https://github.com/devosoft/empirical
A library of tools for scientific software development, with emphasis on also being able to build web interfaces using Emscripten.
https://github.com/devosoft/empirical
Last synced: 3 months ago
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A library of tools for scientific software development, with emphasis on also being able to build web interfaces using Emscripten.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/devosoft/empirical
- Owner: devosoft
- License: other
- Created: 2014-10-05T19:50:00.000Z (over 11 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2026-03-07T18:54:49.000Z (4 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2026-03-07T22:56:17.929Z (4 months ago)
- Language: C++
- Size: 73.4 MB
- Stars: 91
- Watchers: 12
- Forks: 40
- Open Issues: 118
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
- License: LICENSE.md
- Code of conduct: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
- Citation: CITATION.cff
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
Empirical is a library of tools for developing useful, efficient, reliable, and available
scientific software. The provided code is header-only and encapsulated into the emp
namespace, so it is simple to incorporate into existing projects.
[](https://joss.theoj.org/papers/9a9ff2d6232a7511878151c26a9433f4)
[](https://github.com/devosoft/Empirical/actions?query=workflow%3ACI+branch%3Amaster) [](https://empirical.readthedocs.io/en/latest/?badge=latest) [](https://zenodo.org/badge/latestdoi/24824563) [](https://codecov.io/gh/devosoft/Empirical)
[](https://hub.docker.com/r/devosoft/empirical)
[](https://github.com/devosoft/Empirical/graphs/contributors)
See our [Built With Empirical Gallery](https://empirical.readthedocs.io/en/latest/BuiltWithEmpiricalGallery) for examples of web tools built with Empirical.
See our [Quick Start Guides](https://empirical.readthedocs.io/en/latest/QuickStartGuides) to start using the library.
Starting out on a new project that will use Empirical?
Take a look at the [cookiecutter Empirical project template](https://github.com/devosoft/cookiecutter-empirical-project) for automatically setting up a directory structure with all the files you need to get started -- step-by-step instructions included!
Tools in Empirical include:
* Web-enabled elements to facilitate compiling to JavaScript and with a full web interfaces,
using Mozilla's Emscripten compiler (from C++ to high-efficiency JavaScript).
* Debug tools to facilitate audited memory management; these tools are turned off outside of
debug mode allowing the full speed of raw pointers and normal standard library components.
* A wide range of Helper tools to streamline common scientific computing tasks such as
configuration, data management, mathematical manipulations, etc.
All of these are designed to be easy-to-use and efficient.
* A powerful set of evolution tools for building Artificial Life or Evolutionary Computation
software.
* A signal-action system that allows for efficient customization of tools, and flexible
software that can easily facilitate plug-in functionality.
See for more detailed documentation
on the available source files.
# Citing
If Empirical contributes to a scientific publication, please cite it as
> Vostinar, A., Lalejini, A., Ofria, C., Dolson, E., & Moreno, M.A. (2024). Empirical: A scientific software library for research, education, and public engagement. Journal of Open Source Software, 9(98), 6617, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.06617
```bibtex
@article{devosoft2024empirical,
year = {2024},
publisher = {The Open Journal},
author = {Vostinar, Anya and Lalejini, Alexander and Ofria, Charles and Dolson, Emily and Moreno, Matthew Andres},
title = {Empirical: A scientific software library for research, education, and public engagement},
journal = {Journal of Open Source Software},
volume = {9},
number = {98},
pages = {6617},
doi = {10.21105/joss.06617},
url = {https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.06617},
}
```
Please cite phylogeny tracking tools separately as shown [here](https://github.com/emilydolson/phylotrackpy/blob/main/README.md#citing).
And don't forget to leave a [star on GitHub](https://github.com/devosoft/Empirical/stargazers)!
# Directory Structure
| Folder | Description
| ------------ | ----
| demos/ | examples of mini projects using Empirical
| doc/ | Documentation files (including for auto generation of docs)
| examples/ | Example code for many of the above tools (sub-directory structure parallels source/)
| include/ | Header files that make up the Empirical library (see below for details)
| Planning/ | Scattered notes about future development (most notes found in GitHub issue tracker)
| tests/ | Unit tests
| third-party/ | Non-empirical dependencies
# Sub-folders in include/emp directory
| Sub-Folder | Description
| ----------- | ----
| base/ | Debug tools used throughout Empirical for fast and efficient memory management
| bits/ | Tools for conveniently and efficiently working with bit representations
| config/ | Tools to build a simple configuration system (including compile-time optimizations)
| control/ | Signaling tools allowing for fast and dynamic interaction across components
| compiler/ | Components for compiling code
| data/ | Tools for easy data management and output
| datastructs/| A variety of useful data structures and tools for using data structures
| debug/ | Tools to facilitate debugging (particularly of emscripten-generated web code)
| functional/ | Tools for handling functions, sets of functions, and memoization
| games/ | Implementations of simple games
| geometry/ | Geometry and physics-based tools for implementing simple virtual worlds
| hardware/ | Implementation of basic virtual hardware that is easy to configure
| io/ | Tools for handling input/output
| matching/ | Tools for tag-based matching
| math/ | Generally useful tools for math and randomness
| meta/ | Helpful tools for template meta-programming
| prefab/ | Prefabricated web elements to drop onto web pages
| scholar/ | Tools for tracking authors, citations, and bibliographies
| tools/ | Basic tools that are generally useful for scientific software
| web/ | Tools for building web interfaces (more low-level than in prefab)
| Evolve/ | Specialized tools for building Artificial Life or Evolutionary Computation projects
| in_progress/| Tools that are being worked on, but not at all ready for public consumption
# Development Status
Empirical is under heavy development. As such, many source files have at least one of the
following statuses:
| Status | Meaning
| ------ | -------
| DESIGN | Notes are in place, but no (or minimal) working code
| EXPLORATORY | Some functionality may work, but needs re-engineering to get right
| ALPHA | Some basic functionality works, but more features still need to be added and tested
| BETA | Basic functionality is all in place, but needs more thorough testing.
| RELEASE | Well-tested functionality and used in multiple projects, at least by authors
| STABLE | Used by many non-authors in assorted projects without fixes for extended period
| ABANDONED | May have worked, or may not; no longer being developed
| BROKEN | Once worked (at least BETA level), but now needs to be repaired (not abandoned!)
| CLEANUP | At least BETA, but needs code cleanup, fixing of warnings, etc
| DEPRECATED | Functionality has been replaced and should shift to replacement.
| EXTERNAL | Part of another project (cited above); not developed as part of Empirical
# Levelization
The structure of Empirical is levelized to facilitate development and testing. This means
that all directories are on a level where dependencies are either internal to that directory
or on lower levels. Likewise, within a directory, files have a level and depend only on other
files at lower levels.
| Level | Folders
| ---- | ----
| 0 | base/
| 1 | meta/
| 2 | tools/
| 3 | config/ control/ data/ games/ geometry/ hardware/ scholar/
| 4 | Evolve/ (data, control) web/ (config, control)