Catalyst: weird interaction between user defined functions, arrays and Num

General Usage
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1

Hello everyone,

I am currently trying to create a chemical network in Catalyst.jl using my own functions as reaction rates. These functions are provided species of the network as input arguments and then need to use if statements and the floor(x) function on them. Here is a very simplified example, which causes no error:

using Catalyst

function f(A, dummy)
    
    @show typeof(A)
    if A > 10
        out = 0
    else
        out = 1
    end
    return out
end

@register f(A, dummy)
network = @reaction_network begin

    f(A, 1), A ⇒ B
    
end

The ouput is the usual Latexified presentation of the single reaction.
The problem arises when I pass arrays or tuples to my function like this:

using Catalyst

function f(A, dummy)
    
    @show typeof(A)
    if A > 10
        out = 0
    else
        out = 1
    end
    return out
end

@register f(A, dummy)
network = @reaction_network begin

    f(A, [1]), A ⇒ B
   
end

Then I get this error:

typeof(A) = Num
TypeError: non-boolean (Num) used in boolean context

Stacktrace:
 [1] f(::Num, ::Array{Int64,1}) at .\In[5]:6
 [2] top-level scope at In[5]:15
 [3] include_string(::Function, ::Module, ::String, ::String) at .\loading.jl:1091

For some reason, if I pass an array to my function it will turn my other arguments into this Num data type, which comes from Symbolics.jl I think, and cant be used in logical operations. I know about the IfElse.jl package but there is no alternative/solution for the floor(x) function (as far as I know), which cannot use Num aswell.

So what I want is to just pass the arguments as Float64 so I can do whatever I want if them.

The easiest solution of course would be to just not use arrays but pass all the arguments/species individually. But for large numbers of arguments (11-15) it takes ages to @register the function. The code runs forever, I dont know exactly how long it would take to register a function with 15 arguments. This “registering problem” may be worth its own post.

Maybe its noteworthy that in the first example code typeof(A) is not being printed, only in the second example “typeof(A) = Num” is being printed. I dont know what that means or if it menas something.

I feel like this interaction between arrays and Num is not intended. Whether I pass an array or not shouldnt change the datatype of the other arguments.

I hope I included all you guys need to know, this is my first post. Thank you !