adowling2
commented
3 years ago I am going to throw out a crazy, strawman proposal.
Here are the notebooks for my graduate optimization elective: https://ndcbe.github.io/CBE60499/
I use this lightweight Python package to convert a GitHub repo of Jupyter Notebooks into a webpage "book" with chapters and sections. Each notebook opens in Colab. I have successfully installed/run IDAES in Colab. https://github.com/jckantor/nbpages
What about something like this? Easy to navigate from a web-browser. No local installation or Git involved.
When it comes to the property package tools, we have a number of examples of creating property packages within the main code base which are intended as instructionary material for users (as well as testing), but these are generally buried within the main code folders (e.g.
ideas/generic_models/properties/generic/examples) and not linked to the documentation. This makes it challenging for users to find these examples, as noted in the email below.We should think about where best to places these examples (maybe a top level examples folder) so that they are easier to find, and add links in the documentation pointing users to these examples.
Original email from user:
Yesterday, I was trying to create a fairly simple model in IDEAS as part of our ongoing effort to get ourselves trained on the platform. Like previous attempts, I ran into a roadblock when it came to the property package. The IDEAS platform provides a few generic property packages like the cubic equation of state package. I wanted to see if I could use this package in my model. I read through the online documentation. It provides good detail about the two equations currently supported and shows me WHAT I need to use (i.e. what classes I need to import) but it does not discuss HOW these classes need to be used. I turned to the tutorials and workshop examples for help but all those examples use a custom property package and not any of the generic property packages supplied with the IDEAS platform. The lack of how to use the pieces provided by IDEAS is prevalent throughout the available documentation. The available examples do help understand how to use items like unit models but do not help with more critical areas like properties.
I recommend you consider adding small snippets of code to the appropriate sections of the documentation (especially the model library sections) to illustrate how the models are instantiated and used. In the meantime, do you have any example flowsheets which use the generic property packages you could send us to help with our learning?
I want to emphasize the IDEAS team has done a tremendous job putting together the current set of tools. My hat is off to the team. I hope my comments will be taken in the spirit in which they are offered; as an attempt to help improve the IDEAS platform.