[Pcsim-users] Synapse templates

[Chris N. <cn...@it...>]

Hi all,

I've just been writing a new synapse class, and ran in to a few
templating issues.  I appreciate the flexibility of the Generic* design,
however I'm having problems with it and the current PCSIM / python build
system.

I created a new generic synapse type, originally intending to have it
substitute the GenericStaticSpikingSynapse in a few of my own custom
synapse classes.  However it seems that when building the python
objects, they require explicit #includes of the classes that will be
passed as template parameters.  For those classes that are being passed
as template parameters to my class, e.g.

typedef GenericMySpikingSynapse< GenericCurrentBasedSpikingSynapse<
ExponentialDecaySpikeResponse > > GenericMySpikingSynapseType

I can just include the appropriate headers in my class header, which is
not elegant, but is a workaround.  However the next step is problematic,
as I want to use my class as a template parameter to existing classes,
e.g.

typedef GenericFroemkeDanStdpSynapse< GenericEachPairStdpSynapse<
GenericMySpikingSynapseType > > GenericMyFroemkeDanStdpSynapseType

so I need to add my class header to existing framework class headers,
which starts to get quite messy.

Now I realise that you (the designers that is) undoubtedly know all
this, as you've done that very thing in your own classes.  I guess my
question is, is there any nicer workaround anyone can think of than
modifying the existing objects, or are there any build system /
structural changes happening that will alleviate this problem?  I don't
understand the complete python <-> c++ architecture, so I'm not sure how
deep the problem lies.

Cheers,
Chris.