Murali-group / PathLinker

Connect the dots in networks.
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Ranked Edges File KSP Order #8

Open mitchwagner opened 6 years ago

mitchwagner commented 6 years ago

Problem: Rows in the output file for paths have a column "KSP index" corresponding to the order the path was found. Rows in the ranked edges file have a corresponding column, referring to the index of the first path the edge was seen in. At first blush, one might be tempted to treat this as a rank for paths/edges.

However, the KSP index of these paths thus depends on implementation-dependent priorities that determine the orders paths of equal weight are found in, rather than the presumed path-weight ranking criteria. Two paths with the same weight will not receive the same KSP index.

This serves to make the ranked-edges file and to some extent the output file for paths counterintuitive, as they discriminate between edges/paths on arbitrary criteria.

Expected behavior:

Reproduce: This can be seen in our sample output files

This is not a bug, but I do think it violates the principle of least astonishment.