Developer's Meeting Notes 2/3/12

At developers meeting on 2/3 we discussed the following:

• OpenMx 1.2, whose main feature is parallelization of FIML, will be released this weekend. This will allow the group to point to OpenMx progress in grant proposals and allow it to be tested by real users before the Twins Workshop in Colorado. Updates to the user guide will be seen in future minor release of 1.2 or in a separate OpenMx 1.3 release.
• The group discussed the authors that should be included in the OpenMx User Guide documentation. The author list reflects those who have directly contributed to the OpenMx source code. Ultimately, the OpenMx User Guide will get an ISBN number and serve as another OpenMx source for users to cite along with the anchor paper.
• The group discussed upcoming grant proposals to fund work related to OpenMx.
• The group discussed the new OpenMx Sphinx/reST theme for the user guide. Currently the main feature of the theme is the ability to create code blocks with different background colors. However, it can be extended via css to further customize the documentation in the OpenMx user guide.
• The group discussed the list of the new features that will be added to OpenMx in the future. This list of features (in no particular order) is:
  • Bayesian Objective Function
  • Model diagramming tool that generates publishable figures for OpenMx models. The diagramming tool will also allow users to interact with the generated model graphic. The goal is to create a tool that allows users to switch between writing OpenMx code and drawing and fitting OpenMx models with a graphical user interface.
  • Weighted Least Squares Minimization
  • Smart gradient calculations that improve efficiency
  • Creating a versions of solnp in C so that OpenMx can be distributed as a CRAN package
  • Multilevel modeling

  The group will be looking to prioritize this list of features in upcoming meetings.