[Insight-users] Simple ITK vs Scripted ITK vs full ITK

Fri Jan 13 10:16:14 EST 2012

Hello again, 

in the end, and after further thought, I've decided that this will hinge on the response of the biologists at my university. If there is a demand from them for script-based, I'll add the script-based, so that my course will be an adaptation of John's, which will be dual-stream (part tailored for C++ programmers, part tailored for script users). If not, I may opt for Simple and Classic ITK. 

In the former case, there may come a point where I need advice on wrapping some useful classes that are not part of the usual WrapITK. 

Oh, and Best wishes for the New Year, 

Michel

Michel Audette, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor,
Department of Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Engineering,
Old Dominion University,
Norfolk, VA.
________________________________________
From: Audette, Michel A.
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2012 9:45 AM
To: insight-users at itk.org
Subject: RE: [Insight-users] Simple ITK vs Scripted ITK vs full ITK

Dear gents (Matt, Dan, Alex...),

Thanks for all of your answers. I think that this 70% figure is what I was looking for. In my opinion, I have to be careful about how much programming I have to cover in the class, since this will be foremost an imaanalysis class, where ITK is a means to an end. It may be feasible to do both Simple and Classic ITK, since the progression is probably natural, from non-templated to templated. But adding wrapping to that really makes it an ITK course rather than one where the emphasis will be on the algorithms.

In my opinion, John Galeotti has struck a good balance between the two, where ITK is used to empower the students to learn and refine algorithms. Adding another week or two on wrapping would take away from time better spent on demons registration or level sets (and hopefully simplex, right Alex ;-) ) surface models.

Cheers,

Michel

Michel Audette, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor,
Department of Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Engineering,
Old Dominion University,
Norfolk, VA.
________________________________________
From: Dan Mueller [dan.muel at gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2012 12:42 AM
To: Audette, Michel A.
Cc: insight-users at itk.org
Subject: Re: [Insight-users] Simple ITK vs Scripted ITK vs full ITK

Hi Michel,

Your email seems to have posed the question as SimpleITK xor WrapITK
xor ITK. Have you considered SimpleITK _and_ WrapITK _and_ ITK? IMHO
the tools make a nice progression: simple/less features to more
complex/fully featured. Concepts learnt in SimpleITK are transferable
to WrapITK, and concepts learnt in WrapITK are transferable to pure
C++ ITK.

For example:

SimpleITK could be used to introduced the notion of an n-D image with
configurable pixel type, file types supported by ITK, common filters,
etc.
WrapITK could introduce pipeline execution, events/progress reporting,
additional functionality not available (yet) in SimpleITK (e.g.
registration).
Finally ITK topics could include CMake/building, generic
programming/templates, writing custom filters, etc.
(Of course these topics are on top of the general medical image
analysis topics.)

Anyhow, just an idea that perhaps you hadn't considered...

To answer some of your more specific questions:
SimpleITK currently supports the following first tier languages:
Python, Tcl, Java. Other "second" tier languages include R, Lua, C#.
WrapITK also supports a number of different languages, including:
Python, Tcl, Java, Perl, Ruby. I don't know the exact figure, but
WrapITK would cover roughly 70% of available ITK filters.
Also, AFAIK SimpleITK can be integrated with both WrapITK and classic
ITK (depending on the wrapping language i.e. Python).

HTH

Cheers, Dan

On 13 January 2012 15:13, Matt McCormick <matt.mccormick at kitware.com> wrote:
> Hi Michel,
>
> Another ITK based course would be great!
>
> SimpleITK is probably your best bet at this point.  It will remove
> language hurtles that may cloud the learning process, and it still
> provides a basis for what can easily be a full course.  The most
> notable drawback right now with SimpleITK is a lack of registration
> interfaces.  There is good Doxygen documentation, and the SimpleITK
> developers are working on a user's guide and better in-language help.
>
> The script-based ITK (WrapITK) is available, and it would not be a bad
> choice either.  It removes the high programming bar for understanding
> C++, templates, writing typedefs, ...  You can build the python
> interface by setting ITK_WRAP_PYTHON to ON in the CMake configuration.
>
> Of course, there is nothing wrong with ITK classic, either.  However,
> the other interfaces may be more effective as a gateway drug other
> than direct access to "the good stuff".
>
> Best regards,
> Matt
>
> On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 4:41 PM, Audette, Michel A. <maudette at odu.edu> wrote:
>> Dear ITK users and developers,
>>
>> I'm giving thought to producing a course similar to John Galeotti's at CMU, i.e. medical image analysis based on ITK, but I'm also considering whether to use Simple ITK, or scripted ITK (you guys are working on that, right?), vs ITK Classic.
>>
>> I want to give the students the full breadth of possibilities, but at the same time, if I can attract biology students to the class on the basis of a script-based course, that might a justification for opting for the scripting-based version.
>>
>> Can anyone give me a sense of how much ITK functionality I would be sacrificing if I opt for script-based ITK (what is it: python?) vs what will be available via C++-based ITK, Simple or otherwise?
>>
>> Thanks for your kind consideration.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Michel
>>
>> Michel Audette, Ph.D.
>> Assistant Professor,
>> Department of Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Engineering,
>> Old Dominion University,
>> Norfolk, VA.
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> Visit other Kitware open-source projects at
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>
> Kitware offers ITK Training Courses, for more information visit:
> http://www.kitware.com/products/protraining.html
>
> Please keep messages on-topic and check the ITK FAQ at:
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