Upgrade to Tachyon 0.99.2

[dimpase]

We currently are shipping a 12 years old tachyon (0.98.9).

0.99.2 was released Dec 2021. ​http://jedi.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/raytracer/files/

This is also needed to make Sage work on arm64/aarch64, see #23687.

• Tarball: ​http://jedi.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/raytracer/files/0.99.2/tachyon-0.99.2.tar.gz

Many distributions are still on 0.99.beta6 - ​https://repology.org/project/tachyon/versions

In Debian:

• ​https://salsa.debian.org/science-team/tachyon
• ​https://packages.debian.org/source/buster/tachyon
• ​https://packages.debian.org/source/sid/tachyon
• ​https://packages.debian.org/source/stretch/tachyon

[chapoton]

None of our 4 patches does apply. I do not know if they should be removed or rebased.

---

New commits:

​8138ccf

new tachyon 99b6

[dimpase]

there are quite a few doctests failing with this branch. Presumably the interface might have changed a bit.

[fbissey]

Replying to dimpase:

there are quite a few doctests failing with this branch. Presumably the interface might have changed a bit.

That's what I remember. Are all the failing doctests in doc? I realised yesterday that I have lost the ability to test those in sage-on-gentoo recently (for some reason .rst files get installed as .rst.txt and then they are not tested). So I miss all broken doctests from rst files at the moment.

For the record I don't seem to have any (repeatable) failures on the stuff I doctest in sage-on-gentoo.

[dimpase]

This is what I get with ptestlong:

sage -t --long --warn-long 45.7 src/sage/plot/plot3d/parametric_plot3d.py  # 1 doctest failed
sage -t --long --warn-long 45.7 src/sage/plot/plot3d/implicit_plot3d.py  # 6 doctests failed
sage -t --long --warn-long 45.7 src/sage/plot/plot3d/platonic.py  # 1 doctest failed
sage -t --long --warn-long 45.7 src/sage/graphs/generic_graph.py  # 9 doctests failed
sage -t --long --warn-long 45.7 src/sage/plot/plot3d/parametric_surface.pyx  # 3 doctests failed
sage -t --long --warn-long 45.7 src/sage/plot/plot3d/implicit_surface.pyx  # 1 doctest failed
sage -t --long --warn-long 45.7 src/sage/plot/plot3d/tachyon.py  # 21 doctests failed
sage -t --long --warn-long 45.7 src/sage/combinat/tiling.py  # 1 doctest failed
sage -t --long --warn-long 45.7 src/sage/numerical/sdp.pyx  # 9 doctests failed
sage -t --long --warn-long 45.7 src/sage/numerical/backends/cvxopt_sdp_backend.pyx  # 7 doctests failed
sage -t --long --warn-long 45.7 src/sage/geometry/polyhedron/backend_normaliz.py  # 2 doctests failed
sage -t --long --warn-long 45.7 src/sage/plot/plot3d/index_face_set.pyx  # 1 doctest failed
sage -t --long --warn-long 45.7 src/sage/plot/plot3d/base.pyx  # 1 doctest failed

Typically it's something about PNG interface:

Using --optional=ccache,cmake,database_gap,gap_packages,mpir,normaliz,pynormaliz,python2,qhull,sage
Doctesting entire Sage library.
Sorting sources by runtime so that slower doctests are run first....
Doctesting 3578 files using 4 threads.
sage -t --long --warn-long 45.7 src/sage/plot/plot3d/parametric_plot3d.py
**********************************************************************
File "src/sage/plot/plot3d/parametric_plot3d.py", line 172, in sage.plot.plot3d.parametric_plot3d.?
Failed example:
    P.show(viewer='tachyon')
Exception raised:
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "/home/dima/Sage/sage-dev/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/sage/doctest/forker.py", line 515, in _run
        self.compile_and_execute(example, compiler, test.globs)
      File "/home/dima/Sage/sage-dev/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/sage/doctest/forker.py", line 885, in compile_and_execute
        exec(compiled, globs)
      File "<doctest sage.plot.plot3d.parametric_plot3d.?[13]>", line 1, in <module>
        P.show(viewer='tachyon')
      File "sage/plot/plot3d/base.pyx", line 1478, in sage.plot.plot3d.base.Graphics3d.show (build/cythonized/sage/plot/plot3d/base.c
:21367)
        dm.display_immediately(self, **kwds)
      File "/home/dima/Sage/sage-dev/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/sage/repl/rich_output/display_manager.py", line 834, in displa
y_immediately
        self._backend.display_immediately(plain_text, rich_output)
      File "/home/dima/Sage/sage-dev/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/sage/repl/rich_output/backend_doctest.py", line 209, in displa
y_immediately
        self.validate(rich_output)
      File "/home/dima/Sage/sage-dev/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/sage/repl/rich_output/backend_doctest.py", line 270, in valida
te
        assert rich_output.png.get().startswith('\x89PNG')
    AssertionError

Running the corresponding lines at the Sage prompt works and shows a meaningful plot. However, it's not stored in a PNG file, it's stored in TGA file:

$ file tmp_ZccmzF.png 
tmp_ZccmzF.png: Targa image data - RGB 500 x 500 x 24 - top Targa image data - RGB 500 x 500 x 24 - top

[dimpase]

In fact, ldd says that tachyon is not linked to libpng - no wonder it cannot do PNG.

[dimpase]

I see that Debian has a set of patches to this version, including autotoolisation! ​https://packages.debian.org/source/sid/tachyon

Should we use them, rather than keep wrestling with patches to Makefiles?

[fbissey]

Probably. The linking problem would also explain why I don't see those failures in s-o-g.

[fbissey]

That's a lot of patches ​https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debian-science/packages/tachyon.git/tree/debian/patches but most of them will probably be handy. Are you up to write a spkg-src?

[dimpase]

Replying to fbissey:

That's a lot of patches ​https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debian-science/packages/tachyon.git/tree/debian/patches but most of them will probably be handy. Are you up to write a spkg-src?

I have a problem with them at the moment: namely, applying these patches and invoking autoreconf -i -f leads to

src/Makefile.am:33: error: HAVE_LD_VERSION_SCRIPT does not appear in AM_CONDITIONAL

Note that src/Makefile.am has the following lines around line 33:

libtachyon_la_LD_VERSION_SCRIPT=
if HAVE_LD_VERSION_SCRIPT
libtachyon_la_LD_VERSION_SCRIPT+= -Wl,--version-script=$(top_srcdir)/src/tachyon.map
endif

This can be remedied by adding to configure.ac the following:

AM_CONDITIONAL([HAVE_LD_VERSION_SCRIPT],   [blah...])

but I don't quite see what blah... should be. (I put in some random shell call just to see if it helps, and it does, but that's of course not a proper fix).

So this looks like a bug in Debian patches (namely in upstream-rationalization-autotools.patch), which only manifests itself in non-Debian setting.

[dimpase]

And I also don't get how to configure and run make to create a tachyon executable. All what make install does, it installs headers and various dynamic libs, such as libtachyon-mt-thr.so.0.0.0.

[embray]

Ticket retargeted after milestone closed (if you don't believe this ticket is appropriate for the Sage 8.8 release please retarget manually)

[embray]

As the Sage-8.8 release milestone is pending, we should delete the sage-8.8 milestone for tickets that are not actively being worked on or that still require significant work to move forward. If you feel that this ticket should be included in the next Sage release at the soonest please set its milestone to the next release milestone (sage-8.9).

[gh-timokau]

For what it's worth I'm just fixing up aarch64 sage on nixos and I get no doctest failures with tachyon 0.99b2 (the version we ship).

There are some transient timeout failures, but that's it. Probably not related to tachyon.

[mjo]

There's officially a new release, v0.99.2:

​http://jedi.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/raytracer/

[git]

Branch pushed to git repo; I updated commit sha1. This was a forced push. New commits:

​2ba28c7	new tachyon 99b6
​407cb62	build/pkgs/tachyon: Update to 0.99.2, add upstream_url

[mkoeppe]

Patches need updating or removing

[git]

Branch pushed to git repo; I updated commit sha1. New commits:

​6209e8e

remove most patches, adjust some

[dimpase]

Now it builds (at least on Linux). For tests, there was an option renaming focallength->FOCALDIST. The following patch makes all tests pass:

src/sage/interfaces/tachyon.py

@@ -261 +261 @@
   The {\bf PROJECTION} keyword must be followed by one of the supported
 camera projection mode identifiers {\bf PERSPECTIVE}, {\bf PERSPECTIVE_DOF},
 {\bf ORTHOGRAPHIC}, or {\bf FISHEYE}.  The {\bf FISHEYE} projection mode
-requires two extra parameters {\bf FOCALLENGTH} and {\bf APERTURE}
+requires two extra parameters {\bf FOCALDIST} and {\bf APERTURE}
 which precede the regular camera options.
 
 \begin{verbatim}
 Camera
   projection perspective_dof
-  focallength 0.75
+  FOCALDIST 0.75
   aperture 0.02
   Zoom 0.666667
   Aspectratio 1.000000

src/sage/plot/plot3d/tachyon.py

@@ -92 +92 @@
 Finally there is the ``projection='perspective_dof'`` option. ::
 
     sage: T = Tachyon(xres=800, antialiasing=4, raydepth=10,
-    ....: projection='perspective_dof', focallength='1.0', aperture='.0025')
+    ....: projection='perspective_dof', FOCALDIST='1.0', aperture='.0025')
     sage: T.light((0,5,7), 1.0, (1,1,1))
     sage: T.texture('t1', opacity=1, specular=.3)
     sage: T.texture('t2', opacity=1, specular=.3, color=(0,0,1))
@@ -186 +186 @@
       or ``'fisheye'``.
     - ``frustum`` - (default ''), otherwise list of four numbers. Only
       used with projection='fisheye'.
-    - ``focallength`` - (default ''), otherwise a number. Only used
+    - ``FOCALDIST`` - (default ''), otherwise a number. Only used
       with projection='perspective_dof'.
     - ``aperture`` - (default ''), otherwise a number.  Only used
       with projection='perspective_dof'.
@@ -331 +331 @@
     Use of the ``projection='perspective_dof'`` option.  This may not be
     implemented correctly. ::
 
-        sage: T = Tachyon(xres=800,antialiasing=4, raydepth=10, projection='perspective_dof', focallength='1.0', aperture='.0025')
+        sage: T = Tachyon(xres=800,antialiasing=4, raydepth=10, projection='perspective_dof', FOCALDIST='1.0', aperture='.0025')
         sage: T.light((0,5,7), 1.0, (1,1,1))
         sage: T.texture('t1', opacity=1, specular=.3)
         sage: T.texture('t2', opacity=1, specular=.3, color=(0,0,1))
@@ -365 +365 @@
                  look_at=[0, 0, 0],
                  viewdir=None,
                  projection='PERSPECTIVE',
-                 focallength='',
+                 FOCALDIST='',
                  aperture='',
                  frustum=''):
         r"""
@@ -391 +391 @@
             self._camera_position = (-3, 0, 0) # default value
         self._updir = updir
         self._projection = projection
-        self._focallength = focallength
+        self._FOCALDIST = FOCALDIST
         self._aperture = aperture
         self._frustum = frustum
         self._objects = []
@@ -624 +624 @@
         camera_out = r"""
            camera
               projection %s""" % (tostr(self._projection))
-        if self._focallength != '':
+        if self._FOCALDIST != '':
             camera_out = camera_out + r"""
-              focallength %s""" % (float(self._focallength))
+              FOCALDIST %s""" % (float(self._FOCALDIST))
         if self._aperture != '':
             camera_out = camera_out + r"""
               aperture %s""" % (float(self._aperture))

Not sure how to best handle this and older versions of tachyon at the same time.

[dimpase]

Probably the latter could be accomplished by using a decorator.

[mkoeppe]

opensuse-tumbleweed now has a new tachyon, causes failures ​https://github.com/sagemath/sage/runs/6236170449

[mkoeppe]

and 0.99.5 is out