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Deborah Frincke

Date: Tue, 3 Dec 1996 13:20:55 -0800 (PST)
From: Deborah Frincke <frincke@cs.uidaho.edu>
To: cary8741@cs.uidaho.edu
Cc: Deborah Frincke <frincke@cs.uidaho.edu>
Subject: Final Beta comments



Here are some comments I have on the beta CCA distribution file.
It is an interesting tool; I'd like a copy of the final version
when that becomes available. Please feel free to ask for
clarification of my comments (below) or additional feedback.

Thanks,

Deb
----------------------------------------------------

EASE OF INSTALLATION

High marks here. It took just a couple of minutes to get
something up and running.  

Three minor points:

1) You might consider adding a test
harness that would run a known test file and compare the
actual results with expected results. This could be used
to show that installation was successful and that all
features are working as needed; it would also be useful
if someone wanted to be certain that newly added features
hadn't broken old features.

2) I like Makefiles that allow me to configure environment
variables, such as the location of the source, target/install location
of the binaries, location of Perl, etc. 

3) You might also consider having the tar file include an (empty) bin directory
to hold the executable, and a "tests" or "data"  directory to hold input 
files.  (This is a minor nit---it took less time to do this by hand than 
to write  about it).

LEARNING CURVE

The sample execution, key.ps, and man page comments were handy. I
was able to use it immediately. The only error I made was
in trying to use wildcards with the "-f" option (I didn't think
it would work anyway).

Before the tool is distributed widely, it would be useful
to have a short discussion of sample results and their interpretation.
For example, it would have been nice to have a few test cases
of C code included with the documentation, along with a printout
showing the results and an *interpretation* of those results.


ONLINE HELP, DOCUMENTATION

This was sufficient to get the program working without much
difficulty. 

The "-h" option provided the typical  Unix summary of flags.
Although I prefer the longer output that gives a flag along with
a one line summary,  in your case that
might prove overly lengthy. If I were your customer I'd request
a "verbose help" in addition to the standard :)

BTW: I was glad to see that you added the following for invalid parameters:
   lemhi 89: ./cca -j
   Invalid or out of context flag "j".
   Type "./cca -h" for command usage.


I liked the Summary report; the succinct description of the options was
handy.