Feedback from Frazer Owen
1) When I was inputting my first source, the tool failed with an
exception. The second time with no changes it appeared to work. It
is not immediately clear when wants to start a new source
group or one types in the source position whether to hit the add or save.
2) Not clear what "Name" means in "VLA Resources" Is it the source name,
the name of the Source list or a name of that particular resource list ?
3) When one enters the Receiver, the programs sets the frequencies which
are not the ones wanted for my experiment. I tried changing those values but
then when I try to give the correlator setup, it changes back to the old,
wrong values. The correlator setup gives me the choice of rest frequencies
or Spectral transitions. Since this is pseudo-continuum experiment what
I want to give is the sky frequency. Even though I changed the frequencies
twice, the tool records the wrong frequencies in the resource list. This
seems like a major bug.
4) When one is doing multiple configurations the rms noise for an individual
session doesn't have any meaning.
5) I selected an old ps file for justification. That file is listed under
justification file but without the complete path. Under the file name is
"File Preview" but the justification does not show up on the screen. What
does "File Preview" mean ?
6) I tried to print out the file so that I could see what the proposal looked
like and got "Coming Soon". Thus perhaps I don't understand something about
the Science Justification file but I have no way to see what I have prepared.
7) I entered twice the cover sheet info. However, when I return to the
Cover sheet page nothing is remembered, i.e. the Title, Type, Science
category etc. I could not find any way to save this information. The rest
of the info I entered and saved does seem to be remembered.
Probably I am doing some things wrong but I was not very successful
at setting up the proposal.
Besides the issues above which really appear to me to be bugs
especially 3), I believe some easier access to documentation needs to
be available where the proposer can find it quickly. Ideally it would
be accessible from the proposal form. I think I would now have a
better chance of being able to fill out the form OK the next time but
I think the obstacles are too high at present for many users. If you
write a short user guide and provide a way to access it by the
proposer online that would help. I was probably a good test case since
I had not played with the proposal form since the very early
days. Many of your testers may be too expert. I can certainly see a
lot proposer panicking if they were trying to use this tool one day
before the deadline.
A little more on the frequency setting. I went back in and tried to
change the frequency on one of my resource files. Just editing that
file worked. However, when I changed the frequency the Configuration
letter changed back to the default. If I went one step up from there I
could change the configuration and then last of all change the
frequency again I could get it to stay finally as I intended. This
seems pretty bad to me.
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DanaBalser - 02 Nov 2007