Fixed pygpu import, docstring, and unified names.

doc/library/scan.txt

@@ -532,7 +532,7 @@ by the inner function, otherwise an error will be raised.
 Reducing Scan's memory usage
 ----------------------------
 
-This section presents the ``scan_with_checkpoints`` function. In short, this
+This section presents the ``scan_checkpoints`` function. In short, this
 function reduces the memory usage of scan (at the cost of more computation
 time) by not keeping in memory all the intermediate time steps of the loop,
 and recomputing them when computing the gradients. This function is therefore
@@ -553,7 +553,7 @@ Before going more into the details, here are its current limitations:
 Often, in order to be able to compute the gradients through scan operations,
 Theano needs to keep in memory some intermediate computations of scan. This
 can sometimes use a prohibitively large amount of memory.
-``scan_with_checkpoints`` allows to discard some of those intermediate steps and
+``scan_checkpoints`` allows to discard some of those intermediate steps and
 recompute them again when computing the gradients. Its ``save_every_N`` argument
 specifies the number time steps to do without storing the intermediate results.
 For example, ``save_every_N = 4`` will reduce the memory usage by 4, while having
@@ -646,4 +646,4 @@ reference
 .. autofunction:: theano.foldl
 .. autofunction:: theano.foldr
 .. autofunction:: theano.scan
-.. autofunction:: theano.scan_with_checkpoints
+.. autofunction:: theano.scan_checkpoints

theano/__init__.py

@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ from theano.misc.safe_asarray import _asarray
 from theano.printing import pprint, pp
 
 from theano.scan_module import (scan, map, reduce, foldl, foldr, clone,
-                                scan_with_checkpoints)
+                                scan_checkpoints)
 
 from theano.updates import OrderedUpdates
 

theano/scan_module/__init__.py

@@ -40,6 +40,6 @@ __contact__ = "Razvan Pascanu <r.pascanu@gmail>"
 
 from theano.scan_module import scan_opt
 from theano.scan_module.scan import scan
-from theano.scan_module.scan_checkpoint import scan_with_checkpoints
+from theano.scan_module.scan_checkpoints import scan_checkpoints
 from theano.scan_module.scan_views import map, reduce, foldl, foldr
 from theano.scan_module.scan_utils import clone, until

theano/scan_module/scan_checkpoint.py → theano/scan_module/scan_checkpoints.py

@@ -3,34 +3,36 @@ from __future__ import absolute_import, print_function, division
 import theano
 
 
-def scan_with_checkpoints(fn, sequences=[], outputs_info=None,
-                          non_sequences=[], name="checkpointscan_fn",
-                          n_steps=None, save_every_N=10):
+def scan_checkpoints(fn, sequences=[], outputs_info=None, non_sequences=[],
+                     name="checkpointscan_fn", n_steps=None, save_every_N=10):
     """Scan function that uses less memory, but is more restrictive.
 
-    In ``scan``, if you compute the gradient of the output with respect
-    to the input, you will have to store the intermediate results at
-    each time step, which can be prohibitively huge. This function allows
-    to do several steps of forward computations without storing the
-    intermediate results, and to recompute them during the gradient
-    computation.
-
-    Current assumptions :
-    - Every sequence has the same length.
-    - If n_steps is specified, it has the same value as the length of any
-    sequence.
-    - The value of "save_every_N" divides the number of steps the Scan will
-    run without remainder.
-    - Only singly-recurrent and non-recurrent outputs are used.
+    In :func:`~theano.scan`, if you compute the gradient of the output
+    with respect to the input, you will have to store the intermediate
+    results at each time step, which can be prohibitively huge. This
+    function allows to do ``save_every_N`` steps of forward computations
+    without storing the intermediate results, and to recompute them during
+    the gradient computation.
+
+    Notes
+    -----
+    Current assumptions:
+
+    * Every sequence has the same length.
+    * If ``n_steps`` is specified, it has the same value as the length of
+      any sequence.
+    * The value of ``save_every_N`` divides the number of steps the scan
+      will run without remainder.
+    * Only singly-recurrent and non-recurrent outputs are used.
       No multiple recurrences.
-    - Only the last timestep of any output will ever be used.
+    * Only the last timestep of any output will ever be used.
 
     Parameters
     ----------
     fn
         ``fn`` is a function that describes the operations involved in one
-        step of ``scan``. See the documentation of ``scan`` for more
-        information.
+        step of ``scan``. See the documentation of :func:`~theano.scan`
+        for more information.
 
     sequences
         ``sequences`` is the list of Theano variables or dictionaries
@@ -51,36 +53,30 @@ def scan_with_checkpoints(fn, sequences=[], outputs_info=None,
     n_steps
         ``n_steps`` is the number of steps to iterate given as an int
         or Theano scalar. If any of the input sequences do not have
-        enough elements, scan will raise an error. If the *value is 0* the
-        outputs will have *0 rows*. If the value is negative, ``scan``
-        will run backwards in time. If the ``go_backwards`` flag is already
-        set and also ``n_steps`` is negative, ``scan`` will run forward
-        in time. If n_steps is not provided, ``scan`` will figure
+        enough elements, scan will raise an error. If the **value is 0**
+        the outputs will have **0 rows**. If the value is negative,
+        ``scan`` will run backwards in time. If the ``go_backwards`` flag
+        is already set and also ``n_steps`` is negative, ``scan`` will run
+        forward in time. If n_steps is not provided, ``scan`` will figure
         out the amount of steps it should run given its input sequences.
 
     save_every_N
         ``save_every_N`` is the number of steps to go without storing
-        the computations of scan (ie they will have to be recomputed
+        the computations of ``scan`` (ie they will have to be recomputed
         during the gradient computation).
 
     Returns
     -------
     tuple
-        Tuple of the form (outputs, updates); ``outputs`` is either a
-        Theano variable or a list of Theano variables representing the
-        outputs of ``scan`` (in the same order as in ``outputs_info``).
-        ``updates`` is a subclass of dictionary specifying the update rules for
-        all shared variables used in scan.
-        This dictionary should be passed to ``theano.function`` when you compile
-        your function. The change compared to a normal dictionary is that we
-        validate that keys are SharedVariable and addition of those dictionary
-        are validated to be consistent.
-        Note that only the last time step of ``outputs`` can be used with this
-        type of scan.
+        Tuple of the form ``(outputs, updates)`` as in :func:`~theano.scan`, but
+        with a small change: It only contain the output at each
+        ``save_every_N`` step. The time steps that are not returned by
+        this function will be recomputed during the gradient computation
+        (if any).
 
     See Also
     --------
-    scan : Looping in Theano.
+    :func:`~theano.scan`: Looping in Theano.
 
     """
     # Standardize the format of input arguments
@@ -94,7 +90,7 @@ def scan_with_checkpoints(fn, sequences=[], outputs_info=None,
     # Check that outputs_info has no taps:
     for element in outputs_info:
         if isinstance(element, dict) and 'taps' in element:
-            raise RuntimeError("scan_with_checkpoints doesn't work with taps.")
+            raise RuntimeError("scan_checkpoints doesn't work with taps.")
 
     # Determine how many steps the original scan would run
     if n_steps is None:

theano/scan_module/tests/test_scan_checkpoint.py → theano/scan_module/tests/test_scan_checkpoints.py

@@ -6,7 +6,11 @@ import unittest
 import theano
 import theano.tensor as T
 
-from pygpu.gpuarray import GpuArrayException
+try:
+    from pygpu.gpuarray import GpuArrayException
+    PYGPU_AVAILABLE = True
+except ImportError:
+    PYGPU_AVAILABLE = False
 
 
 class TestScanCheckpoint(unittest.TestCase):
@@ -19,7 +23,7 @@ class TestScanCheckpoint(unittest.TestCase):
             outputs_info=T.ones_like(self.A),
             non_sequences=self.A,
             n_steps=self.k)
-        result_check, _ = theano.scan_with_checkpoints(
+        result_check, _ = theano.scan_checkpoints(
             fn=lambda prior_result, A: prior_result * A,
             outputs_info=T.ones_like(self.A),
             non_sequences=self.A,
@@ -44,6 +48,7 @@ class TestScanCheckpoint(unittest.TestCase):
         out, out_check = f(range(10), 100)
         assert numpy.allclose(out, out_check)
 
+    @unittest.skipUnless(PYGPU_AVAILABLE, 'Requires pygpu.')
     def test_memory(self):
         """Test that scan_checkpoint reduces memory usage."""
         if None not in theano.gpuarray.type.list_contexts():
@@ -61,5 +66,5 @@ class TestScanCheckpoint(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_taps_error(self):
         """Test that an error rises if we use taps in outputs_info."""
-        self.assertRaises(RuntimeError, theano.scan_with_checkpoints,
+        self.assertRaises(RuntimeError, theano.scan_checkpoints,
                           lambda: None, [], {'initial': self.A, 'taps': [-2]})