Are Previous PRDs Required?

[Witchblade101]

Each release we make adds a folder to pysiaf/pysiaf/prd_data/JWST/. Are the previous PRDs in that folder necessary, or can we delete them? Especially old things like rehearsals. I'm worried that folder will just keep accumulating junk, or maybe future updates will be so rare it won't ever matter.

We should look into this post-commissioning.

[Witchblade101]

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: Currently yes, because checks against a few of the earliest simulated PRDs are included in all of the Generate scripts.

I propose that we only include the current PRD in the future. The generate scripts should compare new values to the current PRD by default. We should add the capability for a user to use or compare against any PRD that they have locally.

OPSSOC PRDs are released every quarter. It's been requested (I think by Rob Douglas, and others) that we release a new PySIAF with each PRD release, even if there are no SIAF changes. This will also allow us to release code changes, as well as HST & Roman SIAF changes in a more timely manner. But JWST PRD SIAF directories are 4 MB each (and binary). I don't want PySIAF to keep growing for no useful reason.

I'll also open a Jira ticket for this, and get feedback from @mfixstsci and @mgennaro (others?)