Scripting:Requirements

Overview

Users, developers, and managers (oh my) have requested a scripting interface to ParaQ. The ParaQ Scripting Group is responsible for capturing the requirements for scripting, and developing a design document to guide ParaQ development.

This page is a first step in that process.

Requirements

• Ability to apply a script to multiple different input files and save an image/movie of the visualization from each input file
• Scripting language is backwards compatible. Scripts written in a previous version of ParaQ must work in newer versions.
• Script files saved from ParaQ must work in the batch/command line program.
• Script files must be understandable by humans without needing 2 Tylenol.
• Either the scripting language or the pvCommandLine application must provide looping and flow-of-control.
• (Optional?) When a user determines that they like a set of scripted operations, they can attach the script to a button in ParaQ.

Use Cases

• A user makes a visualization in ParaQ and saves out a script file. The user then open the script file in pvCommandLine, twiddles some values and saves the image/movie of the visualization. Some values include filenames, variable names, values of variables.
• A user opens a toy dataset that models an extremely large dataset. The user creates a visualization and saves a script. The user then opens pvCommandLine and applies the script to the extremely large dataset
• An expert user can copy and paste from their scripts to new scripts to add steps.
• An expert user can set some reader parameters for one or possibly several pipeline elements, then re-run the script for different filenmanes ending up with an interactive interface to continue investigating the data (e.g. setting the metadatafile name or loading each sideset in a different pipeline element).
• A user makes a visualization in ParaQ and saves out a script file. The user then repeats the script for different input files (note: this case could be implemented by state files instead of editable script files.
• An expert user can edit a script to add mathematical (calculator) functions to create new variables and either save a new data file or proceed to an interactive visualization.
• (Low priority) A user opens a saved script file with ParaQ and steps through, visualizing what each command actually does to their data.