[ewg] Panel at SC08/Austin -- what can we do about this?

[John Russo]

This may be a small part of a larger issue. 

 

As the Open Fabrics products gain a larger customer base, we cannot
assume that all users will be actively following the mailing lists.  A
detailed Users Guide which covers issues such as installation as well as
the features and use of each ULP is necessary forthose who are not
intimately familiar with the OFED/WinOF offerings.  

 

In addition, there is currently no documentation that informs anyone of
changes between releases of OFED/WinOF.  Even those who are working to
test release candidates do not have enough information as to what has
changed between builds.  

 

In order to build a legitimate set of user documentation, there needs to
be a more formal process for developers to document changes,
enhancements and bug fixes that are added to a release.  This does not
have to be a major burden on the developers; a few comments in a
pre-determined README file would go a long way to improving
communication of changes to the product. This would ensure that the
community adequately tests updates to the products and that end-users
would have the information they need to get the most out of it.

 

Just my 2-cents.

 

________________________________

From: ewg-bounces at lists.openfabrics.org
[mailto:ewg-bounces at lists.openfabrics.org] On Behalf Of Ryan, Jim
Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2008 5:41 PM
To: Hebenstreit, Michael; ewg at lists.openfabrics.org;
mwg at lists.openfabrics.org; bboas at systemfabricworks.com
Subject: [ewg] RE: Panel at SC08/Austin -- what can we do about this?

 

I'm not completely clear about the genesis of the email below and the
points that were made, but I thought this was extremely interesting.
Maybe I'm unreasonably impressed because I got similar questions from
people stopping by the OpenFabrics booth at SC'08. Just, as one example,
a professor at The University of Tokyo asked for a "programming manual",
which I understood to mean a how-to-get-started document for
implementing high-performance networks

 

I'm copying the Marketing Working Group of OFA and will do so further to
see if there's someone who can act on these concerns. I think ignorance
of basics is a major challenge for OFA to address for broader acceptance
of the interconnects we support

 

Thanks, Jim Ryan

 

________________________________

From: ewg-bounces at lists.openfabrics.org
[mailto:ewg-bounces at lists.openfabrics.org] On Behalf Of Hebenstreit,
Michael
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 3:10 PM
To: ewg at lists.openfabrics.org
Subject: [ewg] Panel at SC08/Austin

 

At the session I raised points about missing documentation and was
askled to summarize my ideas and write it to this list. specifically I
would like to see

 

a) a PDF binder of all mans/docs already available in the distribution
on the web site

b) a howto start with OFED (example: a collegue of mine had no idea that
he needs a running opensm ...)

c) for each special feature like "ipoib, sdp, opensm..." one or two
pages describing WHAT the technology want's to achieve, plus some
examples how it is used; how to enable/configure it

d) on technologies like VERB/DAPL/...: one or two pages describing WHAT
the technology want's to achieve, plus some examples how it is used; a
few simple examples how to program with the libraries (at the level of a
MPI introduction)

 

best regards

Michael

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Hebenstreit                 Senior Cluster Architect
Intel Corporation                   Software and Services Group/DRD
2800 N Center Dr, DP3-307           Tel.:   +1 253 371 3144
WA 98327, DuPont           
UNITED STATES                       E-mail:
michael.hebenstreit at intel.com



 

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