May you give us an overview of current QuantLib plans?

[Piter Dias-4]

Maintainers,

Hi.

I know there is plan to deliver QuantLib 1.0 as a stable and production version. In fact, I believe we already has production users of QuantLib, but I believe that whole idea is the project itself would change its status to a Production software with this release.

However, it also means that some contributions would have to wait more in order to not cause a mis function in the 1.0 version.

May you give us (user and eventual contributor) an overview about what your are doing and current plans? I have myself some questions:

1. Are you already have a desirable release date? I mean some data you wish to deliver but doesn't know if  you will be able to?
2. If new  classes and functions  are not supposed  to go to trunk as fast as it was, how could we keep people motivation (everyone that contributes good stuff want to see it code in the library, right)? Are you more open to include test suite contributions to this new release?
3. What is the experimental folder really is? Would you deliver it in the QuantLib 1.0? What the polices to put or delete code there are?
4. We have a couple of examples and hundred of tests. Do you believe that it is a problem for new users? I mean, I already contribute with test but never though about examples. Do you expect more examples in the library or test suite itself is THE example?
5. What the relationship of QuantLibXL and QuantLib currently is? I see that QuantLibXL deploys some time after QuantLib. Once QuantLib is growing fast, the gap between both are growing too. We are you doing about it? What we (user, contributors and eventual contributors) are supposed to do about that?
6. QuantLibXL spreadsheets are not so easy to use. Everyone, including me, already had (or have) problems using it. Do you expect that users contribute with some spreadsheets, pretty like they to with QuantLib test suite? I believe would could have a set of simpler but based on proven examples (papers, books chapters, QuantLib test suite, etc...) spreadsheets.
   

I appreciate any reply and would like you thank you for this project.

Regards,



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[Luigi Ballabio]

Hi Piter,

On Mon, 2009-08-10 at 07:16 -0300, Piter Dias wrote:
> I know there is plan to deliver QuantLib 1.0 as a stable and
> production version. In fact, I believe we already has production users
> of QuantLib, but I believe that whole idea is the project itself would
> change its status to a Production software with this release.

Yes. In particular, that would mean that we'll ensure backward
compatibility of future releases with version 1.0, meaning that code
that compiles against 1.0 will compile unchanged against later versions
(with an exception---see later.)  This is also the reason for the delay
in getting a new release out: we needed time to fix a few things before
freezing the interfaces.


> However, it also means that some contributions would have to wait more
> in order to not cause a mis function in the 1.0 version.

Not necessarily. See later.


> May you give us (user and eventual contributor) an overview about what
> your are doing and current plans? I have myself some questions:
> Are you already have a desirable release date? I mean some data you
> wish to deliver but doesn't know if  you will be able to?

We're almost there.  There's still a couple of things to fix, but I'd
like to create the release branch soon and release a version 0.9.9 in
the second half of September (considering that I'll be on vacation next
week and half of the following.)  Unless anything big and unexpected
happens, we should be able to stick to the schedule.  The 0.9.9 version
will practically be a beta version of 1.0; we can expect the latter for
October or November.


> If new  classes and functions  are not supposed  to go to trunk as
> fast as it was, how could we keep people motivation (everyone that
> contributes good stuff want to see it code in the library, right)? Are
> you more open to include test suite contributions to this new release?

This release is almost frozen, so new contributions will go after
version 1.0.  However, that doesn't mean that they'll have to wait long
to be included; once the 0.9.9 and 1.0 branches are created (in a couple
of weeks) new code can go on the trunk for future inclusion in the 1.1
release.  I hope to get back to a decent release schedule (say, 3 or 4
releases per year) so that contributions don't have to wait much to get
out.


> What is the experimental folder really is? Would you deliver it in the
> QuantLib 1.0? What the polices to put or delete code there are?

The experimental folder is an exception to the backward compatibility;
what's in there might change interface in the future. The reason is that
on the one hand, we want contributions to get out; but on the other
hand, we don't want to freeze interfaces we barely used before having
some feedback. New stuff is going to go in experimental first and be
moved in the core folders once we're happy with the interface.


> We have a couple of examples and hundred of tests. Do you believe that
> it is a problem for new users? I mean, I already contribute with test
> but never though about examples. Do you expect more examples in the
> library or test suite itself is THE example?

I think the test suite can work as an example too; we don't need to
write examples to show functionality that is covered in the test suite
(I'd rather add some comments to the test cases.)  Examples might be
used to show more complex workflows.


I'll pass on the QuantLibXL questions, as I'm not very involved in the
project at this time...

Hope this helped. If anybody has any feedback, I'll be glad to hear it.

Luigi


--

Olmstead's Law:
After all is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said
than done.



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[Eric Ehlers-2]

Hi Piter,

>   * What the relationship of QuantLibXL and QuantLib currently is? I
> see that QuantLibXL deploys some time after QuantLib. Once QuantLib is
> growing fast, the gap between both are growing too. We are you doing
> about it? What we (user, contributors and eventual contributors) are
> supposed to do about that?

Yes after QuantLib is released there is a delay before the appearance  
of the corresponding QuantLibXL release.  The delay is usually a  
couple of weeks, I'm afraid this situation is unlikely to get any  
better, but I hope it won't get worse either.

I'm not aware of any plans to extend the QuantLibXL functionality.  
This means that any new functionality added to QuantLib would not be  
available through the QuantLibXL interface.  If anyone cares to  
contribute the necessary enhancements to QuantLibXL they would be  
gratefully received.

>   * QuantLibXL spreadsheets are not so easy to use. Everyone,
> including me, already had (or have) problems using it. Do you expect
> that users contribute with some spreadsheets, pretty like they to with
> QuantLib test suite? I believe would could have a set of simpler but
> based on proven examples (papers, books chapters, QuantLib test suite,
> etc...) spreadsheets.

There are a couple of core example spreadsheets -  
YieldCurveBootstrapping.xls, InterestRateDerivatives.xls - which  
provide a good introduction.  Many of the other spreadsheets are less  
well maintained.  Contributions would be welcome.  Example  
spreadsheets that parallel the QuantLib test suite are useful from the  
standpoint of technical troubleshooting but less so from the  
perspective of the end user, because the natural structure of a  
QuantLibXL spreadsheet and the typical behavior of a standalone C++  
program do not match.

Regards,
Eric

===================================================
Eric Ehlers
nazcatech sprl | Brussels | http://www.nazcatech.be
* Distributed computing for pricing analytics
* Use Microsoft Excel as a client to the Grid


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