[Pkg-exppsy-pynifti] [Nipy-devel] Example data - a proposal

[Fernando Perez]

On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 11:44 AM, Gael
Varoquaux<gael.varoquaux at normalesup.org> wrote:
>
> Yes, both aspects are really problematic. Matthew and I have tried to
> address both aspects over the week end. This has resulted in the
> data-refactor branch:
> https://code.launchpad.net/~nipy-developers/nipy/nipy-datarefactor

This is a very important issue and I'm glad to see it being addressed,
thanks a lot.  One minor comment: as consensus on this topic is
reached, it's very important that somewhere in the docs there's a
section explaining this issue, detailing:

- the generic policies
- the mechanisms used to implement them (network access, local storage, etc)
- what's where: by default, on the net, etc.

This will prevent people from reinventing this particular wheel, and
will make it easier for new contributors or users to know what they
can assume to be always available for examples, tests, demos, etc.  So
it's important that it not be considered 'developer-only' information,
since much of it can be useful even to the beginning user.

One easy way to 'sneak in' this information is by using such data
stores (once the dust settles) in the shipped examples, so people
easily see what's available and how to use it by just reading the
introductory examples.

Cheers,

f