[kepler-dev] [Bug 3192] New: - behavior of documentation actor

[bugzilla-daemon at ecoinformatics.org]

http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3192

           Summary: behavior of documentation actor
           Product: Kepler
           Version: 1.0.0beta3
          Platform: Other
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Keywords: evaluate, kruger
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: actors
        AssignedTo: berkley at nceas.ucsb.edu
        ReportedBy: drury at nceas.ucsb.edu
         QAContact: kepler-dev at ecoinformatics.org


Hello.  The documentation actor will be an important component of workflows
that outlive individual analyst's involvement in a project.  Although the
canvas provides an intuitive picture of the analysis, it doesn't take much
complexity before some careful documentation is worthwhile.  To some extent,
annotations can do the trick, but I have found that sometimes we want a few
paragraphs about the intended use, followed by a list of steps to follow.  This
seems especially important when the workflow serves an exploratory function and
various actors get connected and disconnected as the work proceeds.  I finally
landed on the Documentation actor, but someone may know of a better solution?  

Anyway, in dealing with the Documentation actor, I found different behaviors on
the mac and pc. Specifically, I was able to get documentation for my workflow
on a MacBook Pro, and edit it, but after opening the same workflow on my pc, I
could only see the documentation once.  On the mac, I dragged a Documentation
actor to the canvas, right-clicked the canvas and chose
Documentation->Customize or Documentation->Display.  On the pc, the Display
option works once, but then Customize and subsequent requests to Display show
empty documentation forms, one for customizing, one for displaying - but no
documentation exists.  Is it me???

Also, it would be very helpful if workflow documentation would retain
formatting.  For example, on the mac where I've had the most luck creating
documentation, I format with paragraph breaks and numbered lists - all the
usual ways of breaking up text into logical and useful groupings.  And, this
formatting is retained in the Customize window.  It displays as one long string
in the Display window, however.  Is this easy to fix?

Thank you!