doParallel/foreach still as depends?

[smjenness]

Can we do an audit of all the depends/imports on this package, especially the parallel packages since we moved over to future in core EpiModel.

[AdrienLeGuillou]

I did a review of EpiModelHPC and the functionalities it provides to see where doParallel is still used.

Only netsim_hpc uses it when restarting from checkpoints.
From my point of view, the checkpointing implemented in core EpiModel entirely superseeds this one. An I am actually unsure if these function (netsim_hpc and the *_cp functions) still work correctly since dat has evolved a lot over time.

I think @sgoodreau tried a few years ago and failed to use EpiModel > v2.3 with these

I would suggest either:

• testing and updating these function to use future instead of foreach and ensure they work correctly with modern EpiModel. (a lot of work)
• deprecating / removing them since the last project using them are > 5 years old and would require version of EpiModel incompatible with current EpiModelHPC anyway.

[smjenness]

Great - I don't think anyone uses these anymore. And we can't guarantee they work anyway. So let's remove them, and then remove the doParallel import.

[sgoodreau]

I think @sgoodreau tried a few years ago and failed to use EpiModel > v2.3 with these

I have a vague memory of something like this, but that's about it. From @smjenness's reply it sounds like this it's moot now, but let me know if you want me to try and dig up any old info.

[AdrienLeGuillou]

Thanks, I'll get to it.
I think we should have a new GitHub release with the current version and afterward another one that is explicit about the deprecation.