[kepler-dev] New Kepler Menus

[Laura L. Downey]

Just as a point of clarification -- I'm not necessarily advocating the
"animation" feature as it is currently implemented in the code.  I just want
to provide the feedback to the user about which actor is executing during a
workflow that is running.  Kevin's last post reminded me of that -- thanks
Kevin.

Laura L. Downey
Senior Usability Engineer
LTER Network Office
Department of Biology, MSC03 2020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM  87131-0001
505.277.3157 office
505.610.9657 mobile
505.277-2541 fax
ldowney at lternet.edu
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Ruland [mailto:kruland at ku.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 9:53 AM
To: Matthew Brooke
Cc: Laura L. Downey; 'Kepler-Dev'
Subject: Re: [kepler-dev] New Kepler Menus

Matthew Brooke wrote:
> Laura L. Downey wrote:
>  > I'm proposing to make that the default
>  > (checked) option so that running with feedback is the default.
>
> There is a potential drawback to enabling the feedback by default: the 
> "Run with feedback" option has a user-editable "delay time", needed to 
> make the animation visible, or at least slow enough to follow by eye.
>
> Therefore, we would have to create a default value for the delay, which 
> would, in turn, slow down the execution of all workflows. Probably not 
> an issue with some of the simpler example WFs, but may be a problem with 
> bigger/more intensive WFs, especially if users don't realize this is the 
> case.
>
> m
>   

How is the animation implemented?  Would it be possible to have a 
seperate thread poll the workflow to determine which actor is executing, 
highlight the appropriate actor, then sleep for some period of time?  
This would enable the workflow to run at full speed, with the down side 
that the actor highlighting would possibly be a little chaotic.

Kevin
>
>
> Laura L. Downey wrote:
>   
>> Matthew has already commented on the toggling issue so there is a way to
>> turn on/off the highlighting during workflow execution.
>>
>> In terms of the phraseology, I kept "Run" in the "Run with Feedback" item
to
>> keep all the "run" items associated.  We have Run and Run Window and
users
>> in some of the early testing really liked the "animation" where they
could
>> see which actor was executing so I'm proposing to make that the default
>> (checked) option so that running with feedback is the default.  Because I
>> wanted to keep the "Run" association, I suggested Run with Feedback
because
>> Run with Animation just didn't sound right to me.
>>
>> We can certainly adjust the phraseology if it proves to be problematic.
>> Although I suspect that if someone turns it off and sees they don't get
the
>> highlighting during execution they will easily understand what Run with
>> Feedback means.  The use of the term feedback may be a bit human factors
>> centric on my part since that is so often used in my field to mean
>> communicating with the user -- giving them appropriate visual and textual
>> feedback etc. And of course feedback does mean different things in
different
>> contexts, just as Edward pointed out from his perspective.  But feedback
is
>> also a very general term that just means give me some indication on what
is
>> happening.
>>
>> Laura L. Downey
>> Senior Usability Engineer
>> LTER Network Office
>> Department of Biology, MSC03 2020
>> 1 University of New Mexico
>> Albuquerque, NM  87131-0001
>> 505.277.3157 office
>> 505.610.9657 mobile
>> 505.277-2541 fax
>> ldowney at lternet.edu
>>  
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Matthew Brooke [mailto:brooke at nceas.ucsb.edu] 
>> Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 8:43 PM
>> To: Dan Higgins
>> Cc: Laura L. Downey; Kepler-Dev
>> Subject: Re: New Kepler Menus
>>
>>
>> Dan -
>>
>> thanks - i know about that one. Laura's redesign has a checkbox menu 
>> item - click once for on; click again to toggle off - but i have not yet 
>> had chance to implement it like that.
>>
>> m
>>
>>
>>
>> Dan Higgins wrote:
>>     
>>> Hi Matthew (and Laura)
>>>
>>>    In using the new Kepler menu system, I can across a problem. In the 
>>> old menus (aka Ptolemy menu) there is a menu item named 'Animate 
>>> Execution' under the 'Debug' menu. Immediately below the 'Animate 
>>> Execution' is a 'Stop Animating' meny item.
>>>
>>>    'Animate Execution' shows when actors are executing when a workflow 
>>> runs by 'hilighting' the actor for a use-set period of time (for some 
>>> Directors). 'Stop Animating' turns off the animation
>>>
>>>    In the new menus, this item has apparently been replaced by the menu 
>>> item 'Run with Feedback' under the 'Tools' menu. The problem is that 
>>> there is no 'Stop Feedback' menu item. So once the user starts showing 
>>> which icon is firing, there is no way to turn off the effect with the 
>>> new menus!  Rather that having a seperate 'Stop' menu, perhaps the menu 
>>> should toggle from 'Run with Feedback' to 'Stop Feedback' and back?
>>>
>>>    Incidently. in my opinion, the original menu text of 'Animate 
>>> Execution' seems more descriptive than 'Run with Feedback'. Feedback 
>>> seems like a term that can have many meanings and is not very helpful to

>>> a new Kepler user.. 'Feedback' could just be some text summary at the 
>>> end of workflow execution.
>>>
>>> Dan
>>>
>>>       
>
>