Request to change submodels in config.yaml from a list to a dict

[micaeljtoliveira]

Currently the submodels are listed in the config.yaml file as a list. This makes it harder to modify the information programmatically (see, for example this issue and the related discussion )

Because all submodels entries need to have a name item, it would be trivial to change the list of submodels to be a dict. So, the following:

    submodels:
      - name: ice:
        model: cice5
        ncpus: [6, 12, 24]

would become:

    submodels:
      ice:
        - model: cice5
          ncpus: [6, 12, 24]

It should also be possible to keep backward compatibility by still allowing the user to provide a list instead of a dict, as it's trivial to convert one into the other internally.

[minghangli-uni]

Thanks @micaeljtoliveira for bringing this up. I’m updating the experiment-generator to support list selection via positional indexing, so we don’t have to specify every element when changing parameters. But it would definitely be better in the long run to represent the list of submodels as dicts.

[aidanheerdegen]

Because all submodels entries need to have a name item, it would be trivial to change the list of submodels to be a dict

Agreed that this is a superior design.

I can't see this being actioned in the short term (3-6 months). So if this is a priority someone else will need to make a PR to implement it.

[micaeljtoliveira]

@aidanheerdegen I don't mind implementing this change. Just want to be sure the payu devs are okay with it before spending any time on this.