# Bumps 0.8.1 documentation

## Using Bumps

The first step in using Bumps is to define a fit file. This is python code defining the function, the fitting parameters and any data that is being fitted.

A fit file usually starts with an import statement:

    from bumps.names import *

This imports names from `bumps.names` and makes the available to the model definition.

Next the fit file should load the data with something like np.loadtxt which loads columnar ASCII data into an array. This data feeds into a `Fitness` function for a particular model that gives the probability of seeing the data for a given set of model parameters. These model functions can be quite complex, involving not only the calculation of the theory function, but also simulating instrumental resolution and background signal.

The fitness function will have `Parameter` objects defining the fittable parameters. Usually the model is initialized without any fitted parameters, allowing the user to set a `range` on each parameter that needs to be fitted. Although it is a little tedious to set up, keeping the fitted ranges separate from the model definition works better in the fitting process, which usually involves multiple iterations with different configurations. It is convenient to be able to turn on and off fitting for individual parameter with a simple comment character (‘#’) at the start of the line.

Every fit file ends with a `FitProblem` definition:

    problem = FitProblem(model)

In fact, this is the only requirement of the fit file. The Bumps engine loads the fit file, retieves the problem symbol and feeds it to one of the `fitters`. Some fit files do not even use FitProblem to define problem, or use Parameter objects for the fitted parameters, so long as problem implements the `BaseFitProblem` interface, which provides getp to get the existing parameter vector, setp to set a new parameter vector, bounds to return the parameter bounds, and nllf to to compute the negative log likelihood function. The remaining methods are optional.

Note that the pattern of importing all names from a file using from bumps.names import *, while convenient for simple scripts, can make the code more difficult to understand later, and can lead to unexpected results when moving code around to other files. The alternative pattern to use is:

    import bumps.names as bmp
    ...
    problem = bmp.FitProblem(model)

This documents to the reader unfamiliar with your code (such as you, dear reader, when looking at your model files two years from now) exactly where the name comes from.

The Tutorial walks through the process for several different data sets.