[Insight-users] Insight Journal submission: problems at everystep of the way.

Fri Feb 3 11:45:23 EST 2006

Jim,

Thanks for the input.
I think you are right, the best solution will be to abstract the MIDAS 
part. It is definitely feasible. We are currently in the process of 
moving the Insight Journal to a new server. After the transfer I will 
work on these improvements.

Thanks again for your valuable inputs,

Julien

Miller, James V (GE, Research) wrote:
> Julien, 
> 
> Here are some thoughts on the submission process.  If I recall correctly, 
> when you do the submission, the user is told that a wizard will walk them 
> through the steps.  The user is presented with a multiframe window
> where the top frame gives the first set of directions, the middle frame
> shows a MIDAS interface, and the bottom frame is the finalize section.
> 
> The first time I used the system, I completely missed the bottom frame.  
> I was looking for it and it blended into the background.  
> 
> One suggestion would be to have two side by side frames.  The left
> frame lists ALL the steps and the right frame shows MIDAS.
> 
> Another alternative is to use a different background color for the 
> "wizard" frames to distinguish them from the MIDAS frame.
> 
> The ultimate solution would be to abstract the IJ user experience
> from the MIDAS system.  The user would never be presented with any MIDAS
> screen.  This would include the drop box for the original submission as 
> well as the drop box for updating a submission.
> 
> Jim
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: insight-users-bounces+millerjv=crd.ge.com at itk.org
> [mailto:insight-users-bounces+millerjv=crd.ge.com at itk.org]On Behalf Of
> Julien Jomier
> Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2006 12:02 AM
> To: Zachary Pincus
> Cc: Insight Users
> Subject: Re: [Insight-users] Insight Journal submission: problems at
> everystep of the way.
> 
> 
> Hi Zach,
> 
> I completely understand your disappointment and I want to thank you for 
> pursing the different issues and providing a very descriptive and useful 
> explanation of them.
> 
> Problem 1 sounds like a bug, at the end of the MIDAS process you should 
> be redirected to the main Insight Journal webpage to finish your 
> publication. I'll take a look at this problem.
> 
> Problem 2: you can upload the files as one archive or multiple files, it 
> shouldn't matter. Regarding the .tgz files I will take a look, but they 
> are supported.
> 
> Problem 3. You should specify what ITK version you want to use. Like 
> ITK2.4.1 in your CMakeLists.txt.
> 
> Problem 4. Sounds like a bug. I just fixed it. You should be able to 
> upload a new file, otherwise let me know.
> 
> Just to let you know, the Insight Journal was implemented in a short 
> amount of time and we know that it is not optimal. We are currently in 
> the process of improving it, especially the submission of new revisions 
> (via cvs/svn) and the documentation. It should be better in the near future.
> 
> Again, I'd like to thank you for improving the Insight Journal, let me 
> know if I can do anything to help.
> 
> Julien
> 
> Zachary Pincus wrote:
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> I just submitted a brief Insight Journal submission describing a 2D 
>> image contour extraction filter that I wrote, which I hope will prove 
>> useful and merit inclusion in ITK. Unfortunately, I have had some 
>> problems with this entire process, culminating in my code not building 
>> because of some bizarre configuration issue on the build machine that I 
>> of course cannot diagnose, and then being unable to submit a revision to 
>> said code in the hopes of remotely diagnosing the problem.
>>
>> Here is a list of the problems I have encountered today with the Insight 
>> Journal.
>>
>> Problem 0 is the simple fact that documentation for this entire process 
>> is scattered across at least two wikis (the itk wiki, and the insight 
>> software colloquium wiki), with important information (like the latex 
>> and source code templates for submission) only available on the itk 
>> wiki. Figuring out what, precisely, I needed to do and how to do it took 
>> far too long.
>>
>> Problem 1 was that despite the fact that at the end of the new 
>> submission process, I clicked "finish" and got an email saying that the 
>> submission had been accepted, the paper did not show up in the Insight 
>> Journal. Only after I clicked on "My Publications" and saw at the end of 
>> the line a "finish publication" did I find yet more steps to complete. I 
>> guess I clicked only on the "finish" button inside the MIDAS frame, but 
>> perhaps not on the finish button outside of the frame? Having two finish 
>> buttons to press is confusing and counterintuitive.
>>
>> Problem 2 centers around including source files for the automated build 
>> system. Nowhere was it particularly well-explained that source code 
>> should be uploaded alongside the article file -- I spent some time 
>> searching for a specific entry point to upload source for the automated 
>> build program. Only on my third perusal of 
>> http://www.insightsoftwareconsortium.org/wiki/index.php/IJ-Testing-Environment 
>> did I notice that source should be uploaded as a secondary file and the 
>> build script will find it there.
>>
>> So, I included a Source.tgz archive as a secondary file. However, tgz 
>> files are marked as unsupported and the upload process gave me trouble 
>> about that, despite the fact that the build system apparently had no 
>> problem opening it.
>>
>> Problem 3 is that the code will not build on the test system. The 
>> problem is that the #define'd constant ITK_LOCATION (defined in 
>> itkMacro.h) is mysteriously unavailable to my code on the build machine, 
>> despite the fact that this constant is used throughout the ITK codebase 
>> (grep for it), and itkMacro.h should have been included properly. The 
>> same code compiles fine on my machine, where header files are properly 
>> included.
>>
>> Problem 4 came when I tried to fix the build issue. On the "My 
>> Publications" link, there are two options: "modify revision" and "post a 
>> new revision." Surprisingly, "modify revision" in no way allows you to 
>> modify the revision. It just allows the exact same revision to be 
>> re-posted. How this is a modification is beyond me. The "post new 
>> revision" link then takes me to an extremely confusing frame with the 
>> directions to "Scroll down the frame and click on 'Add Bitstream'." When 
>> I did this and attempted to upload a new version of the PDF and 
>> source.tgz, I was provided with an AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED page because 
>> the operation was not permitted. So I can't add a new file, and so I 
>> can't even begin to try to diagnose why the build fails on the build 
>> machine.
>>
>> All in all, this process has been extremely frustrating. Though I 
>> support the intention behind this all, the fact is that I've spent a day 
>> writing a "journal submission" describing an algorithm that is as old as 
>> the hills and whose implementation is straightforward (and exceptionally 
>> thoroughly documented in the code itself), and was then rewarded with 
>> getting to spend all evening fiddling around with the submit process. 
>> This is not a good use of my time.
>>
>> Next time I write code for a basic, classic image processing method that 
>> ITK needs but does not have for some reason, I'll have to think twice 
>> about bothering to deal with all of this.
>>
>> Zach
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Insight-users mailing list
>> Insight-users at itk.org
>> http://www.itk.org/mailman/listinfo/insight-users
>>
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Insight-users mailing list
> Insight-users at itk.org
> http://www.itk.org/mailman/listinfo/insight-users
> 