[ros-users] ROS usability (was: ROS & DDS)

Wed Feb 19 17:39:47 UTC 2014

My last reply was rejected from the list, hopefully this isn't duplicate.

Jonathan, your tutorials are awesome! I especially appreciate how the
catkin intro motivates and explains *why* one might want a build system and
proper dependency management. I've bookmarked your articles :)

In regards to speed of bringing up new packages, to what extent is the
community aware of catkin_simple <https://github.com/catkin/catkin_simple> ?
Is there a plan to officially release this and put it in the debs? It does
make setting up a new workspace quite a bit easier and is great for
development. (It seems perhaps nothing should be *released* this way, but a
conversion from catkin_simple to plain catkin isn't so bad, and is probably
worth the time, once you have a testable system in place.)

--Adam

- - - - - - - - - - - -
Adam Leeper
650.ROBOT.44

On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 1:36 AM, Daniel Stonier <d.stonier at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Accidentally hit send, sorry. Continuing...
>
> I have watched and avoided entering alot of discussions about usability
> over the last six months. Given that they're repeating, they're obviously a
> concern to many, but it's probably time to start doing rather than talking.
> If you have time, write some code (see previous email), test every which
> way but loose and then harry Tully & co if you think it needs to be
> integrated at a more fundamental level (e.g. catkin_create scripts). I like
> seeing things like roslint which Mike and Jack have done a splendid job on.
>
> To be honest, I'd rather see William work on crazy issues like middleware
> debate than consuming inordinate amounts of oxygen and pizza in order to
> writing catkin_create scripts - that's where the average grad student or
> company engineer can help out with a bit of guidance.
>
> There is another point I'd like to bring up about usability. To me
>
> *usability* != *ease of use for beginners*.
>
> I wouldn't consider something usable if, despite being brilliant for a
> newbie, it isn't capable of doing everything that it's specified to do.
>
> I think it's very important for people to sit down and work out the
> fundamental set of things that ROS must do, make everyone aware of these
> and THEN consider how to best make ros easy to use whilst being capable of
> that fundamental set of things. Only then do you have what I'd call a
> *usable* system. Alot of 'ease of use' discussions are often unaware of
> the very important practical needs that you don't see within the first day
> (or sometimes ever depending on your work) of becoming a rosified human.
> Good examples of this include the needs of research robots vs product
> robots, embedded needs, connecting outside the robot to pc's, the lan or
> the web. This lack of awareness has a habit of diverting attention from
> whatever original discussion was started. At least some separate threads
> were made here (thanks to whoever did this!).
>
> Ok, back to the wonderful world of ROS (kicks ass on emails, although
> admittedly emails about ROS aren't so bad....)!
>
> Cheers,
> Daniel.
>
>
> On 19 February 2014 18:14, Daniel Stonier <d.stonier at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 19 February 2014 00:21, Ryan Gariepy <rgariepy at clearpathrobotics.com>wrote:
>>
>>> So, I actually ask "What would you improve about ROS" in every single
>>> related job interview I conduct...I've got a long list.
>>>
>>> On ROS usability itself, the largest thing which has come up has been
>>> the renewed difficulty in getting started. Even though new users are no
>>> longer being thrown into the middle of the rosmake/catkin transition, the
>>> overhead in creating a new package has increased dramatically.
>>>
>>> It's been a long time since I've used the rosmake/rospy/Electric combo,
>>> but IIRC all you needed to do was:
>>> 1) Source setup.bash
>>> 2) Call the package creation script
>>> 3) Write a .py script
>>> 4) Add the package to ROS_PACKAGE_PATH
>>>
>>> Three of those four steps are one-liners, and the fourth has
>>> near-instant gratification for the developers.
>>>
>>> Another point: ROS used to be three steps for a full install: (key,
>>> update, install), and now you need to jump through hoops for rosdep and
>>> other "noncritical yet required" items.
>>>
>>> Something else which is important to note is that the purpose of all of
>>> those above steps are easily explainable to someone who knows nothing about
>>> ROS at all, which is certainly not the case now. (ex. "Why do I have to
>>> specify basic ROS dependencies in three different locations?", "Why do I
>>> need to set up build instructions for a script I intend to run in place?")
>>>
>>> So, we've made development and installation more difficult by leaps and
>>> bounds, and now we have the potential to make the same mistake with the
>>> transport layer?
>>>
>>> IMO, we should all keep in mind that ROS is where it is in large part
>>> due to it being easy to install and get started on. I'm not saying at all
>>> that we should stop improving performance, but I am saying that we should
>>> consider the "getting started" for new developers more than we have been.
>>> Even from a personal note, it sometimes takes me longer to set up a
>>> workspace and package setup for a quick test than it does for me to write
>>> the actual code. True, I can set up templates and scripts to speed this
>>> up...but why should I have to?
>>>
>>
>> I actually think all of these issues can be very quickly remedied, except
>> perhaps for the little extra effort involved in adding a bit more
>> information to CMakeLists.txt and setup.py than there used to be.
>>
>> We even go to some of this effort internally and have a few tools that
>> make life easier for interns/engineers who aren't so familiar with ros and
>> are often only temporarily in and out of the ros team.  For them getting
>> started with something like turtlebot is as easy as:
>>
>> # Pull rosinstalls located by our rosdistro like github database<https://github.com/yujinrobot/yujin_tools/tree/master/rosinstalls>
>> > yujin_init_workspace turtlebot ./turtlebot
>> > cd turtlebot
>> # Create a whole bunch of useful scripts for starting konsole,
>> gnome-terminal, eclipse with sourced setup.bash
>> > yujin_init_build .
>> # Install all dependencies and compile
>> > yujin_make --install-rosdeps
>>
>> From there we also have a few of our own catkin_create_xxx wizards - e.g.
>> for java we utilise catkin_create_rosjava_package,
>> catkin_create_rosjava_library_project, catkin_create_rosjava_project. Ros
>> could definitely use some extra default catkin_create_xxx scripts and this
>> would simplify things alot for *new* users and with these, I don't see
>> it really being that much more difficult than electric.
>>
>> Perhaps this small (and it is small compared to catkin or a middleware
>> overhaul) effort should be given higher priority given the anxiety this
>> issue creates.
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Feb 16, 2014 at 5:56 AM, Thibault Kruse <kruset at in.tum.de>wrote:
>>>
>>>> > Ease of use is *critical*. We're already receiving regular feedback
>>>> > that the usability of ROS is getting worse with each distribution.
>>>> >
>>>> > -Ryan
>>>>
>>>> Hi Ryan,
>>>>
>>>> it would be interesting to hear more details about what parts of ROS
>>>> suffered usability most, and what impact this has on Clearpath Robotics
>>>> Business.
>>>>
>>>> The question about DDS was not asked by some OSRF technical underling or
>>>> the ROS platform manager, but by the OSRF CEO. So we can presume that
>>>> the
>>>> internal discussion about DDS at OSRF is not just philantrophic idle
>>>> talk,
>>>> but more relevant to the future of OSRF itself (not just ROS).
>>>>
>>>> It seems unclear whether the loss of usability of ROS will have an
>>>> impact
>>>> on OSRF funding, or whether OSRF should invest into integrating accepted
>>>> industry standards (like DDS) into ROS rather than improving usability.
>>>>
>>>> The loss of usability itself is a pity, but OSRF closing shop would be
>>>> much more dramatic for the future of ROS.
>>>>
>>>> regards,
>>>>   Thibault
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> ros-users mailing list
>>>> ros-users at lists.ros.org
>>>> http://lists.ros.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-users
>>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Phone : +82-10-5400-3296 (010-5400-3296)
>> Home: http://snorriheim.dnsdojo.com/
>> Yujin R&D: http://rnd.yujinrobot.com/
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Phone : +82-10-5400-3296 (010-5400-3296)
> Home: http://snorriheim.dnsdojo.com/
> Yujin R&D: http://rnd.yujinrobot.com/
>
>
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