DripTorch 0.7.0 Release Notes

New features and improvements

Pattern composition (PR #83)

The Pattern object has a new merge method for composing two patterns, e.g. pattern1.merge(pattern2, time_offset=100). An example situation would be composing a backing fire with an interior firing technique, such as a strip and flank fire. You can chain multiple merge methods together to compose patterns to your heart’s desire.

Irregular dash ignition (PR #104)

An Igniter object is now configured by providing a velocity, gap_length, and dash_length. In previous version, a dash igniter was specified by a negative interval, a point igniter by a positive interval, and a line igniter by an interval of zero. Now, to configure a line igniter, just provide a velocity; gap_length and dash_length are defaulted to None. To instantiate a point igniter set the gap_length parameter to the distance between point ignitions and leave the dash_length parameter as the default. For a dash igniter, you can set the dash_length parameter and leave gap_length=None to produce regular spaced dashes (the length of the dash is equal to the length of the gap). For irregular dash ignitions, you can set both the dash_length and gap_length parameters.

Warning

This is a breaking change! Users will need to update all instances of Igniter object constructions to include the new parameters.

Optional start side for strip and flank firing (PR #94)

We added a new parameter to the strip and flank pattern generators to control from which side of the unit the ignition crew starts the firing, e.g. flank.generate_pattern(depth=40, side='left'). The side parameter defaults to 'right' and will accept 'left'. The 'left' and 'right' options are with respect to the wind direction supplied to the BurnUnit object.

Time offset between heats for strip and flank (PR #103]

Use the optional time_offset_heat: float = 0 parameter in the flank and strip pattern generators to delay heats from starting as soon as the previous heat finishes.

JSON serialization for igniters and crews (PR #93)

The Igniter and IgntitionCrew objects now have methods for encoding and decoding JSON objects.

Unit tests (PR #99)

Rough draft of unit tests has been implemented. Better late than never.

Bug fixes

Igniter velocity default (PR #107)

We mistakenly defaulted the igniter velocity to 1.8 m/s; makes sense in units of miles per hour, but way too fast in meters per seconds. This has been resolved.