[Neurodebian-upstream] [Nipy-devel] Standard dataset

Matthew Brett matthew.brett at gmail.com
Tue Sep 21 20:54:09 UTC 2010


Hi,

> 1. Need a way to share data between different software packages.
> 2. Need more standard data to be able to write and run more complex tests.
> 3. Need tests to verify that individual software and whole
>   heterogeneous analysis pipelines on a particular system are working.
> 4. No preconditions on programming language, etc.

Right.

It seems to me that 3) - the tests - have to be configured by the
individual software packages.  For example, in nipy, there are tests
that check if we have the example data package, and run tests if we
do, skip if not.    I think the usecases boil down to this:

a) The user has the name and version of a data package they want from
the internet.  They can install a data package matching that name and
version
b) If the package is installed, there is an algorithm for the system
to find what package is installed, and the version of that package.
c) The user can install the package into any named location, and tell
the system where to look for the data package
d) The user can install the data package as root so that the algorithm
in b) can find the package
e) ditto as non-root
f) A user can create their own data package locally
g) The user can install their local data package in the same way as a
remote package
h) The user can allow the system to find the local package without
installation (develop mode)
i) The user can upload their package somewhere such that another user
can find the package as in a)

So, actually, our original draft was meant to try and deal with at
least some of these problems in an language neutral way.  By language
neutral, I mean, you might need python installed to install the
package, but you can use the package from any language.

Does that make any sense?  Do you have any feelings about the design
we had so far?

See you,

Matthew



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