`MCMCChains` and `ChainsMakie`

[yebai]

Hi @simonsteiger, thanks for this nice work. There is an ongoing PR to add Makie support to MCMCChains. What are your thoughts on joining these two separate efforts, via

1. Close the PR Add plotting via Makie as Extension TuringLang/MCMCChains.jl#454 and register this package
2. Finish the PR and merge this repo into MCMCChains

I am happy with either approach!

[simonsteiger]

Hi @yebai, I'm happy to hear that you're interested in this!

I personally like the idea of separate Makie packages for specific recipes or applications (along the lines of SwarmMakie.jl or SankeyMakie.jl).

If both approaches are equal to you, I'd prefer going with option 1.

I am also not 100% sure if I am following all the Makie best practices here, but I plan to ask people from the Makie team for comments once I have made some more progress.

[yebai]

Hi @simonsteiger, yes, I'm happy with option 1.

A minor suggestion for long-term maintenance: I suggest creating a mono repo setup for MCMCChains and ChainsMakie, similar to https://github.com/JuliaDiff/DifferentiationInterface.jl, which hosts both DI and DIT.

cc @penelopeysm

[simonsteiger]

I'd be happy to follow your suggestion! I'm still very new to package development but also keen to set this up in the best way possible. :)

[simonsteiger]

I've made some progress regarding the basic functionality of the package and docs. What are your thoughts @yebai and @penelopeysm?

So far I have not implemented either updates to Observables or the new Makie.update! syntax from v0.24. I'll do that soon, but it won't be breaking any of the existing functionality anyway.

I would appreciate guidance regarding setting up the mono repo correctly.

Oh and... I think I am committing type piracy several times throughout the package, for example when I add a method for Chains to plot or violin. Would that be addressed through the mono repo integration with MCMCChains?

[penelopeysm]

Oh and... I think I am committing type piracy several times throughout the package, for example when I add a method for Chains to plot or violin. Would that be addressed through the mono repo integration with MCMCChains?

No, it would still be type piracy.

Have we considered the option of doing this via an extension? I am not a huge fan of extensions, but it would solve the piracy issues.

[penelopeysm]

(The type piracy wouldn't be the end of the world, like we aren't sinning against anyone else, because it's still 'our package', but it doesn't sit super well with me and it might also make testing tools like Aqua.jl complain.)

[simonsteiger]

Have we considered the option of doing this via an extension?

I think this was @yebai's suggestion 2. above, if I understood correctly? We can opt for that, too, if it gets us out of the type piracy issue.