Re: About coordinated efforts on scientific software.

[Manoj Warrier <mow at ipp dot mpg dot de>]

Hi.

I was trying not to mail (because if someone asks me ..., "OK wise guy
so enough of talk, do something about it", I would be at a loss of words).

However here goes ...
Dare I try compressing Cristoph Siopi's mail into 3 main points:
1) Need to identify Core projects (numerical library, plotting/graphics
   language, etc)
2) Coding Standards.
3) Open source developers making a concerted effort to tackle points (1)
   and (2) above rather than digging thier own burrows.

I guess (hope rather) that GSL will eventually cover the numerical library
part of point (1). For plotting and graphics we again have a similar
situation as in the "mathematic packages" ... Check out
(http://scilinux.sf.net/graphvis.html"; for a list of free packages.

It reminds me of what I read about the formation of the MPI forum,
creation of standards, etc... However even that did not stop mpich /
LAM MPI / and other implementations of the Message Passing Interface.
That makes me wonder more about the "evolution" picture of software
development. However periodic stock taking (Conference ?? and creation
of standards or a umbrella project) like Alan suggests seems necessary.

And yes Alberto you are hearing what the public wants.... All the best.
I could create another mailing list for more detailed discussions
on what can be done (the most I can do at present :-( ).

Manoj

On Mon, 21 Oct 2002, Alan Aspuru-Guzik wrote:
> This e-mail is a reply to Cristoph Siopi's email.
snip
snip
>
> So there are some people that are indeed looking at the big picture. Maybe
> what we need in the volunteer arena is leadership and organization like
> the one that started umbrella projects, such as GNOME or KDE, that brought
> a lot of people together.
>
> Greetings,
> Alan

-- 
Manoj Warrier (manoj.warrier@ipp.mpg.de)

Stellaratortheorie, Max-Planck Institut Fur Plasmaphysik
TeilInstitut Greifswald Wendelsteinstrasse 1
D-17491 Greifswald Germany Tel: +49-3834-882434

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