[AG-TECH] RE: development directions

Ivan R. Judson judson at mcs.anl.gov
Wed Dec 11 01:07:21 CST 2002


> You'd suggested at the last town hall meeting that we send any
> questions/comments/etc to ag-tech, so here goes:

Great!

> Given that design docs and a fully-functional alpha are due
> out soon, we
> seem to have run out of time for any substantial requirement
> gathering
> for AG 2.0. However, it does seem to me that there are a number of
> things wihch have come up repeatedly in the past as clear and
> necessary
> directions. Can you comment on which of these are slated for
> inclusion
> at this point? (I imagine others on ag-tech might want to
> chime in with
> other items too; this is not an exhaustive list, just the
> things which
> immediately occured to me.)

Sure, first however, I think it's important to keep in mind that we are
trying to *always* take recommendations or suggestions for requirements for
the next version. We have had more than a year to gather requirements for
2.0, including SCGlobal experiences. We should have a very rich set of
requirements that represents good stuff. I'll address each of these
specifically.

>     * Workspace docking (especially given interest in that
> demo at SC02)

This will be present in the 2.0 alpha; that is the ability to author docked
tools will be supported. In order for this to work we have created a Virtual
Venues Client which is not a web browser. This client has a dock where
docked tools live.

>     * Visual indication of who is speaking at any given time

We will be able to support this easily; however it won't be present in the
alpha. There is just too much too fast. Vote early and often to prioritize
things for the beta release.

>     * Voyager

Voyager is not part of the alpha; it is being worked on separately from the
Access Grid and once 2.0 is ready for it's release it will be present in the
Virtual Venues as a Application Service.

>     * Integration with other Grid services, such as Globus

Depending on what you mean by integration, yes or no. We'll be using Globus
Toolkit 2.2 for the alpha. This means that users of the access grid will be
working with a certificate that *could* allow them to securely interact with
Grid Services. There has been no integration beyond that at this point.

Cheers,

--Ivan





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