Home

Welcome!

This is the top-level Wiki for Stan developers. There is also a user facing

• Stan Home Page

There are a few remaining user-facing Wiki pages that haven't been moved to the web site:

• Prior choice
• Where do I report bugs or request features?
• Frequently encountered problems
• Installing older versions

Introduction to Stan for new developers

See https://github.com/stan-dev/stan/wiki/Introduction-to-Stan-for-New-Developers

GitHub repositories and submodule relationships

The development for the math library, language and algorithms, and interfaces are arranged into the following repositories with arrows indicating submodule inclusions.

math <- stan <- pystan
             <- rstan   <- rstanarm
             <- cmdstan <- statastan
                        <- matlabstan
                        <- stan.jl
                        <- MathematicaStan

Currently, the stan repo includes the language, the algorithms, and the service API for the interfaces. There are additional repos for tools such as the emacs mode, R plotting, R Shiny interface, web pages, etc.

Developer Process

Process

• Dev process overview
• Git process

New Functions

• Contributing new functions

New Algorithms

• Proposing Algorithms for Inclusion Into Stan

Code Style

• Code quality
• Coding style and idioms
• Doxygen for API doc

Testing

• Testing framework
• Testing tools and procedures
• Googletest for unit tests
• Python unit test script
• Jenkins for continuous integration
• Continuous integration (1)
• Continuous integration (2)

Miscellaneous

• How to upgrade version numbers

Feature Specifications

Language

• Ragged arrays
• Tuple data type
• Sparse matrix data type
• Functionals and higher-order functions
• Stan 3 density notation and increments
• Parameter labeling
• Parser pedantic mode

Interfaces

• Services refactor
• CloudStan
• Logging
• Log levels and consolidated output across interfaces
• User Interface Guidelines for Developers (e.g., PyStan, RStan)
• Stan C++ API refactor

I/O

• JSON I/O
• Protocol buffer I/O
• Output format

Algorithms

• The Stan Algorithm API
• Max (marginal) likelihood
• ODE models

Documentation

• Documentation reorganization

Developer Miscellany

• Compiler and OS detection in C++
• C++ 11
• Helpful tricks
• Include what you use
• Model C++ concept
• ODE integrator support
• Developer UI guidelines
• Yeti cluster at Columbia

Advertising and Fundraising

• Sell sheets

Teaching

• Some areas of pedagogy