> On 18 Sep 2015, at 18:47, HADDLETON, Robert W (Bob) > <bob.haddle...@alcatel-lucent.com> wrote: > > Hi Renat: > > [TL;DR] - maybe use multiple words in the state name to avoid confusion > > I agree that there is a lot of overlap - WAITING and DELAYED and POSTPONED > are all very similar. The context is important when trying to decipher what > the words means. > > I would normally interpret WAITING as having a known condition: > > * I'm WAITING for the baseball game to begin > > DELAYED implies WAITING but adds the context that something was supposed to > have started already, or has already started, is now blocked by something out > of your control, and you may or may not know when it will start again: > > * The (start of the) ballgame has been DELAYED (by rain) (until 2:00). (So > I'm still WAITING for it to begin) > > POSTPONED implies DELAYED, but adds that something was "scheduled" to start > at a certain time and has been re-scheduled for a later time. It may or may > not have started already, and the later time may or may not be known: > > * The ballgame has been POSTPONED (because of rain) (until tomorrow) (so the > game has been DELAYED and I'm still WAITING for it to start) > > So using any of the three words on their own without context or additional > information will likely be confusing, or at least subject to different > interpretations. > > I would be reluctant to rename DELAYED to POSTPONED, because it raises more > questions (until when?) than DELAYED without providing more answers.
Yeah, this makes perfect sense to me. Really good analysis. I agree that context is really important to eliminate ambiguity. > I think what it comes down to is the need to provide more information in the > state name than is possible with one English word: > > WAITING_FOR_PRECONDITIONS > DELAYED_BY_RETRY > > These provide more specific context to the state but the state transition > table gets to be unmanageable when there is a state for everything. > > If more Waiting/delayed states are added it in the future it might make sense > to create them as sub-states of RUNNING, to keep the transitions manageable. This all makes me think that we probably just need to clarify one of these names so they look like: RUNNING_DELAYED - a substate of RUNNING and it has exactly this meaning: it’s generally running but delayed till some later time. WAITING - it is not a substate of RUNNING and hence it means a task has not started yet And at the same time these names still remain not too verbose. What do you think? P.S. Thank you very much Robert! Renat Akhmerov @ Mirantis Inc.
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