Need to define "job" in the intro

[carpentries-incubator]

Need to define "job" in the intro

[reid-a]

Jobs are first described in the "Scheduling Jobs" lesson, the first section of "Running a batch job" looks like a good place for this, or possibly in a separate subsection immediately preceding it.

[ChristinaLK]

+1 to this!!

[qiwang7]

How about "job (a task that we want the computer to perform, usually a piece of code or program)"?

[rachelwiltshire]

Hi @symulation, is this issue still open? I can't see any updates to the page but the content appears to still mirror that described by @reid-a in Jan 2021.

I think perhaps the definition needs to be introduced sooner since it's mentioned in objectives 3 and 4 but also immediately following this is the heading Job Scheduler! Perhaps after the first paragraph, "What is a job?" or similar can be defined. Technically, this is "a unit of work (or execution that performs said work), which a computer operator (or program = job scheduler) passes to an operating system" but this is somewhat verbose so, I think a helpful graphic (the usual boxes/arrows) would reinforce the idea.

Additionally, some wording in sentences 3 and 4 of the first paragraph might be confusing. Tasks (sentence 3) are technically part of the job (whether command line or scripting) and job (sentence 4) could be interpreted here as the actual job that we are passing to the scheduler or "thing that needs to be done". While we are familiar with these terms and usage, I could anticipate learners getting lost early on in what appears to be a very busy lesson.