The core ado concepts¶
ado is a tool for systematically exploring, measuring, and analysing a space of entities - for example, configurations, systems and substances. It is built on three core concepts: Discovery Space, Operation and Sample Store. In brief, you define a Discovery Space, apply an Operation to it, and the results are automatically store in a Sample Store.
Discovery Space¶
A Discovery Space answers the following questions:
| Question | Concept | Description |
|---|---|---|
| How are measurements performed? | Measurement Space | A Discovery Space defines a set of Experiments to use. Each Experiment takes defined inputs and produces measured outputs. |
| What do you want to measure? | Entity Space | A Discovery Space defines the specific set of things, called Entities, you want to measure with the Experiments. |
| What have you measured so far? | Sample Store | A Discovery Space uses a shared database to read and store measurement results. |
For users familiar with pandas, a Discovery Space is like a DataFrame that knows its own schema, knows how to fill in missing values, and shares data transparently with other DataFrames. See Discovery Spaces for more.
Operation¶
To explore or analyse a Discovery Space you define an Operation. For example, you might define an Operation to randomly sample and measure 40 points in the Discovery Space.
Defining an Operation involves specifying the operator to use (the Python module that implements the operation) and the parameter values to set.
There are two broad classes of Operation: explore operations sample and measure points from a Discovery Space; analysis operations process the data currently collected in a Discovery Space to provide insights.
You can run multiple explore operations on the same space. Each one can select and measure new points, increasing the total amount of information available on entities in the space. You can always view the entities sampled by each Operation independently.
The fact that a Discovery Space exists independently of any particular Operation on it is a central innovation of ado.
Sample Store¶
In ado, Entities and the results of Experiments on them are kept in a Sample Store — a shared database that multiple Discovery Spaces can use.
If an Experiment has already been run on an Entity, ado can reuse the result rather than running it again. This transparent data sharing is a core feature of ado. See Shared Sample Stores for more details.