Simplify variables: step_idx -> step, epoch_idx -> epoch, max_num_epochs -> max_epochs, min_num_epochs -> min_epochs

[elliotwaite]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
This is a feature request to simplify these variables:
step_idx, epoch_idx, max_num_epochs, and min_num_epochs

To:
step, epoch, max_epochs, and min_epochs

These variables were all recently updated by change #567, so I thought if these variables were going to simplified, now would be a good time to do so.

To me, using batch_idx makes sense since it's the index value for the current batch in a sequence of batches, but since step and epoch aren't index values for a sequence, but rather counters, using the simplified versions of these without the _idx suffix makes more sense to me.

Using the simplified max_epochs and min_epochs is more just based on what seems more natural to me, so I'd be interested to hear if others also agreed that these would be good changes to make.

[Borda]

@williamFalcon the changes are here now...

[williamFalcon]

max and min epochs?

[Borda]

I would consider even unify min and max in single variable range

[elliotwaite]

@Borda Can you expand on this idea. Would it be a tuple? Would the variable be named epochs_range? What would that look like when passed in as a command-line argument?

[Borda]

Yeah, tuple with name epoch_interval and via command line you would pass two numbers which is trivial =)

[elliotwaite]

Got it. Personally, if I saw epoch_interval without explanation, it would not be very clear to me what it meant. I might wonder if it was for some kind of interval happening within each epoch, or if it was the counter for which epoch interval we were currently in. epochs_range is similarly less clear to me than max_epochs and min_epochs.

Also, I would imagine for a majority of use cases, users will only want to specify a maximum number of epochs, and that also specifying a minimum will be less common, which makes me lean towards keeping them as separate variables to allow users to easily omit specifying the minimum.

Having them tied together in a tuple does make sense in that they are tightly related, but in my experience, it seems more common practice to just have two separate int variables with the same name except for the min and max part (but common practice is not necessarily better practice).

[williamFalcon]

agreed. let’s keep it min max as the range thing is confusing

[Borda]

@elliotwaite good, are going to realize it is a PR?