[OTDev] Superservice section of API documentation

Roman Affentranger roman at douglasconnect.com
Mon Jan 31 13:45:19 CET 2011


Dear Christoph

Few comments regarding the superservice documentation.
1) "Super service" is a part of "5. Algorithm Types", but the title has a
different color than the other algorithm types.
2) Under the REST operations, there are links for Parameters, Result and
Status Codes for GET ("as in Algorithm"). These links point to
opentox.org/dev/Algorithm, which doesn't exist...
3) I find the "introduction" sentence a bit confusing:

=====
Super Service
Allows to create models and specify descriptor calculation , feature
selection and possibly other services, necessary to generate the data,
required by the model building algorithm
A superservice for creating models is a specific instance of an algorithm,
with input parameters defined below. The result of a super algorithm is a
super model (see Model API).
=====

I think this could be a bit more clear, e.g.
=====
Superservice
A Superservice is a specific instance of an algorithm that, like a regular
algorithm, creates a model, but additionally allows for specific definition
of the individual services (descriptor calculation, feature selection, and
possibly other services) necessary to generate the data required by the
model building algorithm. The result of a Superservice is a Supermodel (see
Model API)
=====

I don't know if the above sentences are even correct, but I think something
like that would be more clear. In particular:
- If you say "a superservice for creating models is a specific instance of
an algorithm", this gives the impression that there are Superservices wih
another purpose than creating models. Is that true? If so, it could be made
more clear. If not, I'd suggest rephrasing as I suggested above.
- The last sentence "The result of a super algorithm is a super model (see
Model API)" should be rephrased. The term "super algorithm" appears out of
nowhere. What's the difference between a Superservice and a Superalgorithm?
- "(see Model API)" should be a link to the Model API.

So, overall, I think it is fairly clear, however, could be made more clear
;)
In particular, the terminology should be revisited (Superservice vs
Superalgorithm. If both, both need to be defined). Also, the spelling should
be unified (Super Service, super service, Superservice, etc.). That is: one
word, two words? Capital letters/lower-case letters? Same for Supermodel,
Superalgorithm (if we keep it).

Since it clearly states that the output of a Superservice/Superalgorithm is
a Supermodel, I'll look at that next....

Best regards,
Roman



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