PyMesaHandler

PyMesHandler allows for a native interaction of inlist files via Python. This means, that the package will automatically convert between the fortran like variables within inlist and native python standard datatypes. For example the variable

read_extra_star_job_inlist1 = .true.

will be available through the package as

mesaHandlerObject["read_extra_star_job_inlist1"] = True

The conversion happens in a black box using some regex magic automatically. This means if you change a property in the python object, it will automatically transfer to the file.

Keep in mind this application is still a work in progress. If you find any errors or have a feature request, don't hesitate to open an issue on this github.

Features

• No more file hassle. PyMesaHandler automatically combines all files you use for your setup and will update them accordingly
• Python file types. You can actually do some scripting or calculation beforehand. The package will automatically convert these properly to the right types for fortran.
• Parameter creation and deletion: The package allows you to create and remove parameters from your inlist files, again using only python datatypes. It will even check if the parameter is available through the Mesa defaults and if the type of the data you want to assign is the correct one.
• Includes the full capabilities of MesaReader: MesaReader is included as a submodule of this code, and therefore provides it's full capabilities. Further integration is also part of future development.

Getting started

PyMesaHandler is available through pip. To install simply call

pip install PyMesaHandler

Usage example

Lets say you want to edit the initial mass of the model you want to create. Simply create a python file in the same directory as the inlist files with the following code

from MesaHandler import MesaAccess

object = MesaAccess()

object["initial_mass"] = 5

and run it. Thats it. The file will now have the changed mass as its parameter. You can use any parameter that is available through your installed Mesa version.

PyMesaHandler also includes MesaReader, whichs documentation can be found here.

Credit

As it should be mentioned here, the code makes use of MesaReader. Thanks to the original author to make its use available to me.

Future development

There are many features that are aimed to be added to this module. The goal is to create a package, where you no longer need to manually run Mesa, so that you can automate your usage of Mesa. Features for the pipeline are:

• Automated Build & run for Mesa: The modul will run Mesa if you want to run it through the module
• Plotting capabilities: You want to plot one or multiple results from Mesa? That will be also possible through this package.
• Creation of new projects and sharing of projects: One of the final goals with this project is, that you only need to share your python project. Anyone who has Python and Mesa installed, will than be able to run your model using only python code.
• Further Integration of MesaReader: MesaReader has some cool capabilities to get Mesa Reader into Python. Future development will see further integration into the MesaAccess class, as this should be the only point of entry to interact with Mesa.

And various other features that are not yet included.