and share some ideas.

The code development project mentioned on this page has been finished by now. Chances are that this page is considerably outdated and irrelevant. The notes here might not reflect the current state of the code, and you should not use this as serious documentation.

Checkconfig

Implement function checkconfig that checks the consistency of cfgs, similar to checkdata for data structure.

Objectives

Implement function checkconfig that checks consistency of cfgs:

For the user: input cfgs should be adjusted when necessary and possible, and feedback (warning/error) should be given when required options are missing or when forbidden or deprecated options are used. This should replace the current 'backward compatibility' code.
Internal use: checkconfig should control the relevant cfg options that are being passed on to other functions.
Output: only relevant cfg fields should be contained in the output (data.cfg), e.g. it should not contain unused default settings.

Relevant functions

Overview of relevant functions (where checkconfig should be implemented):

preprocessing ——step1=done——
private/preproc (uses cfg.preproc)
artifact functions ——step1=done——
timelockanalysis ——step1=done——
freqanalysis ——step1=done——
sourceanalysis ——step1=done——
private/prepare_dipole_grid (uses cfg.grid)
statistics functions!!
perhaps also other private functions that take a cfg as input

Overview of existing relevant functions:

createsubcfg
checkconfig
check_cfg_unused
check_cfg_required

Step 1

Add the check (objective 1) to the existing functions.

Required: check whether required options are present, give error when missing

e.g.: sourceanalysis: method; xxxstatistics: method
…(perhaps in general search for cfg.method using grep and check whether this is a more common required feature)

Renamed: change old options/values into new ones + give warning

this should replace most of the backward compatibility code regarding renamed options and values

Deprecated: give warning when deprecated options are used

search for that using grep

Forbidden: give error when forbidden option is used

e.g. cfg.trl when calling preprocessing on data that has already been read

Step 2

Incorporate existing functions in checkconfig:

createsubcfg - done -
dataset2files - done -

Step 3

Control the output cfg:

report on used/unused fields (trackconfig)
remove unused fields from output cfg (trackconfig)
remove large fields from output cfg (checksize)

trackconfig:

controlled via ft_defaults or overruled by cfg.trackconfig: 'report', 'cleanup', or 'off'
start of each FT function: cfg=checkconfig(cfg) » if user requests report or cleanup, configtracking is turned on
end of each FT function: cfg=checkconfig(cfg, 'trackconfig', 'off')

checksize:

controlled via ft_defaults or overruled by cfg.checksize: inf or number in bytes
end of each FT function: cfg=checkconfig(cfg, 'checksize', 'yes')