[kepler-dev] the ability to pause/adjust/restart a workflow

[Christopher Brooks]

Hi Laura,

Kepler allows the user to change parameters and topology while the
model is running.   This is what change requests are for.

One thing that Kepler does not do is have a way of easily restarting
runs after a crash or stop.  The idea here is that we would want to
be able to checkpoint the model and restart it, perhaps on a different
machine etc.  This is an open area of research.  
Thomas Feng is working on backtracking, which is a much smaller
research area, see http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~tfeng/backtrack.html
and
http://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/projects/summaries/07/ptIIdistributed.html 

Thanks for the clarification.  The feedback we get from users like the
one you chatted with is invaluable.  For every conversation like the
one you had, there are probably dozens of people who have downloaded
Kepler or Ptolemy and not said anything.

_Christopher
--------

    I don't know Edward if they decided it would be easier to write their own
    workflow environment.  You could be right.  We didn't have a very long
    conversation.
    
    I did encourage the gentleman to post to kepler-dev and talk about what he
    needs and what his concerns were etc.
    
    In trying to remember more of the conversations, he mentioned one of his
    students had assessed Kepler about 4 weeks ago and it just didn't have what
    they needed -- then I asked what did they need and he mentioned what I firs
   t
    posted.  I got the impression he meant being able to actually explore and
    look at data along the way, and maybe actually change or alter the course o
   f
    the workflow some based on that assessment -- but that is me guessing.
    
    I don't think it was a matter of simply pausing and restarting, but being
    able to assess things, adjust things, then restart from that point without
    writing a new workflow or starting over etc.
    
    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: Edward A. Lee [mailto:eal at eecs.berkeley.edu] 
    Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2006 11:33 AM
    To: Laura L. Downey
    Cc: 'Kepler-Dev'
    Subject: Re: [kepler-dev] the ability to pause/adjust/restart a workflow
    
    
    Ptolemy II models can be paused, adjusted, and restarted...
    
    There is a pause button right on the toolbar...
    
    Let me guess: the person you talked to decided it would be
    easier to create their own workflow environment rather than
    add the functionality they need to Kepler, right?  I get that
    a lot... Such people are not to be taken seriously...
    
    Edward
    
    At 12:41 PM 11/10/2006, Laura L. Downey wrote:
    >Just wanted to report from the Semantic Web User Interaction workshop I
    just attended as part of the International Semantic Web conference, that
    someone from University of Zurich came up to me after my presentation and
    specifically mentioned Kepler and was quite aware of it.  This was good.
    However, the drawback was that they had decided against using it for their
    needs because it lacks the specific ability to pause/adjust/restart a
    workflow and they said this was critical to their work.  They are
    computational chemists.
    > 
    >I know I have put that feature on the usability list of useful features fo
   r
    scientists as a result of some of my reviews and feedback from our
    scientists at workshops.  And I believe Deana had identified that too befor
   e
    I arrived on the project and maybe some of the rest of you too.  But I just
    wanted to raise this issue again for future consideration.
    > 
    >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
    ><mailto:ldowney at lternet.edu>ldowney at lternet.edu
    > 
    > 
    >_______________________________________________
    >Kepler-dev mailing list
    >Kepler-dev at ecoinformatics.org
    >http://mercury.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinformatics/mailman/listinfo/kepler-dev
    
    ------------ 
    Edward A. Lee
    Chair of EECS and Robert S. Pepper Distinguished Professor
    231 Cory Hall, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1770
    phone: 510-642-0253, fax: 510-642-2845
    eal at eecs.Berkeley.EDU, http://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/~eal  
    
    
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--------