| Please note: This documentation is very dated and should be treated as an old draft. Among the major updates as of 8/2005 are a jump from version .6 to .8, the renaming of staging to launcher. |
The Pyre framework developers anticipated six types of users, ranging from the scientist who is happiest with completely transparent prepackaged tools to the software integrator who would like to access the integration layer.
Visiting scientists tend to prefer prepackaged and specialized analysis tools. They desire a user interface that is simple to understand and easy to interact with, reasonable defaults for most choices, and software that must answer physics questions. They would also like complexity to be concealed intelligently and for software/hardware failures to be well diagnosed and explained.
Instrument specialists are the authors of prepackaged specialized tools. Their tools are used to write specialized packages for visiting scientists. They would like robust modules that form standard analysis packages and a graphical user interface (GUI) builder to compose forms and build wizards.
Expert scientists are researchers who will be using Pyre in an intensive manner, both to generate and review data in the course of authoring or reviewing publications. Their job requires flexible user interface that enables interactive explorations of the data, access to a comprehensive set of data transformations, access to modeling and simulation packages, tools to compare the outputs of different analyses, and high-end, discriminating graphics.
Analysis experts create analysis, modeling or simulation software. They require well-documented access to the integration layer, easy access to sample data, portable building tools, and robust framework to facilitate debugging as well as validation and verification infrastructure and regression test suites.
Software integrators are responsible for extending software with new technology. They want portable building tools, well-documented access to the integration layer, easy access to sample data, robust framework to facilitate debugging, validation/verification infrastructure, and regression test suites.
Finally, the framework maintainer is responsible for maintaining and extending the Pyre infrastructure. The framework maintainer desires all the features required by other types of users, from an elegant, user-friendly interface to the ability to alter and update Pyre's modules and layers with little trouble. The current Pyre framework maintainer would also like a sailing vacation to the British Virgin Islands.