diff --git a/nimbleModel/NAMESPACE b/nimbleModel/NAMESPACE
index a7cc763..8848a3e 100644
--- a/nimbleModel/NAMESPACE
+++ b/nimbleModel/NAMESPACE
@@ -47,6 +47,8 @@ export(setTopRules)
 export(getDependencies)
 export(getParents)
 export(getNodes)
+export(getNodeNames)
+export(expandNodeNames)
 export(applyGraphRule)
 export(getSymbolicParentNodes)
 export(getSymbolicParentNodesRecurse)
@@ -70,5 +72,9 @@ export(messageIfVerbose)
 export(calc_dmnormAltParams)
 export(calc_dwishAltParams)
 
+export(nimbleCode)
 export(nimbleModel)
 export(makeInstrList)
+
+export(setNimbleModelOption)
+export(getNimbleModelOption)
diff --git a/nimbleModel/R/model.R b/nimbleModel/R/model.R
index efac3f5..9532d5e 100644
--- a/nimbleModel/R/model.R
+++ b/nimbleModel/R/model.R
@@ -323,11 +323,19 @@ modelClass <- R6Class(
 # Determine nodes of interest, potentially of particular types.
 # Incorporates functionality formerly in `getNodeNames` and `expandNodeNames`
 getNodes <- function(model, nodes = NULL,
-                     stochOnly = FALSE, determOnly = FALSE,
+                     determOnly = FALSE, stochOnly = FALSE,
                      includeData = TRUE, dataOnly = FALSE,
-                     includePredictive = TRUE, predictiveOnly = FALSE,
                      includeRHSonly = FALSE,
-                     topOnly = FALSE, latentOnly = FALSE, endOnly = FALSE) {
+                     topOnly = FALSE, latentOnly = FALSE, endOnly = FALSE,
+                     includePredictive = TRUE, predictiveOnly = FALSE,
+                     nodesAsChars = getNimbleModelOption('nodesAsChars'),
+                     returnScalarComponents = FALSE,
+                     .sort = FALSE
+                     ) {
+  # A single nodeRange can have elements that don't share a sortID when converted to calcRange representation,
+  # so we can't sort nodeRanges.
+  if (.sort && !nodesAsChars)
+    warning("`.sort=TRUE` is provided only for back compatibility and requires the use of character representations of nodes")
   # `nodes` may contain one or more varRanges or varNames.
   if (topOnly + latentOnly + endOnly > 1) {
     stop("only one of `topOnly`, `latentOnly`, `endOnly` can be `TRUE`.")
@@ -342,7 +350,7 @@ getNodes <- function(model, nodes = NULL,
     if (inherits(nodes, "varRangeClass")) {
       nodes <- list(nodes)
     }
-    if (!all(is.character(nodes) || sapply(nodes, function(node) inherits(node, "varRangeClass")))) {
+    if (!all(sapply(nodes, function(node) is.character(node) || inherits(node, "varRangeClass")))) {
       stop("`nodes` must be variable names or `varRange`s.")
     }
   }
@@ -387,12 +395,74 @@ getNodes <- function(model, nodes = NULL,
 
   if (includeRHSonly && !stochOnly && !determOnly) { # RHSonly are considered neither determ not stoch.
     rhsResult <- lapply(nodes, function(node) applyRules(model$modelDef$rhsOnlyRules, node))
-    result <- c(result, flatten(rhsResult))
+    if (!.sort) 
+      result <- c(result, flatten(rhsResult))  # TODO: flatten() seems to be deprecated; can we use unlist?
   }
 
+  if (.sort) {
+    # Ordering is only relevant at calcRange stage and a single nodeRange can contain
+    # elements with various sortIDs, so we convert to nodeChars first and then get their
+    # sortID by creating a temporary calcRange for each.
+    nodeChars <- unlist(sapply(result, \(x) x$toNodeChars()))
+    
+    calcRanges <- unlist(lapply(nodeChars, function(node) {
+      lapply(model$modelDef$calcRules[[getVarName(node)]]$rules, function(rule) {
+        rule$makeCalcRange(rule$apply(node))
+      })
+    }))
+    if (length(nodeChars) != length(calcRanges))
+      stop("unexpected mismatch between node character representation and calcRanges in `getNodes` sorting")
+    ord <- order(sapply(calcRanges, \(x) x$sortID))
+    result <- nodeChars[ord]
+    if (includeRHSonly)
+      result <- c(sapply(flatten(rhsResult), \(x) x$toNodeChars()), result)
+    if (returnScalarComponents)
+      result <- lapply(result, \(x) varRangeClass$new(x)$toVarChars(expandScalars = TRUE))
+    result <- unlist(result)
+  } else {
+    if (nodesAsChars) {
+      if (returnScalarComponents) {
+        result <- lapply(result, \(x) x$toVarRange()$toVarChars(expandScalars = TRUE))
+      } else result <- lapply(result, \(x) x$toNodeChars())
+      result <- unlist(result)
+    } else {
+      if (returnScalarComponents)   # TODO: put into new messaging system
+        warning("one must request result as characters via `nodesAsChars` in order to use `returnScalarComponents`")
+    }
+  }   
   if (!length(result)) {
     return(NULL)
   }
+  return(result)
+}
+
+# Provided for backward compatibility.
+#' @export
+getNodeNames <- function(model, determOnly = FALSE, stochOnly = FALSE,
+                         includeData = TRUE, dataOnly = FALSE, includeRHSonly = FALSE,
+                         topOnly = FALSE, latentOnly = FALSE, endOnly = FALSE,
+                         includePredictive = TRUE, predictiveOnly = FALSE,
+                         returnType = "names",
+                         returnScalarComponents = FALSE) {
+  if (returnType != "names")
+    stop("In nimble2, one can only request 'names' as the `returnType`")
+  return(getNodes(model, nodes = NULL, determOnly, stochOnly, includeData, dataOnly,
+                  includeRHSonly, topOnly, latentOnly, endOnly,
+                  includePredictive, predictiveOnly,
+                  nodesAsChars = TRUE,
+                  returnScalarComponents, .sort = TRUE))
+}
 
-  return(removeDuplicateVarRanges(result))
+# Provided for backward compatibility. 
+# Need a test case where unique=FALSE retains duplicates.
+# This should not do any exclusions of nodes based on types.
+#' @export
+expandNodeNames <- function(model, nodes, returnScalarComponents = FALSE,
+                            returnType = "names", sort = FALSE, unique = TRUE) {
+  if (returnType != "names")
+    stop("In nimble2, one can only request 'names' as the `returnType`")
+  result <- getNodes(model, nodes, includeRHSonly = TRUE, nodesAsChars = TRUE,
+                     returnScalarComponents = returnScalarComponents, .sort = sort)
+  if (unique) result <- unique(result)
+  return(result)
 }
diff --git a/nimbleModel/R/modelBaseClass.R b/nimbleModel/R/modelBaseClass.R
index f6e216d..d8fdab9 100644
--- a/nimbleModel/R/modelBaseClass.R
+++ b/nimbleModel/R/modelBaseClass.R
@@ -307,25 +307,54 @@ modelBase_nClass <- nClass(
         return(expr)
       }
     },
-    getDependencies = function(nodes, self = TRUE, downstream = FALSE, immediateOnly = FALSE) {
-      nimbleModel::getDependencies(modelDef, nodes, self, downstream, immediateOnly)
+    getDependencies = function(nodes, self = TRUE, downstream = FALSE, immediateOnly = FALSE,
+                               nodesAsChars = getNimbleModelOption('nodesAsChars'),
+                               returnScalarComponents = FALSE
+                               ) {
+      nimbleModel::getDependencies(modelDef, nodes, self, downstream, immediateOnly,
+                                   nodesAsChars, returnScalarComponents)
     },
-    getParents = function(nodes, self = TRUE, upstream = FALSE, immediateOnly = FALSE) {
-      nimbleModel::getParents(modelDef, nodes, self, upstream, immediateOnly)
+    getParents = function(nodes, self = TRUE, upstream = FALSE, immediateOnly = FALSE,
+                          nodesAsChars = getNimbleModelOption('nodesAsChars'),
+                          returnScalarComponents = FALSE
+                          ) {
+      nimbleModel::getParents(modelDef, nodes, self, upstream, immediateOnly,
+                              nodesAsChars, returnScalarComponents)
     },
     # TODO: not working because `nimbleModel::getNodes` needs the model not just modelDef.
     # Once we integrate modelClass with modelBase_nClass, we should be able to pass `self`.
-    getNodes = function(nodes = NULL, stochOnly = FALSE, determOnly = FALSE,
+    getNodes = function(nodes = NULL, determOnly = FALSE, stochOnly = FALSE,
                         includeData = TRUE, dataOnly = FALSE,
-                        includePredictive = TRUE, predictiveOnly = FALSE,
                         includeRHSonly = FALSE,
-                        topOnly = FALSE, latentOnly = FALSE, endOnly = FALSE) {
+                        topOnly = FALSE, latentOnly = FALSE, endOnly = FALSE,
+                        includePredictive = TRUE, predictiveOnly = FALSE,
+                        nodesAsChars = getNimbleModelOption('nodesAsChars'),
+                        returnScalarComponents = FALSE,
+                        .sort = FALSE) {
       nimbleModel::getNodes(
-        self, nodes, stochOnly, determOnly, includeData, dataOnly,
-        includePredictive, predictiveOnly, includeRHSonly,
-        topOnly, latentOnly, endOnly
+        self, nodes, determOnly, stochOnly, includeData, dataOnly,
+        includeRHSonly,
+        topOnly, latentOnly, endOnly,
+        includePredictive, predictiveOnly, 
+        nodesAsChars, returnScalarComponents, .sort
+      )
+    },
+    getNodeNames = function(determOnly = FALSE, stochOnly = FALSE,
+                        includeData = TRUE, dataOnly = FALSE, includeRHSonly = FALSE,
+                        topOnly = FALSE, latentOnly = FALSE, endOnly = FALSE,
+                        includePredictive = TRUE, predictiveOnly = FALSE,
+                        returnType = "names",
+                        returnScalarComponents = FALSE) {
+      nimbleModel::getNodeNames(
+        self, determOnly, stochOnly, includeData, dataOnly,
+        includeRHSonly, topOnly, latentOnly, endOnly,
+        includePredictive, predictiveOnly, returnType, returnScalarComponents
       )
     },
+    expandNodeNames = function(nodes, returnScalarComponents = FALSE,
+                               returnType = "names", sort = FALSE, unique = TRUE) {
+      nimbleModel::expandNodeNames(self, nodes, returnScalarComponents, "names", sort, unique)
+    },
     calc_op = function(instr, fn, fn_cpp) {
       if (missing(instr)) {
         instr <- getVarNames()
diff --git a/nimbleModel/R/modelDef.R b/nimbleModel/R/modelDef.R
index 370c5eb..5cb38d7 100644
--- a/nimbleModel/R/modelDef.R
+++ b/nimbleModel/R/modelDef.R
@@ -999,21 +999,29 @@ modelDefClass <- R6Class(
 
 getDependencies <- function(modelDef, nodes,
                             self = TRUE,
-                            downstream = FALSE, immediateOnly = FALSE) {
+                            downstream = FALSE, immediateOnly = FALSE,
+                            nodesAsChars = getNimbleModelOption('nodesAsChars'),
+                            returnScalarComponents = FALSE
+                            ) {
   traverseGraph(modelDef$downstreamRules, modelDef$declRules,
     nodes = nodes,
     down = TRUE, self = self,
-    follow = downstream, immediateOnly = immediateOnly
+    follow = downstream, immediateOnly = immediateOnly,
+    nodesAsChars = nodesAsChars, returnScalarComponents = returnScalarComponents
   )
 }
 
 getParents <- function(modelDef, nodes,
                        self = FALSE,
-                       upstream = FALSE, immediateOnly = FALSE) {
+                       upstream = FALSE, immediateOnly = FALSE,
+                       nodesAsChars = getNimbleModelOption('nodesAsChars'),
+                       returnScalarComponents = FALSE
+                       ) {
   traverseGraph(modelDef$upstreamRules, modelDef$declRules,
     nodes = nodes,
     down = FALSE, self = self,
-    follow = upstream, immediateOnly = immediateOnly
+    follow = upstream, immediateOnly = immediateOnly,
+    nodesAsChars = nodesAsChars, returnScalarComponents = returnScalarComponents
   )
 }
 
diff --git a/nimbleModel/R/nodeRules.R b/nimbleModel/R/nodeRules.R
index 24b8b25..7b5976d 100644
--- a/nimbleModel/R/nodeRules.R
+++ b/nimbleModel/R/nodeRules.R
@@ -347,8 +347,7 @@ calcRuleClass <- R6Class(
   )
 )
 
-# calcRanges manage the calculation for one or more nodes, handling the indexing, and
-# calling out to the declFun `calculate` function.
+# calcRanges manage the calculation information for one or more nodes, handling the indexing
 calcRangeClass <- R6Class(
   classname = "calcRangeClass",
   portable = FALSE,
@@ -362,7 +361,6 @@ calcRangeClass <- R6Class(
     initialize = function(varName, indexingRange, declID, sortID, multiSortIDindex) {
       varName <<- varName
       indexingRange <<- indexingRange
-      calcFun <<- calcFun # note that calcFun itself is not vectorized
       sortID <<- sortID
       declID <<- declID
       multiSortIDindex <<- multiSortIDindex
diff --git a/nimbleModel/R/options.R b/nimbleModel/R/options.R
index 37e4037..41e47ad 100644
--- a/nimbleModel/R/options.R
+++ b/nimbleModel/R/options.R
@@ -8,11 +8,13 @@
     # but this has .GlobalEnv as a parent.
     processBackwardsModelIndexRanges = TRUE,
     disallowMultivariateArgumentExpressions = TRUE,
+    nodesAsChars = FALSE,
     verbose = TRUE
   )
 )
 
 # sets a single option
+#' @export
 setNimbleModelOption <- function(name, value) {
   assign(name, value, envir = .nimbleModelOptions)
   invisible(value)
diff --git a/nimbleModel/R/processModelGraph.R b/nimbleModel/R/processModelGraph.R
index 12325e6..10c2afd 100644
--- a/nimbleModel/R/processModelGraph.R
+++ b/nimbleModel/R/processModelGraph.R
@@ -242,7 +242,10 @@ setSortIDs <- function(calcRules) {
 # pass result through `getNodes`.
 traverseGraph <- function(streamRules, declRules,
                           nodes, down, self = TRUE,
-                          follow = FALSE, immediateOnly = FALSE) {
+                          follow = FALSE, immediateOnly = FALSE,
+                          nodesAsChars = getNimbleModelOption('nodesAsChars'),
+                          returnScalarComponents = FALSE
+                          ) {
   if (inherits(nodes, "varRangeClass")) nodes <- list(nodes) # We use `lapply` on 'nodes' later.
 
   results <- traverseGraphRecurse(streamRules, nodes, down, follow, immediateOnly)
@@ -321,7 +324,14 @@ traverseGraph <- function(streamRules, declRules,
   if (!length(results)) {
     return(NULL)
   }
-  return(removeDuplicateVarRanges(results))
+  results <- removeDuplicateVarRanges(results)
+  if (nodesAsChars) {
+    return(unlist(sapply(results, \(x) x$toVarChars(expandScalars = returnScalarComponents))))
+  } else {
+    if (returnScalarComponents)   # TODO: put into new messaging system
+      warning("one must request result as characters via `nodesAsChars` in order to use `returnScalarComponents`")
+  } 
+  return(results)                                                  
 }
 
 traverseGraphRecurse <- function(rules, nodes, down, follow = FALSE, immediateOnly = FALSE, firstPass = TRUE) {