[tor-dev] Feedback on recent Globe improvements

[Karsten Loesing]

On 31/03/14 22:24, Christian wrote:
> On 31.03.2014 19:54, Karsten Loesing wrote:
>> On 31/03/14 18:38, Christian wrote:
>>> Weight, clients and uptime documents from '1_week' to '5_years'.
>>
>> That's true.  But you could use data from the '1_week' lines by skipping
>> everything until $(now - 3 days) and only displaying the last 3 days.
>> Those graphs will have slightly lower "data resolution" than the
>> '3_days' bandwidth graph, but it will still be useful to compare them to
>> the bandwidth graph.
>>
>> (I guess I should add this remark to the Onionoo protocol page.)
>>
> 
> I added computed 3_days graphs.

Nice!  The data resolution is actually better than I had expected.

> Do you think it would be better to modify the graphs so all of them
> start/end at the same time? (There is a small offset because the first
> and last fields aren't always the same)

I thought about this, but didn't bring it up yet, because it may not be
trivial to implement.


Idea #1: Does the graphing engine support defining the x axis limits
independent of displayed data points?  That is, can you draw a graph
like this (bad ASCII "art" ahead):

              +-----------------------------------+
              |                                   |
              |                       -O          |
    O--       | --O------O--        --            |
       --     |-            --    --              |
         --O--|               --O-                |
              |                                   |
              +-----------------------------------+
           x_start                              x_end

If so, I'd say try setting x_start to current system time minus whatever
period you're displaying and x_end to current system time.

By doing so, you'll discard a few data points left to x_start, and
you'll leave some graph space empty between the last O and x_end.  But
you'll have graphs displaying exactly the promised time period, and
graphs for that period will be easier to compare.  I'd say that's a fine
compromise.


Idea #2: If the graphing engine does not support redefining x axis
limits, you'll need to do some tricks: if there's no data point for
x_start, compute this point as the average of the two data points before
and after x_start; also add a "null" value for x_end.


Idea #3: If you want to postpone implementing this, feel free to open a
ticket and paste our conversation there.  Especially if you'd have to
implement a workaround for the current graphing engine and re-implement
something else for Globe-node.  This is a nice feature and worth doing,
but it's not a blocker.

> Next up I'll add some data for the left column. Is there anything
> special that should be visible there?
> If not I'm going to use the status.github idea and display average graph
> data there.

Average graph data sounds good.  (If you're cutting off values left to
x_start as discussed above, be sure to exclude them from the average.)

Thanks!

All the best,
Karsten