important: all fieldtrip functions will be renamed to ft_xxx

[Robert Oostenveld]

Dear fieldtrip users

One more note: for the backward compatibility to work, you should add
the fieldtrip/compat directory to your path. Alternatively (and
preferably) you should execute the fieldtrip/fieldtripdefs.m function.
The fieldtripdefs function sets the default cfg options and also
ensures that all path settings are correct.

best regards,
Robert

On 16 Dec 2009, at 11:06, Robert Oostenveld wrote:

> Dear FieldTrip users
>
> As some of you may know, Matlab (and specifically the older versions
> that we still support) does not have a good way of separating
> functions in different toolboxes from each other. The fieldtrip
> version of preprocessing (or read_data) might be completely
> different from a function with the same name in another toolbox.
> That is not a problem for some of the unusual function names, but
> some function names like "preprocessing" are very generic and
> therefore likely to be used in completely different contexts.
>
> After repeated discussion with the developers of the SPM Matlab
> toolbox, we have decided to start adopting the same naming scheme
> that SPM is using. That naming scheme consists of prefixing the
> function name with the name of the toolbox, e.g. spm_contrasts. The
> prefix that FieldTrip will use is "ft_". So that means that the
> FieldTrip preprocessing function will be renamed into
> ft_preprocessing, sourceanalysis will become ft_sourceanalysis,
> freqanalysis will become ft_freqanalysis, etc. This will affect all
> publicly available FieldTrip functions, i.e. the main functions that
> you are using. The advantage of this change in function names is
> that it further facilitates the already very good collaboration of
> the FieldTrip project with other EEG/MEG method development groups,
> such as SPM, EEGLAB, BrainStorm and others.
>
> Note that this is not an easy choice to make and we have carefully
> considered the consequences. Of course all users have existing
> scripts that use the old function names. We will do our utmost best
> to ensure that your old scripts will remain functional, also with
> new versions of the fieldtrip toolbox. To make this possible, we
> will provide backward compatibility wrappers, e.g. there will be a
> preprocessing.m function that calls ft_preprocessing.m and the
> likes. Not only the existing analysis scripts are affected, but also
> the documentation on the fieldtrip wiki will have to be updated.
> Furthermore, fieldtrip functions often call each other, which means
> that inside the fieldtrip functions the function names also have to
> be changed.
>
> On the short time scale, we will provide backward compatibility
> wrapper functions. On the medium time scale, we will ensure that the
> fieldtrip code and documentation is internally consistent. On the
> long run everyone (which includes you!) should adopt the new
> function names. Please start using these new function names in your
> scripts and in your derived functions as soon as possible. At a
> certain point in the future, the backward compatibility to the old/
> current function names will be removed from the fieldtrip release,
> so by that time all of your scripts should only be using the new
> function names, otherwise they won't work any more. The backward
> compatibility will be ensured throughout 2010, i.e. for a full year.
> Usually we are able to maintain backward compatibility for a much
> longer time, so probably you should not have to worry about this too
> much.
>
> best regards,
> Robert
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> Robert Oostenveld, PhD
> Senior Researcher
> Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
> Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging
> Radboud University Nijmegen
> tel.: +31 (0)24 3619695
> e-mail: r.oostenveld at donders.ru.nl
> web: http://www.ru.nl/neuroimaging
> skype: r.oostenveld
> -----------------------------------------------------------
>
> ----------------------------------
> The aim of this list is to facilitate the discussion between users
> of the FieldTrip  toolbox, to share experiences and to discuss new
> ideas for MEG and EEG analysis. See also http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/fieldtrip.html
>  and http://www.ru.nl/neuroimaging/fieldtrip.
>

----------------------------------
The aim of this list is to facilitate the discussion between users of the FieldTrip  toolbox, to share experiences and to discuss new ideas for MEG and EEG analysis. See also http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/fieldtrip.html and http://www.ru.nl/neuroimaging/fieldtrip.