Pretty printing list of parameters.

[Datseris]

In MTK, I would like to obtain a printable list of parameters along with all their "descriptions": default value, description field, and any other metdata field. Just parameters(prob/sys) does not do this, it only prints the parameters in latex notation but without any metadata. Is it straightforward to get the nice string with metadata that is printed when the whole system itself is printed?

[ChrisRackauckas]

Instead of just parameters, we should make a whole unknowns, variables, etc. system on this. Needs a better naming scheme than unknowns_pretty(sys), parameters_pretty(sys), etc. Thoughts?

I think as an inter-exchange giving a NamedTuple dump might be good? That would allow for making data frames from it.

[Datseris]

Yeah exactly, vector of NamedTuple with the first entry being name = Symbol would be great. The rest of the entries is a sequential push of all other metdata.

We could use dump in the name: parameters_dump or unknowns_dump.

[ChrisRackauckas]

Might be good to do early since this is not hard to do and would be a good debugging tool for v9 updates.

[baggepinnen]

I have this gist that creates a table like below, something from there could perhaps be used as a starting point
https://gist.github.com/baggepinnen/7dda5a13dc898cb06f8fdd5c1dc101a2

julia> describe(sys)
Model sys with
11 (19) equations
1 states
15 parameters
Inependent variable t: Time
┌─────────────────────┬───────────────┬────────────────────┬─────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Variable name       │ Variable type │ Default value      │ Bounds      │ Description                               │
├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ PI₊Dzero₊output₊u   │ variables     │ 0.0                │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealOutput output       │
│ PI₊Izero₊output₊u   │ variables     │ 0.0                │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealOutput output       │
│ PI₊addPID₊input1₊u  │ variables     │ 0.0                │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealInput input1        │
│ PI₊addPID₊input2₊u  │ variables     │ 0.0                │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealInput input2        │
│ PI₊addPID₊input3₊u  │ variables     │ 0.0                │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealInput input3        │
│ PI₊addPID₊output₊u  │ variables     │ 0.0                │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealOutput output       │
│ PI₊addP₊input1₊u    │ variables     │ 0.0                │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealInput input1        │
│ PI₊addP₊input2₊u    │ variables     │ 0.0                │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealInput input2        │
│ PI₊addP₊output₊u    │ variables     │ 0.0                │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealOutput output       │
│ PI₊ctr_output₊u     │ variables     │ 0.0                │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealOutput ctr_output   │
│ PI₊gainPID₊input₊u  │ variables     │ PI₊gainPID₊u_start │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealInput input         │
│ PI₊gainPID₊output₊u │ variables     │ PI₊gainPID₊y_start │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealOutput output       │
│ PI₊gainPID₊u        │ variables     │ PI₊gainPID₊u_start │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Input of SISO system                      │
│ PI₊gainPID₊y        │ variables     │ PI₊gainPID₊y_start │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Output of SISO system                     │
│ PI₊limiter₊input₊u  │ variables     │ PI₊limiter₊u_start │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealInput input         │
│ PI₊limiter₊output₊u │ variables     │ PI₊limiter₊y_start │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealOutput output       │
│ PI₊limiter₊u        │ variables     │ PI₊limiter₊u_start │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Input of SISO system                      │
│ PI₊limiter₊y        │ variables     │ PI₊limiter₊y_start │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Output of SISO system                     │
│ PI₊measurement₊u    │ variables     │ 0.0                │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealInput measurement   │
│ PI₊reference₊u      │ variables     │ 0.0                │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Inner variable in RealInput reference     │
│ u                   │ variables     │                    │ (-1, 1)     │ A short description of u                  │
│ PI₊Dzero₊k          │ variables     │ 0                  │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Constant output value of block            │
│ PI₊Izero₊k          │ variables     │ 0                  │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Constant output value of block            │
│ PI₊addPID₊k1        │ variables     │ 1                  │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Gain of Add input1                        │
│ PI₊addPID₊k2        │ variables     │ 1                  │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Gain of Add input2                        │
│ PI₊addPID₊k3        │ variables     │ 1                  │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Gain of Add input3                        │
│ PI₊addP₊k1          │ variables     │ 1                  │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Gain of Add input1                        │
│ PI₊addP₊k2          │ variables     │ -1                 │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Gain of Add input2                        │
│ PI₊gainPID₊k        │ variables     │ 1                  │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Gain                                      │
│ PI₊gainPID₊u_start  │ variables     │ 0.0                │ (-Inf, Inf) │                                           │
│ PI₊gainPID₊y_start  │ variables     │ 0.0                │ (-Inf, Inf) │                                           │
│ PI₊limiter₊u_start  │ variables     │ NaN                │ (-Inf, Inf) │                                           │
│ PI₊limiter₊y_max    │ parameters    │ Inf                │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Maximum allowed output of Limiter limiter │
│ PI₊limiter₊y_min    │ parameters    │ -Inf               │ (-Inf, Inf) │ Minimum allowed output of Limiter limiter │
│ PI₊limiter₊y_start  │ variables     │ NaN                │ (-Inf, Inf) │                                           │
│ p                   │ parameters    │                    │ (-Inf, Inf) │ A description of p                        │
└─────────────────────┴───────────────┴────────────────────┴─────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────┘

[ChrisRackauckas]

That looks like a good start to me.

[AayushSabharwal]

I have an implementation in #2489