Use Pint for units

[garryod]

During the previous project we discussed using the Pint package to provide units for signals sent between simulation components. Was just reminded of this when a question of units was raised in #19. Are our thoughts that this is still worth implementing @thomascobb @callumforrester?

[callumforrester]

I believe the most recent verdict was that it was a good idea for physical quantities but should not be mandated for everything. For example, zebra/panda blocks should send each other booleans rather than voltages.

[garryod]

Yeah, I think we should use it in the included devices and strongly suggest that others do too, but don't enforce it in any way, shape or form.

[collang]

I'll try this out using Cryostream as a test case for now.

[thomascobb]

This was posted by the bluesky developers recently as something to look at: https://pypi.org/project/forallpeople/

I haven't actually looked at it so don't know if its worth looking at

[collang]

From a glance I can't see much different from Pint, although it seems like a much less mature project -- Pint has been going since 2012.

[collang]

I would say my slight reservation about using Pint right now is that they have not yet implemented type annotation (edit: apart from using generic 'Quantity' annotations) (see: hgrecco/pint#1166) although it seems like they're not far off.

[abbiemery]

Closing this as devices have since moved and therefore it is no longer relevant. If units are desired going forward please raise it again on tickit-devices.