Usage notes

[tsmbland]

Just compiling some notes on things that could be improved as I start using the tool. This is very much a live document and will be updated as I go along.

DOCUMENTATION

• Move processes table above process_availabilities etc. (Illogical table order in documentation for input files #842)
• decision_rule "simple" -> "single? (Fix small errors in input file docs #841)
• Make font size smaller in tables
• Make tables consistent width
• Move developer settings to another section/page (Move some model.toml options to "developer"/"expert" section #711)
• Commodity type description is wrong (Fix small errors in input file docs #841)
• Process availabilities: hi vs lo vs fx outdated (Fix small errors in input file docs #841)

INPUT DATA

• Rename levies file. This can also be used to capture the cost of consuming OTH commodities where this isn't really a levy.
• Should give leeway in terms of column names (e.g. "utilization_factor" vs "utilisation_factor", "year" vs "years", "commodity_portion" vs "portion") (Warn about unrecognised columns in csv files #746)
• Lifetime: should allow floats with .0 (error message is confusing: "invalid digit found in string") (Confusing error message when using floats for years #843)
• Processes: if start_year is undefined, this should allow all years before the end_year, rather than defaulting to the first year of the time framework (i.e. should allow assets commissioned before the start year) (Undefined start_year should default to no lower limit, rather than the first milestone year #846)
• Should allow "..YEAR" to say "this year and all previous years". Or allow year ranges with appropriate syntax (e.g. "2000..2020") (Allow year ranges in input files #845)
• agent_search_space file - allow it to be missing (Make agent_search_space.csv and agent_cost_limits.csv files optional #744)
• agent_cost_limits file - allow it to be empty (i.e. no cost limits) (Make agent_search_space.csv and agent_cost_limits.csv files optional #744)
• Allow commodity levies file to be empty (Commodities levies file cannot be empty #784)
• Allow rows in the demand file with zero demand (Allow zero demand in the demand file #850)
• Allow no existing assets (if there's no demand in the base year) (Allow empty assets file #851)

ERROR MESSAGES

• Invalid objective: should give the list of options (Error message for incorrect enum values could be improved #848)
• If error message is extremely long (e.g. lots of missing data) then sometimes can't see the top of the error message. Should cap these at ~10 entries (Some error messages may be extremely long #852)