Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 14:00:41 -0600 From: "Mike Meyer" <mwm-dated-1008792041.b89a33@mired.org> To: j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Who writes the esoteric scientific Unix apps? Message-ID: <15386.23145.369172.740937@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <20011214170714.A13736@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> References: <20011214170714.A13736@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
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j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> types: > We hear so often that high-end Unix worstations are used for advanced > scientific applications. The biggest of the big iron usually goes to > weather/finance forecasting and especially nuclear research. I've done work on weather forcasting and petroleum engineering spill analysis. Both are very cpu intensive, and have some areas of overlap. > Who writes these apps? Specialized software companies or in-house > developers? Are they batch-based, command line apps or GUI driven? Most of the work was done "in-house", for some definition of "in-house". It wasn't unusual for outside consultants to be hired for things, including programmers. NCAR provides packages of FORTRAN routines that are useful in such work, which is the closest thing I ever saw to a specialized software company. One of the packages I worked on that was developed for in-house use was eventually marketed. As CPU speed has increased over the decades, the packages have moved from batch-based to command line apps. As the understanding of the problems has increased, GUI interfaces have been added to some of them. One thing you might want to do is look through some of the Python conference proceedings. A number of groups have taken their old FORTRAN numerical processing subroutine packages and wrapped them in python objects, which then let the scientists work with them in an interactive environment that includes the ability to generate graphics from them. Various forms of molecular modeling tools are the things that stick in my mind. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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