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All about NEST 3.1

This page contains a summary of all breaking and non-breaking changes from NEST 3.0 to NEST 3.1. In addition to the auto-generated release notes on GitHub, this page also contains transition information that helps you to update your simulation scripts when you come from an older version of NEST.

If you transition from a version earlier than 3.0, please see our extensive transition guide from NEST 2.x to 3.0.

On this page you’ll find

Access to kernel properties

NEST 3.1 provides a new interface to the properties of the NEST simulation kernel. Instead of using the traditional access methods GetKernelStatus() and SetKernelStatus(), properties can now also be set and retrieved via direct kernel attributes.

Where you previously had nest.SetKernelStatus({"resolution": 0.2}) in your simulation script, you can now just write nest.resolution = 0.2. Kernel attributes now come with their own docstrings and even tab-completion works for them!

Co-dependent properties that have to be set together (for instance min_delay and max_delay) can now be changed using the function set() on the level of the nest module.

NEST 3.0

NEST 3.1

nest.GetKernelStatus()

nest.kernel_status

nest.GetKernelStatus('network_size')

nest.network_size

nest.SetKernelStatus({'resolution': 0.2})

nest.resolution = 0.2

 
nest.SetKernelStatus({
    'min_delay': 0.2,
    'max_delay': 2.0
})

nest.set(min_delay=0.2, max_delay=2.0)

Deprecation information

  • The access functions GetKernelStatus() and SetKernelStatus() are deprecated. They will be removed in a future version of NEST. To avoid porting trouble later on, we suggest you switch to using the new interface for kernel properties now.

  • Model pp_pop_psc_delta has been deprecated since 2016 and will be removed in NEST 3.2. Please use model gif_pop_psc_exp instead.

  • The nest.hl_api namespace contained the same members as nest and is being removed in NEST 3.2. All imports from nest.hl_api can be replaced by imports from nest.