Roadmap and recent releases based on AltDSS/DSS C-API 0.14.3

[PMeira]

All projects were updated for version 0.14.3 of the AltDSS engine.

Since we haven't made a general announcement yet, the 0.14.x releases include a lot of changes. We recommend checking at least the DSS C-API changelog.

This announcement is also intended to present the new packages and present a tentative roadmap. OpenDSSDirect.py also had an important update, see more at https://dss-extensions.org/OpenDSSDirect.py/updating_to_0.9.html

In the future, we will refer to the API in the style of the official COM implementation as "classic API," while new APIs and distinct features paradigms will use the "alternative API". More at: https://dss-extensions.org/classic_api.html

New website

We now have a basic website at https://dss-extensions.org/

This links to all projects, contains general documentation and references. Check it out!

The expectation is to integrate some of the individual projects documentations into this new site for a better experience.

New projects

Three new projects were created in the past few months:

• AltDSS-Schema: A JSON Schema for the OpenDSS circuit data. This project will result in a lot of subproducts in the long term. It's still being documented and a proper release will be out soon.
• AltDSS-Python: A new, modern and highly-integrated Python package for the OpenDSS engine. Enables access and manipulation of all DSS elements in a more natural way, allows fast batch/bulk operations, and more. While DSS-Python and OpenDSSDirect.py will continue, to avoid invasive changes or break compatibility, many new features will be hosted in AltDSS-Python. All three Python packages can be used together since they interact with the same engine.
• AltDSS-Go: Since we had repeated requests for golang bindings, a new project was created. Currently tested on Linux, allows access to all of the classic/COM-derived API.
• AltDSS-Rust: Rust is also a programming language that is getting more attention, and we also saw multiple users using DSS C-API in Rust in a limited capacity in the past few years. To make it easier for Rust users, the new package was created to make the classic API, and in the future the alternative API too (as in AltDSS-Python). This package had important feedback from Tim Maloney (@keegit), who also helped integrate some of the previous work done in Open Energy Solutions, and is now one of the maintainers of the new package. Currently tested on Linux, we plan to extend it to all platforms.

Roadmap for the next semester

This will updated after some review. Feedback is welcome.

Schema

AltDSS-Schema will be used to replace the old internal schema of DSS C-API, allowing more reuse and consistent features across multiple languages. This is a very wide topic that needs specific documentation and examples to better illustrate it.

GUI

• Complement the Python plotting tools.
• Provide an implement of plots for Julia on OpenDSSDirect.jl: Plotting: add as a package extension OpenDSSDirect.jl#98
• Finish and publish the proof of concept Qt GUI (old screenshot below)

• Try to provide reusable components for Qt (Python only?) and Typescript (most likely restriced to Vue.js).

C++: engine and dss.hpp

Our C++ port of the main engine in DSS C-API will be finished soon after the internal command system is refactored.

Note that this is a separate effort from EPRI's. For context, from the official OpenDSS docs:

In 2022 there was a project sponsored by an EPRI member that later was co-sponsored by EPRI for translating the source code of OpenDSS from pascal to C++. This in order to provide other access to other compilers to the solution core and structure of DSS, as well as to facilitate the interaction of other developers with the simulator source code. This version is available to the public starting in summer 2024 and will be maintained following the development route of Delphi (pascal). The Delphi version is and will be the reference for OpenDSS developments, the C++ will follow Delphi's development route.

Besides the engine itself, dss.hpp will be updated and renamed to altdss.hpp to better reflect the current naming convention. The plan is to allow it to be used as a wrapper to our C API, or dissolve most of the API code and use the new C++ engine directly, seamlessly.

On DSS-Extensions, the plan is to drop the Pascal version after the C++ port.

Port the Alt API to more languages

Although initial development has been done in the Python package (AltDSS) and C++ in dss.hpp, the recent efforts focused on Python.

The plan is to port it to most languages (not all), which changes to fit the target language.

Documentation

We expect to on-board more developers that will especially complement some aspect of the documentation. More details coming soon.

Support for the official OpenDSSDirect.DLL

Like we mentioned in other posts, the official OpenDSSDirect.DLL was rewritten to remove variant arguments. We are working to support it in a limited capability (it won't have most API and feature extensions).