[PRE REVIEW]: Homemaker: software for adaptive domestic design

[editorialbot]

Submitting author: @brunopostle (Bruno Postle) Repository: https://bitbucket.org/brunopostle/homemaker Branch with paper.md (empty if default branch): Version: 0.01 Editor: @arfon Reviewers: Pending Managing EiC: Kyle Niemeyer

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Software report:

github.com/AlDanial/cloc v 1.90  T=0.03 s (721.0 files/s, 87169.4 lines/s)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language                     files          blank        comment           code
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Perl                            15            474            198           1199
XML                              1              0              0            186
TeX                              1             11              0            130
Markdown                         1             23              0             64
Bourne Shell                     1              5              1              6
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUM:                            19            513            199           1585
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commit count by author:

   137	Bruno Postle

[editorialbot]

Paper file info:

📄 Wordcount for paper.md is 1040

✅ The paper includes a Statement of need section

[editorialbot]

License info:

🟡 License found: GNU General Public License v3.0 (Check here for OSI approval)

[editorialbot]

Reference check summary (note 'MISSING' DOIs are suggestions that need verification):

OK DOIs

- 10.1007/978-3-030-57509-0_25 is OK
- 10.1016/j.foar.2019.12.008 is OK
- 10.1007/s00500-009-0504-3 is OK
- 10.6084/M9.FIGSHARE.6267401.V2 is OK

MISSING DOIs

- No DOI given, and none found for title: On pattern languages, design patterns and evolutio...
- No DOI given, and none found for title: BlenderBIM Add-on
- No DOI given, and none found for title: Homemaker add-on
- No DOI given, and none found for title: An interview with Christopher Alexander
- No DOI given, and none found for title: Arabic-Islamic cities building and planning princi...
- No DOI given, and none found for title: The timeless way of building
- 10.2307/1574526 may be a valid DOI for title: A pattern language: towns, buildings, construction

INVALID DOIs

- None

[editorialbot]

:point_right::page_facing_up: Download article proof :page_facing_up: View article proof on GitHub :page_facing_up: :point_left:

[kyleniemeyer]

Hello @brunopostle, I was reviewing the paper and software repository, and noticed references to other software/repositories that complement homemaker, including urb, Molior, File::DXF, and file-ifc`.

It seems they are all necessary components of the submission (or at least they all work together). Should this review consider the set of these software packages/libraries?

[brunopostle]

@kyleniemeyer yes they are all part of a stack.

To evolve a single building you just need the Urb module. To evolve a group of buildings in parallel you also need Homemaker. Molior, File::DXF and File::IFC are used for generating 3D models of these evolved buildings.

The whole thing collectively is referred to as Homemaker, here's a slightly blurry diagram:

[brunopostle]

Installing perl modules isn't everyday knowledge, so I've created a step-by-step installation guide:

https://bitbucket.org/brunopostle/homemaker/src/master/INSTALL.md

[kyleniemeyer]

@brunopostle sorry for the delay here - we don't have an editor available to handle this at the moment, so I'm going to put this on our waitlist.

[kyleniemeyer]

@editorialbot invite @srmnitc as editor

Hi @srmnitc, this is a bit outside your wheelhouse, but I don't know if we have anyone closer to edit. Could you take a look at this one?

[editorialbot]

Invitation to edit this submission sent!

[srmnitc]

@kyleniemeyer unfortunately at the moment I have 4, and this seems quite a bit outside my expertise. I would have to pass this for the moment..

[arfon]

@editorialbot assign me as editor

[editorialbot]

Assigned! @arfon is now the editor

[arfon]

:wave: @brunopostle – could you take a look a this list of potential reviewers and identify a few people who would be good candidates to review this submission?

[brunopostle]

Hi the following seem to have expertise in simulation and/or architecure:

https://reviewers.joss.theoj.org/reviewers/80 https://reviewers.joss.theoj.org/reviewers/1119 https://reviewers.joss.theoj.org/reviewers/1284 https://reviewers.joss.theoj.org/reviewers/1590 https://reviewers.joss.theoj.org/reviewers/1904 https://reviewers.joss.theoj.org/reviewers/3420 https://reviewers.joss.theoj.org/reviewers/4035 https://reviewers.joss.theoj.org/reviewers/4276

[arfon]

@billbillbilly @lymereJ @bramvandijk88 @cadop @jamesdamillington :wave: would any of you be willing to review this submission for JOSS? The submission under consideration is "Homemaker: software for adaptive domestic design"

The review process at JOSS is unique: it takes place in a GitHub issue, is open, and author-reviewer-editor conversations are encouraged. You can learn more about the process in these guidelines: https://joss.readthedocs.io/en/latest/reviewer_guidelines.html

Based on your experience, we think you might be able to provide a great review of this submission. Please let me know if you think you can help us out!

Many thanks Arfon

[jamesdamillington]

Sorry, I'm unable to do this. But you might try https://github.com/DOSull

[bramvandijk88]

Sorry I am a but swamped these months. This also doesn’t seem like my expertise. Hope you find someone else!

[lymereJ]

@arfon - I would be happy to help review this submission.

[arfon]

:wave: @DOSull – would you be willing to review this submission for JOSS? The submission under consideration is "Homemaker: software for adaptive domestic design"

The review process at JOSS is unique: it takes place in a GitHub issue, is open, and author-reviewer-editor conversations are encouraged. You can learn more about the process in these guidelines: https://joss.readthedocs.io/en/latest/reviewer_guidelines.html

Based on your experience, we think you might be able to provide a great review of this submission. Please let me know if you think you can help us out!

Many thanks Arfon

[cadop]

I may be able to review this but need to some clarification on the submission (by author and editor).

Based on this comment: https://github.com/openjournals/joss-reviews/issues/6656#issuecomment-2069886717

The git repository is to the homemaker script that runs another codebase - URB, which does the algorithmic side, and then Molior codebase creates the 3D model. The paper is describing all of these components together. Referencing this submission document, some questions:

• Is the review based on the Paper or the Codebase of submission?
  • i.e. They do not match.
• Can the repositories be combined to act as a single project homemaker?
  • The repository linked to the paper (from my understanding) is under the submission policy:

  • “Minor utility” packages, including “thin” API clients, and single-function packages"

This may be a discussion point for later, based on the above answers; The submission policy:

JOSS requires that software should be feature-complete (i.e., no half-baked solutions)

While the URB package readme states:

This is EXPERIMENTAL software, expect it to be slow, incomplete or broken.

[brunopostle]

JOSS requires that software should be feature-complete (i.e., no half-baked solutions)

While the URB package readme states:

This is EXPERIMENTAL software, expect it to be slow, incomplete or broken.

This line has been in this file for thirteen years, maybe I should take it out.

[arfon]

@cadop – thanks for your feedback here.

Is the review based on the Paper or the Codebase of submission?

The review would be of the paper and the combined code as discussed by the author here. For submissions where the code is spread across multiple repositories, we ask the author to place the paper somewhere (in this case https://bitbucket.org/brunopostle/homemaker), recognizing there might not be a 1:1 match with the paper--repository--software.

Can the repositories be combined to act as a single project homemaker

I defer to @brunopostle on whether this is possible (or a good idea).

[brunopostle]

Can the repositories be combined to act as a single project homemaker

I defer to @brunopostle on whether this is possible (or a good idea).

Merging repositories while maintaining history is possible with git rebase, it would be a bit un-perlish to have multiple namespaces in the same module, but it is do-able.

The repositories are separate for maintenance reasons: File::IFC and File::DXF are general purpose libraries with use outside Homemaker; the Molior and Homemaker modules don't make much sense without the Urb module, but they do drag in dependencies that are not strictly necessarily in order to run evolution models (bear in mind that I'm running this code on headless and time-sharing systems).

[brunopostle]

For an article I'm writing, I've generated some sample output from Homemaker, in the form of PDF drawings and IFC models.

One is a group of eleven courtyard-style houses: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.27221217.v1

..and the other is a group of thirty-two houses for a site in the UK: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.27221235.v1

[arfon]

Apologies for the slow follow up here. @cadop – what are your thoughts on reviewing based on @brunopostle's feedback above?

[arfon]

:wave: one more bump here @cadop – we'd love to have you as a reviewer here if you're comfortable moving forward?

[arfon]

@brunopostle – can you give me a few keywords that would describe this research domain? I'm really struggling to find anyone who can review this.