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Remove ambiguous terminology with "restart" across EGSnrc #1215

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@ftessier ftessier commented Nov 3, 2024

Fix #1210 and more! Replace all instances and variants of restart in EGSnrc with more precise terminology:

  • Resume — continue a simulation after an interruption (as @rtownson suggested above)
  • Rewind — read a phase space file from the beginning, aligning with the programming concept of rewinding a file
  • Relaunch — for processes, consistent with the idea of launching a program or command

The three commits should not be squashed, to keep the distinct steps visible in the history, corresponding to updating each semantic meaning of restart.

Address a long-standing semantic confusion in EGSnrc. The term "restart"
has been used ambiguously to describe resuming a simulation after an
interruption (e.g., a power failure). Use "resume" instead to accurately
reflect continuing from where the simulation left off. Restarting
conveys the idea that the simulation is starting over from the
beginning.
Address another long-standing semantic confusion in EGSnrc. The term
"restart" was used ambiguously to describe rewinding a phase space file
after reaching the end, when more particles are requested. Use "rewind"
to accurately reflect starting from the beginning of the file again,
aligning with the programming concept of rewinding a file.
Eliminate the last occurrences of "restart" in the EGSnrc repository.
Previously, "restart" was used ambiguously to mean relaunching a
process, resuming a simulation, or rewinding a phase space file. These
actions are now distinctly referred to as "relaunch", "resume", and
"rewind". To avoid confusion with past terminology, the generic term
"restart" is no longer used in EGSnrc, as of this commit.
@ftessier ftessier added this to the Release 2025 milestone Nov 3, 2024
@ftessier ftessier self-assigned this Nov 3, 2024
@ftessier ftessier requested a review from a team as a code owner November 3, 2024 21:19
@ftessier ftessier linked an issue Nov 3, 2024 that may be closed by this pull request
@ftessier
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ftessier commented Nov 3, 2024

Although a bit tedious, I would invite a careful review here. I have checked all changes twice, and running rg -i restart in EGSnrc/ yields no instances on this branch.

(You can use grep also, rg is ripgrep, which is faster)

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I think it wouldn't be too hard to make this change backwards compatible. I agree with changing the documentation and everything to no longer reference the old terms, but we could still accept the old inputs so people don't have to change their input files & scripts.

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The term "restart" is ambiguous across EGSnrc
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