
.. _extending_theano:

****************
Extending Theano
****************

Theano graphs
-------------

- Theano works with symbolic graphs
- Those graphs are bi-partite graphs (graph with 2 types of nodes)
- The 2 types of nodes are Apply and Variable nodes
- Each Apply node has a link to the Op that it executes

Inputs and Outputs are lists of Theano variables

.. image:: ../hpcs2011_tutorial/pics/apply_node.png
    :width: 500 px

.. note::

    This tutorial does not cover how to make an op that returns a view or
    modify the values in its inputs. So all
    Ops created with the instructions here MUST return newly allocated
    memory or reuse the memory provided in the parameter
    output_storage of the :func:`perform` function. See :ref:`views_and_inplace`
    for explanation of how to do this.

    If your Op returns a view or change the value on its inputs
    without doing as said in that page, Theano will run, but will
    return good results for some graphs, but bad results for others.

    It is recommented that you run your tests in DebugMode (Theano flag
    mode=DebugMode) that checks if your Op behaves correctly in this
    regard.

.. note::

   See :ref:`dev_start_guide` for information about git, github, the
   development workflow and how to make a quality contribution.

Op contract
-----------


.. code-block:: python

    import theano

    class MyOp(theano.Op):
        def make_node(self, *inputs):
            pass

        def __eq__(self, other):
            pass

        def __hash__(self):
            pass

        def __str__(self):
            pass

        # Python implementation:
        def perform(self, node, inputs_storage, output_storage):
            pass

        # C implementation: [see theano web site for other functions]
	def c_code(...):
	# ...
            pass

        # others implementation (pycuda, ...):
        def make_thunk(self, node, storage_map, _, _2):
            pass

        # optional:
        def __init__(self, ...):
            pass

        def grad(self, inputs, g):
            pass

	def R_op(self, inputs, eval_points):
            pass

        def infer_shape(node, (i0_shapes, ...))
            pass

.. ../extending/op.txt

There are 2 mandatory methods that one needs to implement.
The first one is :func:`make_node`. The second one 
would describe the computations that are required to be done
at run time. Currently there are 2 different possibilites:
implement the :func:`perform`
and/or :func:`c_code <Op.c_code>` (and other related :ref:`c methods
<cop>`), or the :func:`make_thunk` method. The ``perform`` allows
to easily wrap an existing python function into Theano. The ``c_code``
and related methods allow the op to generate c code that will be 
compiled and linked by Theano. On the other hand, the ``make_thunk``
method will be called only once during compilation and should generate
a ``thunk``: a standalone function that when called will do the wanted computations.
This is useful if you want to generate code and compile it yourself. For
example, this allows you to use PyCUDA to compile gpu code.

Also there are 2 methods that are highly recommended to be implemented. They are
needed in order to merge duplicate computations involving your op. So if you
do not want Theano to execute your op multiple times with the same inputs,
do implement them. Those methods are :func:`__eq__` and
:func:`__hash__`.

The :func:`infer_shape` method allows to infer shape of some variable, somewhere in the
middle of the computational graph without actually computing the outputs (when possible).
This could be helpful if one only needs the shape of the output instead of the actual outputs.

The :func:`grad` method is required if you want to differentiate some cost whose expression
includes your op.

The :func:`__str__` method is useful in order to provide a more meaningful
string representation of your Op.

The :func:`R_op` method is needed if you want `theano.tensor.Rop` to
work with your op.

Op example
----------

.. code-block:: python

    import theano

    class DoubleOp(theano.Op):
        def __eq__(self, other):
            return type(self) == type(other)

        def __hash__(self):
            return hash(type(self))

        def __str__(self):
            return self.__class__.__name__

        def make_node(self, x):
            x = theano.tensor.as_tensor_variable(x)
            return theano.Apply(self, [x], [x.type()])

        def perform(self, node, inputs, output_storage):
            x = inputs[0]
            z = output_storage[0]
            z[0] = x * 2

        def infer_shape(self, node, i0_shapes):
            return i0_shapes

        def grad(self, inputs, output_grads):
            return [output_grads[0] * 2]

	def R_op(self, inputs, eval_points):
            # R_op can receive None as eval_points.
            # That mean there is no diferientiable path through that input
            # If this imply that you cannot compute some outputs,
            # return None for those.
            if eval_points[0] is None:
                return eval_points
            return self.grad(inputs, eval_points)

Try it!

.. code-block:: python

    x = theano.tensor.matrix()
    f = theano.function([x], DoubleOp()(x))
    import numpy
    inp = numpy.random.rand(5, 4)
    out = f(inp)
    assert numpy.allclose(inp * 2, out)
    print inp
    print out

How to test it
--------------

Theano has some functions to simplify testing. These help test the
``infer_shape``, ``grad`` and ``R_op`` methods. Put the following code
in a file and execute it with the ``nosetests`` program.

Basic tests
===========

Basic tests are done by you just by using the Op and checking that it
returns the right answer. If you detect an error, you must raise an
exception. You can use the `assert` keyword to automatically raise an
``AssertionError``.

.. code-block:: python

    from theano.tests import unittest_tools as utt
    from theano import config
    class test_Double(utt.InferShapeTester):
        def setUp(self):
            super(test_Double, self).setUp()
            self.op_class = DoubleOp
            self.op = DoubleOp()

        def test_basic(self):
            x = theano.tensor.matrix()
            f = theano.function([x], self.op(x))
            inp = numpy.asarray(numpy.random.rand(5, 4), dtype=config.floatX)
            out = f(inp)
            # Compare the result computed to the expected value.
            assert numpy.allclose(inp * 2, out)

Testing the infer_shape
=======================

When a class inherits from the ``InferShapeTester`` class, it gets the
`self._compile_and_check` method that tests the Op ``infer_shape``
method. It tests that the Op gets optimized out of the graph if only
the shape of the output is needed and not the output
itself. Additionally, it checks that such an optimized graph computes
the correct shape, by comparing it to the actual shape of the computed
output.

`self._compile_and_check` compiles a Theano function. It takes as
parameters the lists of input and output Theano variables, as would be
provided to theano.function, and a list of real values to pass to the
compiled function (don't use shapes that are symmetric, e.g. (3, 3),
as they can easily to hide errors). It also takes the Op class to
verify that no Ops of that type appear in the shape-optimized graph.

If there is an error, the function raises an exception. If you want to
see it fail, you can implement an incorrect ``infer_shape``.

.. code-block:: python

    from theano.tests import unittest_tools as utt
    from theano import config
    class test_Double(utt.InferShapeTester):
        # [...] as previous tests.
        def test_infer_shape(self):
            x = theano.tensor.matrix()
            self._compile_and_check([x],  # theano.function inputs
                                    [self.op(x)],  # theano.function outputs
                                    # Always use not square matrix!
                                    # inputs data
                                    [numpy.asarray(numpy.random.rand(5, 4),
                                                   dtype=config.floatX)],
                                    # Op that should be removed from the graph.
                                    self.op_class)

Testing the gradient
====================

The function :ref:`verify_grad <validating_grad>`
verifies the gradient of an Op or Theano graph. It compares the
analytic (symbolically computed) gradient and the numeric
gradient (computed through the Finite Difference Method).

If there is an error, the function raises an exception. If you want to
see it fail, you can implement an incorrect gradient (for instance, by removing
the multiplication by 2).

.. code-block:: python

        def test_grad(self):
            theano.tests.unittest_tools.verify_grad(self.op,
                                                    [numpy.random.rand(5, 7, 2)])

Testing the Rop
===============

The class :class:`RopLop_checker`, give the functions
:func:`RopLop_checker.check_mat_rop_lop`,
:func:`RopLop_checker.check_rop_lop` and
:func:`RopLop_checker.check_nondiff_rop` that allow to test the
implementation of the Rop method of one Op.

To verify the Rop method of the DoubleOp, you can use this:

.. code-block:: python

   import numpy
   import theano.tests
   from theano.tests.test_rop import RopLop_checker
   class test_DoubleRop(RopLop_checker):
       def setUp(self):
           super(test_DoubleRop, self).setUp()
       def test_double_rop(self):
           self.check_rop_lop(DoubleRop()(self.x), self.in_shape)

Running your tests
==================

You can run ``nosetests`` in the Theano folder to run all of Theano's
tests, including yours if they are somewhere in the directory
structure.  You can run ``nosetests test_file.py`` to run only the
tests in that file. You can run ``nosetests
test_file.py:test_DoubleRop`` to run only the tests inside that test
class. You can run ``nosetests
test_file.py:test_DoubleRop.test_double_op`` to run only one
particular test. More `nosetests
<http://readthedocs.org/docs/nose/en/latest/>`_ documentation.

You can also add this at the end of the test file:

.. code-block:: python

    if __name__ == '__main__':
       t = test_DoubleRop("test_double_rop")
       t.setUp()
       t.test_double_rop()

Exercises 8
-----------

- Run the code in the file double_op.py.
- Modify and execute to compute: x * y
- Modify and execute the example to return 2 outputs: x + y and x - y

  - Our current element-wise fusion generates computation with only 1 output.

GPU Op
------

Op that execute on the GPU should inherit from the
``theano.sandbox.cuda.GpuOp`` and not ``theano.Op``. This allows Theano
to make the distinction between both. Currently, we use this to test
if the NVIDIA driver works correctly with our sum reduction code on the
gpu.


Documentation
-------------

See :ref:`metadocumentation`, for some information on how to generate
and do documentation.
