.. _faq:

==========================
Frequently Asked Questions
==========================

Below are some of PySB's frequently asked questions. If your question is
not answered here, you can try our
`Gitter channel <https://gitter.im/pysb/pysb>`_.
For more general Python related questions, we recommend `Stack
Overflow <https://www.stackoverflow.com>`_.

General
=======

* What Python versions does PySB support?

    The current release of PySB supports Python 3.6, 3.7, and
    3.8. Earlier versions, including Python 2.7, are not supported
    from PySB 2.0 onwards.

    In PySB version 1.5 and earlier, the `<>` operator was used for
    reversible rules. `<>` is pending deprecation from PySB, and does not
    work at all in Python 3. All new models should use `|` as the reversible
    rule operator. Previous models should be upgraded if compatibility
    with future PySB versions is required.

Rule and Reaction Rate Laws
===========================

* Can I specify a non-mass action rate law?

    **Yes**. PySB has a special entity for this, called Expressions.
    Expressions can be used in place of Parameters for rule rates.
    Expressions can contain mathematical expressions and can utilize other
    Expressions, Parameters, and Observables. Here's a contrived
    example for demonstration purposes::

         Parameter('A_multiplier', 2.0)
         Observable('A_total', A())
         Expression('kf_A', A_total * A_multiplier)
         Rule('bindA', A(b=None) + A(b=None) >> A(b=1) % A(b=1), kf_A)

    Like Parameters, note that Expressions are multiplied by
    reactant species concentrations within a rule to get the final rate.

* Can I use a discontinuous rate law, like a `Heaviside
  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside_step_function>`_ function?

    **Yes.** For simple examples like the Heaviside function, one could
    simply write a rate Expression like the following::

        Observable('A_total', A())
        Parameter('p1', 1.0)
        Expression('e1', (A_total > 100) * p1))

    The inequality in parentheses evaluates to 1 if True and 0 if False.
    Thus, the Expression will be equal to `p1` when `A_total > 100` and 0
    otherwise.

    For more complex piecewise expressions, sympy's Piecewise can be used::

        Expression('kf_A', Piecewise((0, A_total < 400.0),
                                     (0.001, A_total < 500.0),
                                     (0.01, True)))

    Piecewise takes a list of (value, condition) tuples. The Expression's
    value will come from the first condition which evaluates to True. Thus,
    for the Expression to always have a value, the last condition should
    default to True.

Simulation
==========

* How can I speed up my `ScipyOdeSimulator` simulation?

    **Check the cython library is installed.** `cython` is a Python library
    which converts your system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to
    C code, which is faster to execute than pure Python code. You can check
    if `cython` is installed by trying to import it at the Python prompt::

        import cython

    If no `ImportError` appears, `cython` is available. Otherwise, you'll
    need to install it using `pip` or `conda`.

    When running large numbers of simulations, consider using the
    `CupSodaSimulator` if you have an NVIDIA graphics card (GPU) available.
    It is a GPU-based simulator which can run lots of simulations in parallel.
    See the :doc:`Simulator module documentation</modules/simulator>` for
    details.