[Babase] Re: Enhancements to Ranker
Lacey Maryott
lacey.maryott at duke.edu
Wed Jan 9 16:23:47 EST 2008
Hi All,
I played a bit more with Ranker. I like the print feature, it works
well! I have made more comments below.
Karl O. Pinc wrote:
>
> On 01/08/2008 12:24:34 PM, Jun Yang wrote:
>
>
>> >From the programming standpoint, it's fairly easy to add the
>> functionality
>> that initializes the ranking with an existing one in the database
>> (either for
>> the exact same month or for the latest preceding month). However, I
>> personally I like the explicit step of "load/incorporate" because:
>>
>> 1) There is a good amount of logic working behind the scene if we
>> initialize
>> implicitly. I think it's rather dangerous if the user is unaware of
>> the exact logic.
>> For example, did the ranking come from the same or an earlier month?
>> If
>> the ranked population is different, how are the difference handled?
>> With the
>> explicit "load/incorporate" step, all these intricacies are exposed,
>> and the user
>> has a chance of examining them before deciding to accept or abort.
>> (This is
>> the same point as Tabby's first point above.)
>>
>> 2) Load/incorporate is pretty fast anyway; the user doesn't need to
>> type
>> anything except click a few times.
>
> I agree, it's good to be explicit.
>
> However, as I understand the process, a new ranking gets created
> for _every_ group for _every_ month. Not only does this happen
> all the time, it's probably important that it happen the same
> way each time. To ensure consistency and avoid the possibility
> of error, as well as to facilitate quick operation my guess would
> be that it'd be best to A) tell the user that there is no ranking,
> and B) in the same dialog give them one button to press that will
> allow the creation of a new ranking from that of the previous month,
> or create an alphabetical one otherwise, etc.
> This may be complicated in the general case, because there may
> be special rules depending on what sort of ranking is done.
> The forgoing may not apply. While the program should remain
> general to facilitate additional, unanticipated, future rankings
> it's also important that we don't unnecessarily make the
> "normal" process more error prone. I don't have any feeling
> at all as to how much error might be introduced given various
> procedures. You'll have to rely on Tabby and Lacey to figure
> out the proper balance.
I agree with Karl about the standardization of the process, and removing
the possibility for more error to be made. I think it would be good to
have the option to have just a one click that has as its default the
previous month's ranking.
>
> There are other procedures that are followed when a new ranking
> is created, if there's no pre-existing data at all. I forget
> the details, but I recall ordering some initial ranking by
> age.
>
> Karl <kop at meme.com>
> Free Software: "You don't pay back, you pay forward."
> -- Robert A. Heinlein
>
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--
Lacey Maryott
Alberts Lab
Department of Biology
Duke University
ph: 919-660-7306
fax: 919-660-7293
Lacey.Maryott at duke.edu
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