InSitu: Scenarios

This page contains usage scenarios for In Situ. The scenarios are plain English descriptions of things that a user might do with In Situ. Each scenario is accompanied by a list of features that support the scenario (i.e., features required by the scenario), with links back to descriptions of the features.

The scenarios are an alternate way of looking at user requirements. In looking at scenarios that describe what the user will do in various cases, features that will be required expose themselves. Similarly, if a feature listed under User Requirements never appears in a usage scenario, then the feature is probably not actually required. All "Must Have" user requirements will be illustrated in a scenario here (else they are not really "must have").

Scenario

We have our prototypical target modeler/author. He programs in only one language Pascal. He has only worked in one compiler, a DOS compiler, which he now runs inside a DOS window on an Windows 95 machine. He is a whiz with algorithms, matrices, etc., but knows nothing about any sort of snazzy input or output, much less how to do interprocess communication or save states.

We send him a URL, or he finds it on his own, and he downloads the version of InSitu that matches his particular combination of machine, operating system. He also downloads the appropriate template; nothing is written in Pascal, except for the "skeleton" Artificial Intelligence (AI) source module. Our prototypical author installs InSitu, and gets to work copying his already extant Pascal code and adapting it in minor ways to fit the hooks in the AI-skeleton.

He renames the skeleton and compiles it with the brand, new Windows compatible version of his old DOS Pascal compiler. (That much, he must do on his own. I am pretty sure we won't be supporting DOS early on.) That compile grabs up his own author-supplied exit routines (all in Pascal) links everything together. The result is a new executable or loadable AI-module that has his algorithm, plus all the right hooks into InSitu. At that point, he will be able to run InSitu with his own AI algorithm.

Required Features

Scenario

Required Features