ufl binding

This week I started my work on the ufl function: it is now possible to write ufl code on-the-go, directly in your m-files. You can see below how the Poisson.ufl file of the homonymous example provided with fem-fenics (on the left) can be translated to a snippet of Octave code:

# Copyright (C) 2005-2009 Anders Logg element = FiniteElement("Lagrange", triangle, 1) u = TrialFunction(element) v = TestFunction(element) f = Coefficient(element) g = Coefficient(element) a = inner(grad(u), grad(v))*dx L = f*v*dx + g*v*ds

# Copyright (C) 2005-2009 Anders Logg ufl start Poisson ufl element = FiniteElement("Lagrange", triangle, 1) ufl ufl u = TrialFunction(element) ufl v = TestFunction(element) ufl f = Coefficient(element) ufl g = Coefficient(element) ufl ufl a = inner(grad(u), grad(v))*dx ufl L = f*v*dx + g*v*ds ufl end

How to use ufl

Basically, you just need to prepend what you would have written in your .ufl file with ufl. As you can see, anyway, there are also two new instructions. fem-fenics still needs to store your code in a separate file, which is then compiled using ffc, the FEniCS form compiler, but now ufl takes care of the process.

Your code should begin with the start command, and optionally with the name you want to assign to the file: in this example, we choose to open a new Poisson.ufl file. Be aware that ufl will not overwrite an existing file so, if you plan to use your script for several runs, my suggestion is to keep your working directory clean and tidy with a delete ('Poisson.ufl') after the snippet above.

When you are fine with your ufl code, the end command will tell ufl that it can compile and provide you with your freshly built problem. You can also specify options like BilinearForm (it is not the only one available, find a comprehensive list in the help message, in Octave), in case you wrote just part of the problem in your last lines.

What now?

A lot of commitment was devoted to this function. This is not due to intrinsic difficulties: a sketch of the function's code has been around for a while and the current implementation has not consistently slid away from it. The goal was to obtain a robust piece of code, since it will be the cornerstone of a new paradigm in fem-fenics usage. At least each and every example provided with the package needs to be modified to take advantage of this change, and this will be my next task.