#919: simfactory fails for standard thornlist copied using sync ---------------------+------------------------------------------------------ Reporter: knarf | Owner: eschnett Type: defect | Status: review Priority: major | Milestone: ET_2012_05 Component: Other | Version: Resolution: | Keywords: ---------------------+------------------------------------------------------
Comment (by eschnett):
It is perfectly fine to use Cactus without Simfactory; I expect many people to do so. It is also perfectly fine to use parts of Simfactory's MDB without using the remainder of Simfactory. Being surprised (and angry) at Simfactory's behaviour is fine as it leads to improvement; choosing radical solutions is not, since it drives people away. Simfactory has (sometimes strong) opinions about what is a "good way" of doing things, and in many cases people disagree -- mostly, because Simfactory is evolving, and finding a true "good way" of doing things requires experimentation and much feedback from the community.
I am sure we can find a solution that is more of a consensus among the community.
For example, if we expect most novice users to use Simfactory, then it needs to be much simpler to configure Simfactory and Cactus on random laptops and workstations. We would need examples for (say) the five most common operating systems, more elaborate self-checks, much better error messages, etc.
One of the problems with Simfactory is that it wants to know a system's configuration up front. This requires people to find out all the details up front, instead of e.g. being able to do some of the work first and only being held up by a problem later -- which gives people a sense of progress. ("okay, now I've figured out to log in, now let's compile"; "okay, I managed to compile, now let's run".) Currently, Simfactory appears like a wall that doesn't let you through unless you specify details about a machine that you, otherwise, would only have to care about much later. In a way, that's like a web store that verifies your credit card credentials before it lets you browse: sure, this ensures you are not disappointed later, but will make people angry.