Kepler 2.0 Release Conference call notes -- 2080826

Participants

Jones, Berkley, Riddle, Schultz, Ludaescher, Barseghian, Altintas, Brooks, Leinfelder, Crawl, Tao

Roadmap URL

Kepler 2.0 Release Roadmap

Agenda and notes

1) Overview and discussion of roadmap
    -- Chad provided overview of module reorganization
        --  # reorganization-summary
        -- core is very hard to refactor -- lots of dependencies
    -- Chad to develop list of actors with proposed new module organization
        -- could/should also have some higher-level suites for actors (e.g., essential, ptiny, domain-specific)
    -- Build system-- David will fix remaining items in the 2.0 bug list
    -- save kar and search will be worked by Aaron
    -- documentation -- check the assigned bugs to find responsibilities
2) Overview and discussion of blocker and critical bugs
    -- KAR versus module format
        -- matt: they should be combined, serve the same purpose
        -- aaron: KARs are mainly about metadata; no need to replicate the code every time; should be fast
            -- same applies to jars
        -- cxh: need to be able to bundle up what was used for an experiment: preservation and archival of workflows
        -- chad: original use cases had 2 types of KARs: transport and archive
        -- ilkay: also use KARs as transport for run results
        -- ilkay: better to split the two systems, making it clear what each is used for
        -- chad: a lot of work to merge the two -- definitely would push the release back a lot;
            -- no need to merge now; can slowly merge the changes with new module releases
            -- but still wants KAR files to be able to contain executable (jar/classes)
            -- because we need a way for scientists to wrap a new actor and send it by just using Kepler
        -- aaron: building new actors that contain source code means the scientist programmers should learn and use the build system or use an actor developer kit available from Kepler or as a standalone app
        -- derik: using our svn system for all actors developed by scientists would be a problem
        (sean: there is support for using other SVN repositories)
        -- christopher: need to support users who aren't sw engineers who want to just apckage up simple actors
        -- matt: need to document exactly what a module is and what a KAR is and how they relate
           -- can a KAR go in a module, or vice versa?
           -- what format should a run archive take?
           -- what can/should go in each type of file?
           -- what are scenarios of use (e.g., publication-ready archive)
           -- how should projects that use Kepler make use of KARs and modules?
        -- cxh: build system bug (ant taskjar)
        -- cxh: test system needed for build system itself (will agree to punt)
        -- matt: bigger problem is lack of tests for the system
        -- derik: should develop manual list of tests to run through
        -- aaron: might be better to have other devs test someone elses code
            -- derik concurs -- get someone else to test their code, even if via the gui

3) Configuration system
    -- matt: overviewed new ConfigurationManager
    -- sean: should have one central place for all configuration
    -- general agreement that a simple, central config manager would be helpful and not limiting to future extension architectures
    -- ben: major issue is the 'cascade' of properties
    -- aaron: modules can already do anything they want for configuration
        -- a lot of properties in core shouldn't be settable by modules
        -- really should be defining what extension points are
    -- decision: pursue it, and chad will lead the architecture
        -- will evaluate how much of existing config to refactor into new system; not all would need to be done for 2.0

4) Discussion of timing of release
   -- A early fall release is the target
   -- need to revisit as progress is made each week