Newsgroups: comp.parallel
From: Anna Hondroudakis <ah@dcs.ed.ac.uk>
Subject: Questions for tool developers (2nd attempt)
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 12:52:25 GMT
Message-ID: <D2t9nH.Jxp@dcs.ed.ac.uk>


A couple of months ago I posted some questionnaires to this newsgroup. Some of
you have replied to me and I thank you a lot. I am reposting the questionnaires
hoping that more people could help me with these. After this attempt, I will
send a compilation of the answers to all those who have expressed their 
interest in them.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My name is Anna Hondroudakis and I am a PhD student at the department of 
Computer Science of Edinburgh University.

My research is concerned with parallel program performance evaluation and 
visualization tools, or more commonly tuning tools. I am specifically
interested in seeing from a Human Factors point of view the shortcomings
of existing tools and in identifying the needs of the users regarding these 
tools. I need to see what people do with the tuning tools, e.g, if they use 
them and how and what their observations regarding the tools' usability are.

You would be of great help to my research if you answered some questions that
have been posted as three separate postings.The questions are
addressed to three types of people: People who are parallel program developers,
people who are tool developers and people who are project leaders. In this 
way I try to capture the practices concerning the tools for parallel program 
development from a number of different aspects.
Please, feel free to answer one or more than one set of questions included in
this and in the rest of the postings and send it(them) to my email address: 
ah@dcs.ed.ac.uk. If you are interested in my findings, I will send you a 
summary when a sufficient number of answers are received. 

Thank you very much,


Anna Hondroudakis


        QUESTIONS FOR TOOL DEVELOPERS (3 of 3) (Only a few)

The following questions should be answered by people who have developed or are
developing tools that aim to assist people in the process of parallel 
program development. 





----------------------------->8   cut here  8<---------------------------------


                              QUESTIONNAIRE


Name:
-----


Email:
-----



1) Could you give some details about the organization you are working for? 


   Name:


   Aims:


   
   Do you work in a specific group? 

   Objectives of the group, current projects:  








   Number of people in the group:                [  ]






2) What is the name of the tool (environment) you developed?


3) When was it developed?



4) How does the tool (environment) serve the parallel program development 
process?



5) Is there any provision for performance evaluation and visualization in 
this environment? What are the features provided?




6) For which hardware and software platforms is it designed?



7) Have you built your tool for your own use? 
a)Yes
b)No 


8) If you built it for your own use why did you have to do this?



9) Could you say roughly how many sites use your tool?

10) Has your tool been used in the context of real parallel programs?
a) Yes
b) No


11) What kind of feedback did you have from the people who have used it?






12) Currently, what are the main obstacles that impede the wider use of your 
tool (environment)?








-- 
===============================================================================
Anna Hondroudakis         Dept. of Computer Science   Edinburgh University
ah@dcs.ed.ac.uk           Tel.  +44 (0)31 650 5115    Fax. +44 (0)31 667 7209
===============================================================================


