[kepler-dev] Re: [SDM-SPA] SPA configuration

[Bertram Ludaescher]

Hi Xiaowen:

Sounds like good suggestions on first sight. But I'll pass that to the 
existing developers, including Kepler\SPA (here "\" is the 'setminus'
operator ;-) for their comments as well..

Bertram


>>>>> "XX" == Xiaowen Xin <xin2 at llnl.gov> writes:
XX> 
XX> Hi Everyone,
XX> Following up on my email about creating a separate configuration for
XX> SPA, I think having this separate configuration would make our
XX> additions to Ptolemy II cleaner.
XX> 
XX> The default configuration in Kepler is the "full" configuration.  That
XX> means when Kepler loads, Vergil (the user-interface component of
XX> Ptolemy II) loads its configuration from
XX> 
XX> ptolemy/configs/full/configuration.xml
XX> 
XX> If you run Vergil with the -ptiny flag, the configuration gets loaded
XX> from
XX> 
XX> ptolemy/configs/ptiny/configuration.xml
XX> 
XX> SPA _must_ either create its own configuration, or modify an existing
XX> configuration because we want our own actors to appear in the treeview
XX> on the left-hand side.
XX> 
XX> The way it has been done in Kepler is to _delete_ some files loaded by
XX> configuration.xml, and replace it with its own.  Thus Kepler runs the
XX> full configuration, with a few modifications.  I think this isn't a
XX> clean solution because it makes irreversible changes to the Ptolemy II
XX> directory.
XX> 
XX> SPA (in the NCSU repository) has tried to solve this by _not_
XX> modifying Ptolemy II's directory, but rather putting its files in the
XX> front of the classpath, so java would find SPA's files before it finds
XX> Ptolemy II's.  So we're effectively overwriting Kepler's files without
XX> actually changing their files on the file system.
XX> 
XX> In the light of how Ptolemy II handles configuration profiles, I think
XX> the best solution is to simply create a separate SPA configuration.
XX> Thus if we have
XX> 
XX> ptolemy/configs/spa/configuration.xml
XX> 
XX> somewhere in our classpath, we can run Vergil with the -spa flag, and
XX> it will load the SPA configuration profile.
XX> 
XX> Originally, I have proposed having a top-level configs/ directory in
XX> Kepler, and also in SPA, and creating subdirectories under there for
XX> each of the sub-projects of Kepler; thus:
XX> 
XX> - configs/
XX>     - spa/
XX>     - geon/
XX>     - seek/
XX> 
XX> This is how it currently appears in the NCSU repository (i.e. we have
XX> configs/spa/.) However, I think we can combine the directories into:
XX> 
XX> - configs/
XX>     - ptolemy/
XX>         - configs/
XX>             - spa/
XX>             - geon/
XX>             - seek/
XX>             - kepler/
XX> 
XX> (The geon/, seek/, and kepler/ directories wouldn't be in the SPA CVS
XX> repository, but this is how it would look once we merge our code into
XX> Kepler.)
XX> 
XX> The reason for the extra two levels of directories in between configs/
XX> and spa/ is so that spa/ could be in the ptolemy.configs jave
XX> package--Ptolemy looks for configuration folders in the
XX> ptolemy.configs package.
XX> 
XX> This makes it so that in Kepler, users would be able to choose between
XX> launching Vergil with the SPA configuration, or the GEON
XX> configuration, or SEEK, or also the whole Kepler configuration.
XX> 
XX> I believe no one will be greatly affected by this change of the NCSU
XX> repository, so I'll go ahead and do this tomorrow morning if there are
XX> no objections.
XX> 
XX> 
XX> Xiaowen