Prototype Deployment Software Requirements

[hamishmb]

On an unrelated note, would it be smart to make a separate forum from "Progress" to hold software discussion? At the moment, we're putting most of the new posts in there, and that may become a problem later if we try to go back and find old posts, so I propose that:

• A forum shall be made specifically for summaries of meetings, and discussion therein.
• A forum shall be made for discussion about software.
• A forum shall be made for discussing hardware developments.
• Anytime someone makes notable progress on something they should post it in the announcements forum so everyone is kept in the loop.

If I do implement these changes, I'd like to move existing topics into their respective forums, and I'll obviously provide plenty of warning first, so everyone knows what is happening, and when it'll happen.

Is everyone in agreement with this?

[TerryJC]

Before I get started on that, I will change variable and function names to obey Python's style guide, but that won't take long; I'll make a start on the requirements today.

Ahem... You mean design of course.....

[TerryJC]

Is everyone in agreement with this?

I think we have to do something to get control of all the threads. You probably need a forum to summarise System Requirements, Design, etc too, otherwise it will become orphaned.

[hamishmb]

Ahem... You mean design of course.....

That I do

We have forums for the Requirements and Design already, but I can make more if that's what you're proposing.

Penri, what do you think?

[TerryJC]

We have forums for the Requirements and Design already, but I can make more if that's what you're proposing.

Yes. I think that when you are moving the forums / topics / postings around, you should make sure that the all Requirements are under that section and design under design etc. Maybe you should rename the Forums to make it clear, eg 'WMT River System Requirements' becomes ' simply 'Requirements' and so on, to divorce the thread from the word 'System' which has its own meaning in terms of documentation. What I mean is that River System Design means the design of the river system. whereas there can be many levels of design; hardware design, software design and so on.

You are quite right that the Topics have tended to veer off a bit at times and this will certainly make it difficult to find things in the future. The Search facility is very powerful, but in order to work, you have to know that the item is there in the first place.

[hamishmb]

Okay, I will do this soon. I'll definitely back everything up first though!

[TerryJC]

I have completed the first draft of the Software Requirement Specification for the prototype deployment. In time, I expect it will evolve into a full Requirement for the final deployed software, but for the moment, I think it will suffice. I have attached it to this posting.

This document is based on the draft offering in this Topic and any comments received to date. I have also added a few sections which are not relevant to the programs that Hamish has been developing, but do impact on the other aspects of the software, such as operational requirements.

Please post any comments in this forum and I will collate them and see that they are incorporated. That will reduce the number of times that this forum has to accommodate potentially heavy attachments.

[Penri]

Good morning,

Comments on the Requirement Specification Issue 0.1:

Date on front cover shows 26th Sep, is that when this is planned to hit the street formally?

• 1 Introduction, bullet point 3 - Ensure that the butts do not overflow by monitoring the state of a float switch which indicates that they are full.
  3.1 Function Software ..., final sentence - Output of Hall effect switches are open collector, so active low as documented; the Hall effect devices themselves and the 1k o/p pull-ups I have designed in can operate with supply voltages from 5V to 24V although in practice the higher the supply voltage the more sensitive the Hall effect sensors appear to be (which is good). My preference, provided the buffer board can take accommodate it is to use supply the 19V to the sensor probe meaning that the logic high will be 19.2V with logic low around 0.4V.
  3.1 Requirements table - requirement 2.4.2 need to change to say the "... outputs of the Magnetic Probe."

That's it from me,

Hwyl

Penri

[TerryJC]

All,

I have now posted V0.2 of the Software Requirements to the Development Server at http://www.hadrian-way.co.uk/WMT_River_ ... ss_0.2.odt. I have not left any changebars in the document, because the changes were fairly straightforward anyway. What I have done is to create a Table containing a summary of the changes that I have made.