Warrick Ball: How can RSEs stop researchers from re-inventing small programs?
Channel: Society of Research Software Engineering
Date: 28/02/2024

A talk from the Working with & as Researchers 1 session at RSECon23 at Swansea University, on 2023-09-05.

Full title: How can RSEs stop researchers from re-inventing small programs instead of collaborating to sustain and improve big ones?

Programme link: https://virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/#/event/4430/submission/31
Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Tk-uHc08arvO9aTXH8waI6cL6PIrVSsmg8N_qbj0v9g/edit?usp=sharing

Captions edited by Ginger Butcher.

Abstract:
Does it ever feel like lots of new research software in a particular domain is being released only to provide yet another way of performing an existing task, while researchers keep relying on decades-old packages for larger tasks (e.g. simulations)? I'll introduce Daniel Katz's ""software development curve"" and use it to offer an explanation of why this happens. I'll also show how this has played out recently in some areas of astrophysics and highlight where, and why, there have been notable exceptions. Finally, I'll offer some ideas on how research software engineers can help research teams shift effort from independently re-inventing small programs to collaborating more effectively and widely on small, large, old or new research software.

0:00 Title card
0:04 Talk
19:10 Q&A