
# Symbolic Layers

Tensorpack contains a small collection of common model primitives,
such as conv/deconv, fc, bn, pooling layers. **You do not need to learn them.**

These layers were written only because there were no alternatives when
tensorpack was first developed.
Nowadays, these implementation actually call `tf.layers` directly.
Tensorpack will not add any more layers into its core library because this is
not the focus of tensorpack, and there are many other alternative symbolic
libraries today.

Today, you can just use `tf.layers` or any other symbolic libraries inside tensorpack.
Using the tensorpack implementations, you can also benefit from `argscope` and `LinearWrap` to
simplify the code.

Note that to keep backward compatibility of code and pre-trained models, tensorpack layers
have some small differences with `tf.layers`, including variable names and default options.
Refer to the API document for details.

### argscope and LinearWrap
`argscope` gives you a context with default arguments.
`LinearWrap` is a syntax sugar to simplify building "linear structure" models.

The following code:
```python
with argscope(Conv2D, filters=32, kernel_size=3, activation=tf.nn.relu):
  l = (LinearWrap(image)  # the starting brace is only for line-breaking
       .Conv2D('conv0')
       .MaxPooling('pool0', 2)
       .Conv2D('conv1', padding='SAME')
       .Conv2D('conv2', kernel_size=5)
       .FullyConnected('fc0', 512, activation=tf.nn.relu)
       .Dropout('dropout', rate=0.5)
       .tf.multiply(0.5)
       .apply(func, *args, **kwargs)
       .FullyConnected('fc1', units=10, activation=tf.identity)())
```
is equivalent to:
```
l = Conv2D('conv0', image, 32, 3, activation=tf.nn.relu)
l = MaxPooling('pool0', l, 2)
l = Conv2D('conv1', l, 32, 3, padding='SAME', activation=tf.nn.relu)
l = Conv2D('conv2', l, 32, 5, activation=tf.nn.relu)
l = FullyConnected('fc0', l, 512, activation=tf.nn.relu)
l = Dropout('dropout', l, rate=0.5)
l = tf.multiply(l, 0.5)
l = func(l, *args, **kwargs)
l = FullyConnected('fc1', l, 10, activation=tf.identity)
```

If you need to access the output of some layer and use it with some other
operations, then just don't use `LinearWrap`, because the graph is not linear anymore.

### Access Relevant Tensors

The variables inside the layer will be named `name/W`, `name/b`, etc.
See the API documentation of each layer for details.
When building the graph, you can access the variables like this:
```python
l = Conv2D('conv1', l, 32, 3)
print(l.variables.W)
print(l.variables.b)
```
But note that this is a __hacky__ way and may not work with future versions of TensorFlow.
Also this method doesn't work with LinearWrap, and cannot access the variables created by an activation function.

The output of a layer is usually named `name/output` unless documented differently in the API.
You can always print a tensor to see its name.

### Use Models outside Tensorpack

You can use tensorpack models alone as a simple symbolic function library.
To do this, just enter a [TowerContext](../modules/tfutils.html#tensorpack.tfutils.TowerContext)
when you define your model:
```python
with TowerContext('', is_training=True):
  # call any tensorpack layer
```

Some layers (in particular ``BatchNorm``) has different train/test time behavior which is controlled
by ``TowerContext``. If you need to use the tensorpack version of them in test time, you'll need to create the ops for them under another context.
```python
# Open a `reuse=True` variable scope here if you're sharing variables, then:
with TowerContext('some_name_or_empty_string', is_training=False):
  # build the graph again
```

### Use Other Symbolic Libraries

Tensorpack & `tf.layers` only provide a subset of most common models.
However you can construct the graph using whatever library you feel comfortable with.

Functions in slim/tflearn/tensorlayer are just symbolic function wrappers, calling them is nothing different
from calling `tf.add`. You may need to be careful on some issues:
1. Regularizations may be handled differently:
   in tensorpack, users need to add the regularization losses to the total cost manually.
1. BN updates may be handled differently: in tensorpack,
   the ops from the `tf.GraphKeys.UPDATE_OPS` collection will be run
   automatically every step.
1. How training/testing mode is supported in those libraries: in tensorpack's
   tower function, you can get a boolean `is_training` from
   [here](trainer.html#what-you-can-do-inside-tower-function)
   and use it however you like (e.g. create different codepath condition on this value).

It is a bit different to use sonnet/Keras.
sonnet/Keras manages the variable scope by their own model classes, and calling their symbolic functions
always creates new variable scope. See the [Keras example](../examples/keras) for how to use it within tensorpack.

```eval_rst
.. note:: **It's best to not trust others' layers!**
    
    For non-standard layers that's not included in TensorFlow or Tensorpack, it's best to implement them yourself.
    Non-standard layers often do not have a mathematical definition that people
    all agree on, and different people can implement it differently. 
    Also, deep learning models on github often have bugs, especially when there is
    no reproduced experiments with the code.
    
    For your own good, it's best to implement the layers yourself.
    This is also why Tensorpack does not contain non-standard layers.
```
