HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: lind@eng.umd.edu (Charles A. Lind)
Subject: Re: Contour lines
Date: Wed, 08 Apr 92 12:17:05 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park
Originator: lind@mustang.eng.umd.edu


In article <1992Apr07.215737.53397@yuma.acns.colostate.edu>, kjun@typhoon.atmos.colostate.edu (Pat Fitzpatrick) writes:
>I, too, would like to find out what the latest scoop is in
>contouring packages. Meteorologists use lots of data that is
>usually contoured to deduce the meaning of the numbers. NCAR graphics
>is typically used, but I have developed a strong dislike for this
>software, even though it is public domain (NCAR graphics seems to be
>just "thrown" together and is hard to learn because it is poorly
>documented).
>
>Any comments on this are appreciated. I'm sure I speak for lots of
>scientists.
>
>***********************************************************************
>                                            
>Pat Fitzpatrick                        (____)    /\
>                                        * * *   /  \
>Said one meteorologist                 * * *   /    \
>to another: "I was afraid               * * * / The  \
>of this when we started                      / Rocky  \          
>mixing female hurricanes                    / Mountain \        / \ 
>with male hurricanes.                      /  Coon-ass  \   CSU | | 
>Now there's lots of little           _________________________________________
>hurricanes popping up everywhere."  | E-mail kjun@typhoon.atmos.colostate.edu |
>                                     -----------------------------------------
>***********************************************************************


My work centers around CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) so contouring is
not only necessary but critical to my work.  I have used IDL and Tecplot
on the Unix system and Surface III, MatLab, and Deltagraph on the MAC.  By 
far the easiest to use and most powerful is Tecplot.  In our research group we
started with 1 Tecplot license and within 1 month we just about abandened (sp?)
idl and quickly purchased 2 more licenses (that 3 for a group of 10).  You
can allow Tecplot to choose which lines to contour or you can point and click
the location of the contours.  You are able to control just about as
many parameters as you could think of when it comes to countour plotting, but that
is not all it does.  It will do lines, meshes, flooded and lined contours, vector, scatter
, and composite plots.  It will also allow you to automate text and geometry insertan, and
to save styles.  I could go on.  

	If you have any particular questions I would be happy to entertain them.  By the
way, I am not associated with Tecplot except that I am a happy user.

	Their number is 1-800-676-7568 and they do have demos.

PS  Tecplot will work on Unix, Iris, IBM PC, VAX, DEC, and other machines.

l8r.

Charles


___________________________

Charles Lind
Dept. of Aerospace Eng.
University of MD
College Park, MD 20742
Newsgroups: sci.comp-aided
From: qmdbms@gsusgi2.gsu.edu (Brian Schott)
Subject: Need keystroke trapping software
Keywords: software, academic
Organization: Georgia State University
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 23:15:31 GMT


I am looking for software which traps keystrokes from PCs for two different
applications.  

a) For (classroom) presentations I would like students to see the keystrokes. 
Granted that this need may go away soon with mice and GUI's, but for now it
would be real effective. Can the keystrokes be projected onto the wall along
with the screen images?

b) For computer laboratory experiments to record subjects' actions.  For this
application I need not only a record of keystrokes, but also a time stamp
which allows me to analyze lengths of time.  If the software can also record
the emotions of the subjects, that would be OK too. ;-)

(B=)
From: jac@ds8.scri.fsu.edu (Jim Carr)
Newsgroups: sci.comp-aided
Subject: ENIAC on PBS
Date: 6 Apr 92 13:21:06 GMT
Reply-To: jac@ds8.scri.fsu.edu (Jim Carr)
Distribution: usa
Organization: SCRI, Florida State University

The first in a series about the impact of computing on society will feature 
some flashes from the past.  Reportedly they will have film of the ENIAC 
from 1946 plus stuff on other toasters of days gone by; plus I think I saw 
mention of Babbage's machine.  Our station carries it today (Monday) at 9.

--
J. A. Carr                                    |  "The New Frontier of which I  
jac@gw.scri.fsu.edu                           |  speak is not a set of promises
Florida State University  B-186               |  -- it is a set of challenges."
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute |   John F. Kennedy (15 July 60)
From: haney@moonshine.llnl.gov (Scott W. Haney)
Newsgroups: sci.comp-aided
Subject: Constrained Optimization
Date: 8 Apr 92 15:26:29 GMT

I am working on a Tokamak systems code that requires the use of a
constrained minimizer in order to optimize the design.  Specifically,
I need to minimize a function subject to a series of potentially non-linear
equality and inequality constraints.  It would also be nice to be able
to place direct bounds on variables.  I am currently using a routine
named 'vmcon' but I'm not particularly happy with its performance. Does
anyone know where I could get my hands on another package?  Thanks.

   Scott

FYI, the problem consists of roughly 20 equality constraints, 15 inequality
constraints, and 40 variables.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott W. Haney        || Lawrence Livermore N'Lab || The above views are 
haney@random.llnl.gov || P.O. Box 808;  L-644     || mine and not neces-
(415) 423-6308        || Livermore, CA  94550     || sarily LLNL's.
From: kjun@typhoon.atmos.colostate.edu (Pat Fitzpatrick)
Newsgroups: sci.comp-aided
Subject: Re: Contour lines
Date: 7 Apr 92 21:57:37 GMT
Article-I.D.: yuma.1992Apr07.215737.53397
Organization: Colorado State University -- Atmos Sci

I, too, would like to find out what the latest scoop is in
contouring packages. Meteorologists use lots of data that is
usually contoured to deduce the meaning of the numbers. NCAR graphics
is typically used, but I have developed a strong dislike for this
software, even though it is public domain (NCAR graphics seems to be
just "thrown" together and is hard to learn because it is poorly
documented).

Any comments on this are appreciated. I'm sure I speak for lots of
scientists.

***********************************************************************
                                            
Pat Fitzpatrick                        (____)    /\
                                        * * *   /  \
Said one meteorologist                 * * *   /    \
to another: "I was afraid               * * * / The  \
of this when we started                      / Rocky  \          
mixing female hurricanes                    / Mountain \        / \ 
with male hurricanes.                      /  Coon-ass  \   CSU | | 
Now there's lots of little           _________________________________________
hurricanes popping up everywhere."  | E-mail kjun@typhoon.atmos.colostate.edu |
                                     -----------------------------------------
***********************************************************************
From: john@aquarius.unm.edu (John Prentice)
Newsgroups: sci.comp-aided
Subject: Re: Time for some changes (was: computers in research)
Date: 7 Apr 92 06:27:59 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Physics & Astro, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <8055@sun13.scri.fsu.edu> jac@ds8.scri.fsu.edu (Jim Carr) writes:
>
>I am curious what your Cray performance is.  What does hpm give you for 
>your Mflop rate and what is the vector/scalar breakdown?  

My performance is not spectacular, about 60 Mflops for a reasonably large
problem.  The code to generate the matrices is well vectorized, but it loses
it when it gets to solving the matrix (see below).

>I am not familiar with your matrix problem, but it might have some common 
>features with the one encountered by the Lattice group.  They use a 
>preconditioned conjugate gradient method to solve their system.  What 
>method do you use?  And whose Cray?

My matrix is fairly unstructured.  I have played a bit with CG methods, but
so far without any real success.  I haven't spent enormous time on it either
however.  The problem is that 1) the matrix is complex and 2) it is
devoid of the structure you usually look for when you apply iterative methods
(i.e., diagonal dominance, positive definite, even Hermitian).  Currently
I just solve it using a LU decomposition and Gaussian elimination.  I have
used both Linpack and Lapack on the Cray.  The Cray I have most recently
been using is the Y-MP at NCSA, though I have also had time at various
points on the Cray 2 at the Phillips Laboratory and at Los Alamos.  I also
have used the CM-2.  I haven`t gotten very impressive performance out of
the CM-2 however.  My biggest problem there is that I am using the CMSSL
software (QR solver with both the Paris and slicewise software models)
and it has been bombing me off the machine on matrices of order 1000 or so.
TMC is currently trying to figure out the problem.  Until they solve it,
I am not really in a position to run a large enough problem to really see
if I can get good performance off the CM-2.  I can do an order 1000 problem
on my Sparc 2 in minutes, so that isn't exactly a good test.  I am hoping
to run an order 10,000 this summer on the CM-2.  The largest I have done
on the Cray are order 6,000.

John
-- 
John K. Prentice                      | "We must make good the demands of
Department of Physics And Astronomy   | reason and create a life worthy of
University of New Mexico              | ourselves and of the goals we only
john@aquarius.unm.edu                 | dimly perceive."  - Andrei Sakharov
Newsgroups: sci.comp-aided
From: rgonzale@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Rico A Gonzalez)
Subject: Computers in Horticulture - Help
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 12:06:57 GMT

Here at The Ohio State University (OSU) we are developing a computer-controlled
irrigation system for container plants using a very simplistic design.  We have
had some success using a Campbell Scientific CR10 which we have used to reduce 
water use rates by +90% with no change in plant size.

Everything is going fairly well but we need a recommendation.  We generally use
a significant number of plants, 4-5 hundred and mark and label all plants by 
hand.  We are thinking of generating bar codes and using a light pen to 
identify each plant/treatment.

Can anyone recommend a vendor or specific product we can use?  We are on a VERY
tight budget and would like to get the best product possible for the money.  
Any help would be greatly appreciated.  We would like the product to interface 
directly with an IBM type PC.  Software drivers for both the pen and the 
printer would be a plus although we have some progamming capability.

Thanks in advance.
From: muthu@mecad.uta.edu (S.N. Muthukrishnan)
Subject: Call For Votes: creation of sci.engr.mech
Reply-To: muthu@mecad.uta.edu
Organization: University of Texas at Arlington
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 17:27:40 GMT



CALL FOR VOTES TO CREATE NEWSGROUP sci.engr.mech
------------------------------------------------

NAME: 
          sci.engr.mech

STATUS:
          unmoderated


DESCRIPTION:

	Discussion of engineering problems related to Mechanical Engineering


CHARTER:

This group will be used for the discussion of problems related to work or 
research in mechanical engineering. The fields that this group would cover may  
be mechanics,dynamics, control, fluids, heat, manufacturing, computer aided 
design, and a bunch of other areas that may be discussed in the process of 
creating this group. 

Problems could be related to school (not homeworks !), research, work,
software related queries and whatever one can think of as a problem
that can be addressed to a Mechanical Engineer.

Posts of the following types are expected though this is not intended to be an 
exhaustive list.
o	Problems related to design of equipments
o	Modelling relatred problems
o	Math related to Mechanical Engineering
o	Software and programs related to Mechanical Engineering
o	Problems related to Standards (although I don't think we can establish 
	standards for practice)
o	Research findings



VOTES:
-----

ONLY VOTES RECEIVED BY MAY 12, 23:59 CST WILL BE COUNTED

The votes should be unambiguously stated in the subject line or the body
of the mail with statements such as

  `I vote YES for sci.engr.mech as proposed'  or
  `I vote NO for sci.engr.mech as proposed'.


To vote  YES: Send mail to yes_mech@mecad.uta.edu  

To vote   NO: Send mail to no_mech@mecad.uta.edu

o	Only votes mailed to the above addresses will be counted.

o	Ambiguous votes or votes with qualifications ("I would vote yes for  
	
	sci.engr.mech if only / provided that...") will not be counted.
o	In the case of multiple votes from a given person, only the last will 
	be counted.

o	If you want to cancel your vote, you can send mail to 
	muthu@mecad.uta.edu.  Actual votes mailed to that address will not be 
	counted.

OTHER
-----

As is customary for one who proposes and takes votes, I would also adhere
to the ethics of this process by not canvassing for votes. However I will
send this CFV and subsequent ones to all those who had contacted me or had
expressed their support during the discussion process.
 
A mass acknowledgment of the votes received will appear frequently in all the  
newsgroups to which this has been posted.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
S. N. Muthukrishnan                   muthu@mecad.uta.edu (NeXT mail)
Department of Mechanical Engineering  muthu@me.uta.edu
University of Texas at Arlington      muthu@mech.uta.edu
Arlington, TX  76019
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: sci.comp-aided
From: leecj@vega.cs.rpi.edu (Ching-ju Lee)
Subject: Contour lines
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 18:28:40 GMT

Newsgroups: sci.engr.civil, sci.engr, sci.math
Subject: Contour lines
Summary: References needed
Expires: 
Followup-To: leecj@cs.rpi.edu
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
Keywords: 

Dear Netters:
 
I need recent(1980 or later) references on finding contour
lines(level sets) given the function in a closed functional 
form, or only a set of function values on a grid.  Most of
the algorithms I could find were published in the 1970's,
and they all concerned with issues like pen plotter move-
ment time, or virtual memory required.  But now that we 
have graphic output device other than pen plotters, and
supercomputers with enormous virtual memory and multi-
processors available, I wonder if there are any new approaches
that are designed to take advantage of these features.
I also wonder if there are new ideas in dealing with labeling
different branches of a level set.  The ones I know of seem 
to be too slow.  Accuracy of the contour lines is also very
important to me.  So far I only know methods which use 
linear interpolations.  References on higher order algorithms
are also very helpful.  Please send all follow-ups through
e-mail to leecj@cs.rpi.edu.  I appreciate your help very much.
 
                                Ching-ju Lee
From: charlie@umnstat.stat.umn.edu (Charles Geyer)
Newsgroups: sci.comp-aided
Subject: Re: Constrained Optimization
Date: 9 Apr 92 00:28:30 GMT
Article-I.D.: news2.1992Apr9.002830.28981
Organization: School of Statistics, University of Minnesota

In article <haney.702746789@moonshine> haney@moonshine.llnl.gov (Scott W. Haney) writes:
>I am working on a Tokamak systems code that requires the use of a
>constrained minimizer in order to optimize the design.  Specifically,
>I need to minimize a function subject to a series of potentially non-linear
>equality and inequality constraints.  It would also be nice to be able
>to place direct bounds on variables.  I am currently using a routine
>named 'vmcon' but I'm not particularly happy with its performance. Does
>anyone know where I could get my hands on another package?  Thanks.
>
>   Scott
>
>FYI, the problem consists of roughly 20 equality constraints, 15 inequality
>constraints, and 40 variables.

  NPSOL is very good.  It is the Gill, Murray, Saunders and Wright code.

  Contact the Office of Technology Licensing at Stanford University at
  (415) 723-0651 for more information.  They will send manuals and
  license agreements on request.  Academic licenses are cheap (a $300
  one-time fee last time I got one).  I guess that includes goverment
  labs, but I don't know.  This is also routine E04UCF in the NAG Fortran
  library if you've got that.

  FSQP is some software that I got but haven't had a chance to try.  Its
  main difference from NPSOL is that it only evaluates the objective
  function and constraints at feasible points (with NPSOL the nonlinear
  constraints are only satisfied at the solution).

  It is available from the authors without charge to academic users but
  not freely redistributable.  E-mail andre@src.umd.edu for info.

Hope this helps.  I've used NPSOL a lot and it works great.  Just out of
curiosity, what is "vmcon" and where does it come from?

-- 
Charles Geyer
School of Statistics
University of Minnesota
charlie@umnstat.stat.umn.edu
From: gerardo@uapnx1.dgsca.unam.mx (Gerardo Cisneros)
Newsgroups: sci.comp-aided
Subject: Re: computers in research
Date: 6 Apr 92 18:52:36 GMT

In article <1992Apr2.160434.1774@fcom.cc.utah.edu> alex@fff.chem.utah.edu (Alex  
Dommasch) writes:
> In article <z=jj42d@lynx.unm.edu> john@aquarius.unm.edu (John Prentice)  
writes:
> > What exactly is the thurst of this newsgroup.
> 
> I'd post the charter if I still had it.  Unfortunately, it didn't survive my  
> latest disk cleanup.  (If someone out there has a copy, could they post it?)
> [...]

From <1992Mar13.191353.29752@uunet.uu.net>, posted by tale@uunet.uu.net (David  
C Lawrence):

NAME:	sci.comp-aided

STATUS:	unmoderated
		
CHARTER:  To discuss and share information about:
	General use of computers in science:
	. Data acquisition.
	. Planning experiments and predicting outcomes.
	. Controlling laboratory devices.
	. Standards for analytical instrument interfaces.
	. Networked laboratory systems.
	. LIMS (Laboratory Information Management Systems)
	. Analyzing scientific data.
	. Visualizing scientific data.
	. Presenting scientific data.
	. Modelling physical processes.
	. Simulation of physical processes.
	. Numerical analysis of scientific data.
	. Algorithms for scientific computing.
	. Standards for scientific data formats.

RATIONALE: 

Many scientists routinely use computers in the course of their
research.  This use ranges from using a spreadsheet to do simple
calculations, to using computers to control apparatus, to using a
supercomputer to do molecular modelling, and everything in between.

Some scientists have rigged up their own systems; others use
commercial products; many more use some combination of the two.

The various aspects of this subject are touched upon by various
existing groups (general computer systems, electronics, realtime
systems, software, numerical analysis, etc., etc.), but nowhere is it
all brought together.

Also, there is a wide variety of software and hardware on the market
for scientific computing, but most of it is vendor specific, and there
is an appalling lack of standards for this stuff.

As the subject of this group would concern using computers to aid in
scientific research, the proposed name for the group is
"sci.comp-aided".

--
Dr. Gerardo Cisneros		|Depto. de Aplicacion de Microcomputadoras
gerardo@uapnx1.dgsca.unam.mx	|Instituto de Ciencias, UAP, Puebla
CISNEROS@UNAMVM1  (BITNET)	|91-92: on sabbatical at DGSCA/UNAM, Mexico
From: john@aquarius.unm.edu (John Prentice)
Newsgroups: sci.comp-aided
Subject: Re: Contour lines
Date: 8 Apr 92 20:00:09 GMT
Article-I.D.: lynx.7=rjjy=
Organization: Dept. of Physics & Astro, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <bw1tvcl@rpi.edu> leecj@vega.cs.rpi.edu (Ching-ju Lee) writes:
> 
>I need recent(1980 or later) references on finding contour
>lines(level sets) given the function in a closed functional 
>form, or only a set of function values on a grid.  
> 

I would suggest looking in the ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software 
over the last 12 years or so.  There have been numerous really excellent
contour algorithms written up in there, including TRICP and its offspring.
The code for these algorithms is available free over NETLIB.  I have used
the TRICP algorithm extensively over the last many years for producing
contour plots of stress, density, etc... in solid impact dynamics problems.
It has proven both accurate, affordable, and amazingly rugged.  There have
been numerous articles in more recent years that seem even better, including
algorithms for three dimensional plotting.

I would also suggest looking at what is available from GNU and from the
National Center for Supercomputing Applications.  Both have contour packages
available.  I don't know much about GNUplot, but the NCSA stuff is pretty
high class. 

John 
-- 
John K. Prentice                      | "We must make good the demands of
Department of Physics And Astronomy   | reason and create a life worthy of
University of New Mexico              | ourselves and of the goals we only
john@aquarius.unm.edu                 | dimly perceive."  - Andrei Sakharov
From: smoore@dartmouth.edu (Sean Moore)
Newsgroups: sci.comp-aided
Subject: Re: computers in research
Date: 6 Apr 92 13:42:24 GMT
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

In article <z=jj42d@lynx.unm.edu> john@aquarius.unm.edu (John Prentice) writes:

   In article <1992Mar31.172132.13162@fcom.cc.utah.edu> alex@fff.chem.utah.edu (Alex Dommasch) writes:
   >Well, I must admit I'm a bit disappointed.  From all the comments and votes, I 
   >thought this was going to be a busy group.  Maybe this will post get things  
   >going.
   >
   >I would like to know how other people are using computers in their scientific  
   >research.  Maybe this will be a test of how many other people are reading this 
   >group.
   >

   >>We just got a feed for this newsgroup a day or so ago, so that may be why
   >>things are slow.  What exactly is the thurst of this newsgroup.  By
   >>computer aided, do people mean computers in experimental work or would
   >>one regard a mathematician who solves PDE's on a computer as doing
   >>computer aided work?  We use computers ALOT in our research, but our work
   >>is all theoretical.  

   >>John
   -- 
   >>John K. Prentice                      | "We must make good the demands of
   >>Department of Physics And Astronomy   | reason and create a life worthy of
   >>University of New Mexico              | ourselves and of the goals we only
   >>john@aquarius.unm.edu                 | dimly perceive."  - Andrei Sakharov

I have the same question as John.  I am a Ph.D. student studying
machine vision in the computer science realm.  Obviously, I use
computers to solve many of my problems.  I read this group in order to
see what other scientists believe to be practical issues.  If I have
specific questions about a particular theoretical issue, then I post
to the appropriate newsgroup, such as neural-nets or dsp or ai.  So, I
guess we do need a clarification of the thrust of this newsgroup.

- Sean