[Question] since populationList is a type of population, should it be included in Population in the LEMS definitions somehow?

[sanjayankur31]

To use population lists, where instances have locations, one uses this type of call in libNeuroML.

    pop = Population(id="pop0", notes="A population for our cell", component="olm", size=1, type="populationList")

In the XSD schema, we have this:

    <xs:complexType name="Population">

        <xs:complexContent>
            <xs:extension base="Standalone">
                <xs:choice>
                    <xs:element name="layout" type="Layout" minOccurs="0"/>
                    <xs:element name="instance" type="Instance" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
                </xs:choice>

                <xs:attribute name="component" type="NmlId" use="required"/>

                <xs:attribute name="size" type="NonNegativeInteger" use="optional"/>

                <xs:attribute name="type" type="populationTypes" use="optional"/>

                <xs:attribute name="extracellularProperties" type="NmlId" use="optional"/>

            </xs:extension>
        </xs:complexContent>

    </xs:complexType>



    <xs:simpleType name="populationTypes">
        <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
            <xs:enumeration value="population"/>
            <xs:enumeration value="populationList"/>
        </xs:restriction>
    </xs:simpleType>

In the LEMS defs though, populationList is defined as a separate component type, unrelated to population (and so it also appears as a separate entity in the schema docs we generate). So, one expects to use it as pop = PopulationList ..., similar to Population.

    <ComponentType name="population" extends="basePopulation" description="A population of components, with just one parameter for the _size">
        <Parameter name="size" dimension="none" description="Number of instances of this Component to create when the population is instantiated"/>
        <Structure>
            <MultiInstantiate number="size" component="component"/>
        </Structure>
    </ComponentType>


    <ComponentType name="populationList" extends="basePopulation" description="An explicit list of the cells in the population. ">
        <Children name="instances" type="instance"/>

        <Text name="size"/> <!--Note: Text, not Parameter, as this is not actually used by LEMS, the <instance> elements determine the size, this attribute is really just metadata, though the two should be consistent-->
    </ComponentType>

Should the LEMS definition be modified somehow to make population include a type attribute, that can take population and populationlist values?