Contribution to Sorcha Add-ons

Sorcha has the ability user provided functions though python classes that augment/change the apparent brightness calculations for the synthetic Solar System objects. Rather than forcing the user directly modify the Sorcha codebase every time they want to apply a different model for representing the effects of rotational light curves or cometary activity, we provide the ability to develop separate activity and light curve/brightness enhancement functions as plugins using our template classes and add them to the Sorcha add-ons package. In both cases, any derived class must inherit from the corresponding base class (cometary activity template class and light curve template class) and follow its API, to ensure that Sorcha knows how to find and use your class. Please use the instructions below to contribute your new activity/lightcurve perscriptions to Sorcha add-ons.

Create Your Environment and Install the Package in Development Mode

Step 1 Create a directory to contain the Sorcha add-ons repo:

mkdir sorcha-addons

Step 2 Navigate to the directory you want to store the Sorcha add-ons source code in:

cd sorcha-addons

**Step 3* Clonek``Sorcha Add-ons`` source code via:

git clone https://github.com/dirac-institute/sorcha-addons.git

Step 4 Navigate to the Sorcha Add-ons repository directory:

cd sorcha-addons

Step 5 Install the full development version:

pip install -e '.[dev]'

Create your Contribution

Add src code in new module under .../src/socha

Add tests in new folder under .../tests/

Add example notebook in .../docs/notebooks/. Update .../docs/notebooks.rst.

Add documentation page in .../docs/community_modules. Update .../docs/community_modules.rst. Be sure to include information about how to cite your work.

Create a Pull Request For Review

Commit your changes to a fork of the github repository and create a pull request for review.

Mention mschwamb in a reply of the pull request.