Re: Enterprise level Mathematica idea
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg120250] Re: Enterprise level Mathematica idea
- From: David Reiss <dbreiss at gmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:20:52 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <ivbpup$o5v$1@smc.vnet.net> <ivmce4$f8a$1@smc.vnet.net>
By the way, from a very quick read of your proposal, this all appears to be completely doable in Mathematica. It's just a question of execution... I'd be happy to discuss the project with you and flesh out its scope. Best, David http://scientificarts.com On Jul 14, 5:21 am, Armand Tamzarian <mike.honeychu... at gmail.com> wrote: > On Jul 10, 7:04 pm, "McHale, Paul" <Paul.McH... at excelitas.com> wrote:> Rather than start with the how, I would like to describe the end user experience that we would like to shoot for as if I were reviewing something th= > at doesn't exist. > > > When a user wants to start a new Mathematica document, they simply laun= ch= > > an empty notebook. The user is likely not to know anything beyond a= bas= > ic few commands. However, to perform complex tasks specific for the= ir= > organization, they simply leverage the shared corporate library. Th= is l= > ibrary makes it possible to develop very powerful notebooks without the n= ee= > d for learning details of implementation that are unique to that organ= iz= > ation. > > > Example code of connecting to a database, retrieving product specific m= an= > > ufacturing information over a date range and with regard to a certain cri= te= > ria is accomplished by one "corporate command", or cf*[]. > > > myResults=cfPartsInfo[x"Product",x"Start date", x"End Date", x"Criter= ia= > > from Result table"];> Max[myResults] > > Min[MyResults] > > Length[myList] > > > Note: Depending on the format of myResults, there may be cfMax[], cfMin= []= > and cfLength[]. > > Note: all parameters start with x. This indicates there are multiple= c= > hoices. > > > When the user selects cfPartsPassed[] from a auto-generated palette (de= ri= > > ved from shared library), the placeholders or the parameters buttons. = Wh= > en pressed, a list pops up which the user can select which product they w= an= > t to look at. The same for date and which criteria. > > > myResults=cfPartsInfo["Rocket MarkA,"June, 2010", "June, 2011", "Pass= /F= > ail"]; > > > Would return the pass/fail status of Rocket MarkA for the past year. > > > Required functionality to support this effort: > > > 1. Ability for developers to write functions cf* and deploiy them to a = ce= > ntral repository > > > 2. Ability for developers to dynamically populate the popup list for pa= ra= > > meter selection using repository code and network access> 3. Support for = auto-palette generation based on repository > > 4. Support for each user to "check for updates" to make sure they have = la= > > test copy of central repository > > > This provides critical functionality not available in any package I kno= w = > of: > > 1. Users will need to learn very little about mathematica but will be a= bl= > > e to leverage it well beyond their understanding. I think this is true= f= > or all Mathematica users. How many of could truly understand all the a= lg= > orithms used in the optmization functions? Why should the users be req= ui= > red to understand Mathematica when the corporate specific code can be dev= el= > oped once and abstracted from the user? > > > 2. The developers will have a trivial way to "deploy" their code to the= u= > > sers. When the users chooses to "update local library" Mathematica sho= ul= > d populate the palettes accordingly and update any help files as approria= te= > . > > > 3. The line between corporate code and Mathematica base code could shou= ld= > > be blurred to the point of being indistinguishable to the user. Thi= s is= > targeted strongly at managers and engineers (data centric people) who = will= > not learn Mathematica so they may benefit from it without knowledge of= how= > it is being done. This abstraction is critical to lowering the barr= ier = > for entry by the more classical user community. > > > 4. This functionality decouples the users from the changing (agile) = la= > > ndscape of corporate implementation of things like databases. Change t= he= > database, update the code, publish to shared repository. Users will= get= > update notification on launch of Mathematica or possible push notifica= tion= > . > > > As we move forward in areas such as defense, it is becoming massively c= ri= > > tical that we learn to do more with less. We have no choice. This i= s = > an indisputable trend. This also means we need to force multiply. W= e = > need to leverage the efforts of skilled developers to enable members of m= an= > agement and technical staff with minimal transfer effort and maximal tran= sf= > er control. Without this, we run a greater risk of failing at our miss= io= > n. I believe Mathematica has all the base requirements to do this. = We= > just need the enterprise level support to do it well. To be truly e= ffec= > tive, this support must be trivial from a user perspective (I.e. Windows = up= > date). > > > > > Paul > > Paul, > > Are you recruiting or hiring contractors for these tasks? It is a > little unclear from the post whether you are or whether you are > seeking guidance for your internal people. > > (Does you company block emails that have links or attachments?) > > Mike