⚠️ Notice

L1: Tensor Studio - a more practical continuation of the ideas presented in Moniel.

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Moniel: Notation for Computational Graphs

Human-friendly declarative dataflow notation for computational graphs. See video.

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Pre-built packages

macOS

Moniel.dmg (77MB)

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Setup for other platforms

$ git clone https://github.com/mlajtos/moniel.git
$ cd moniel
$ npm install
$ npm start

Quick Introduction

Moniel is one of many attempts at creating a notation for deep learning models leveraging graph thinking. Instead of defining computation as list of formulea, we define the model as a declarative dataflow graph. It is not a programming language, just a convenient notation. (Which will be executable. Wanna help?)

Note: Proper syntax highlighting is not available here on GitHub. Use the application for the best experience.

Let's start with nothing, i.e. comments:

// This is line comment.

/*
	This is block
	comment.
*/

Node can be created by stating its type:

Sigmoid

You don't have to write full name of a type. Use acronym that fits you! These are all equivalent:

LocalResponseNormalization // canonical, but too long
LocRespNorm // weird, but why not?
LRN // cryptic for beginners, enough for others

Nodes connect with other nodes with an arrow:

Sigmoid -> MaxPooling

There can be chain of any length:

LRN -> Sigm -> BatchNorm -> ReLU -> Tanh -> MP -> Conv -> BN -> ELU

Also, there can be multiple chains:

ReLU -> BN
LRN -> Conv -> MP
Sigm -> Tanh

Nodes can have identifiers:

conv:Convolution

Identifiers let's you refer to nodes that are used more than once:

// inefficient declaration of matrix-matrix multiplication
matrix1:Tensor
matrix2:Tensor
mm:MatrixMultiplication

matrix1 -> mm
matrix2 -> mm

However, this can be rewritten without identifiers using list:

[Tensor,Tensor] -> MatMul

Lists let's you easily declare multi-connection:

// Maximum of 3 random numbers
[Random,Random,Random] -> Maximum

List-to-list connections are sometimes really handy:

// Range of 3 random numbers
[Rand,Rand,Rand] -> [Max,Min] -> Sub -> Abs

Nodes can take named attributes that modify their behavior:

Fill(shape = 10x10x10, value = 1.0)

Attribute names can also be shortened:

Ones(s=10x10x10)

Defining large graphs without proper structuring is unmanageable. Metanodes can help:

layer:{
    RandomNormal(shape=784x1000) -> weights:Variable
    weights -> dp:DotProduct -> act:ReLU
}

Tensor -> layer/dp // feed input into the DotProduct of the "layer" metanode
layer/act -> Softmax // feed output of the "layer" metanode into another node

Metanodes are more powerful when they define proper Input-Output boundary:

layer1:{
    RandomNormal(shape=784x1000) -> weigths:Variable
    [in:Input,weigths] -> DotProduct -> ReLU -> out:Output
}

layer2:{
    RandomNormal(shape=1000x10) -> weigths:Variable
    [in:Input,weigths] -> DotProduct -> ReLU -> out:Output
}

// connect metanodes directly
layer1 -> layer2

Alternatively, you can use inline metanodes:

In -> layer:{[In,Tensor] -> Conv -> Out} -> Out

Or you don't need to give it a name:

In -> {[In,Tensor] -> Conv -> Out} -> Out

If metanodes have identical structure, we can create a reusable metanode and use it as a normal node:

+ReusableLayer(shape = 1x1){
    RandN(shape = shape) -> w:Var
    [in:In,w] -> DP -> RLU -> out:Out
}

RL(s = 784x1000) -> RL(s = 1000x10)

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Similar projects and Inspiration

• Piotr Migdał: Simple Diagrams of Convoluted Neural Networks - great summary on visualizing ML architectures
• Lobe (video) – "Build, train, and ship custom deep learning models using a simple visual interface."
• Serrano – "A graph computation framework with Accelerate and Metal support."
• Subgraphs – "Subgraphs is a visual IDE for developing computational graphs."
• 💀Machine – "Machine is a machine learning IDE."
• PyTorch – "Tensors and Dynamic neural networks in Python with strong GPU acceleration."
• Sonnet – "Sonnet is a library built on top of TensorFlow for building complex neural networks."
• TensorGraph – "TensorGraph is a framework for building any imaginable models based on TensorFlow"
• nngraph – "graphical computation for nn library in Torch"
• DNNGraph – "a deep neural network model generation DSL in Haskell"
• NNVM – "Intermediate Computational Graph Representation for Deep Learning Systems"
• DeepRosetta – "An universal deep learning models conversor"
• TensorBuilder – "a functional fluent immutable API based on the Builder Pattern"
• Keras – "minimalist, highly modular neural networks library"
• PrettyTensor – "a high level builder API"
• TF-Slim – "a lightweight library for defining, training and evaluating models"
• TFLearn – "modular and transparent deep learning library"
• Caffe – "deep learning framework made with expression, speed, and modularity in mind"