Important Research Project

ruby-talk
1

Important Research Project (Related to computer programming)

Posted by E.D.G. on August 30, 2007 edgrsprj@ix.netcom.com

    This report is being posted to a number of Internet Newsgroups to see if
there are any experienced computer programmers who would like to provide
some assistance with an effort to develop a Perl language computer program.

    Interested parties can try contacting me by e-mail or by posting a
response note to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup. They would need to
download a recent (free) MSI copy of Perl from the ActiveState Web site and
get it running on a Windows XP or Vista system.

http://www.activestate.com

    I am presently using Perl 5.8.8 but plan to upgrade to the latest
version as soon as possible. People can use Windows 98 if that is the only
operating system available. Perl also runs on other operating systems. But
at this time I specifically need help with the Windows version.

    The goal is to have a single Perl program (or modules) perform functions
that have been done by a sizeable collection of other language programs in
the past.

    Help is presently needed with learning how to get Perl to generate
charts and also produce standalone .exe copies of itself. The plan is to
then make those .exe copies available to other scientific researchers around
the world for free use along with free use updates when they become
available. If other researchers wish to get Perl running on their own
computers then they will probably also be given the source code for the
original program for free use so that they can do their own development
work.

    Perl was originally chosen because it is quite versatile, is a free
download, and is supported both by ActiveState and quite a few independent
programmers. So other researchers could get their own versions running
without having to worry about viruses or cost.

    So far the work is fairly advanced. The effort has been underway for at
least a decade. The core data generation program was formally copyrighted
several years ago. My present version of Perl will send data to Windows as
if it were being manually typed into the keyboard (important for controlling
other programs). And it can directed to respond to most keystrokes even
when another program is the active one. Unfortunately, Windows also
presently responds to those keystrokes. And that complicates things a bit.

    Not being a professional computer programmer I have been finding it
difficult to get new features such as a chart generating ability merged with
and running with Perl. And the entire research project is now being slowed
as a result. One of my colleagues has done an extensive amount of work with
Basic. And I even offered to pay him to help with the Perl development
effort. But after he downloaded a copy of Perl and examined it he decided
that this would involve too much effort. I have to agree with him.

    Once it is possible to create charts and .exe versions the plan is for
researchers around the world to develop Perl modules for generating a
variety of data related to sun, moon, planet, ocean tide crest and trough,
and Solid Earth Tide locations. Most of those data can already be generated
with other programs. Some of the data are not yet available anywhere as far
as I am aware. If the effort is unusually successful the Perl program (or
modules) might eventually be converted to CGI programs that will run at one
or more Internet Web sites.

2

E.D.G. wrote:

Important Research Project (Related to computer programming)

Posted by E.D.G. on August 30, 2007 edgrsprj@ix.netcom.com

    This report is being posted to a number of Internet Newsgroups to see if
there are any experienced computer programmers who would like to provide
some assistance with an effort to develop a Perl language computer program.

    Interested parties can try contacting me by e-mail or by posting a
response note to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup. They would need to
download a recent (free) MSI copy of Perl from the ActiveState Web site and
get it running on a Windows XP or Vista system.

http://www.activestate.com

    I am presently using Perl 5.8.8 but plan to upgrade to the latest
version as soon as possible. People can use Windows 98 if that is the only
operating system available. Perl also runs on other operating systems. But
at this time I specifically need help with the Windows version.

    The goal is to have a single Perl program (or modules) perform functions
that have been done by a sizeable collection of other language programs in
the past.

    Help is presently needed with learning how to get Perl to generate
charts and also produce standalone .exe copies of itself. The plan is to
then make those .exe copies available to other scientific researchers around
the world for free use along with free use updates when they become
available. If other researchers wish to get Perl running on their own
computers then they will probably also be given the source code for the
original program for free use so that they can do their own development
work.

    Perl was originally chosen because it is quite versatile, is a free
download, and is supported both by ActiveState and quite a few independent
programmers. So other researchers could get their own versions running
without having to worry about viruses or cost.

    So far the work is fairly advanced. The effort has been underway for at
least a decade. The core data generation program was formally copyrighted
several years ago. My present version of Perl will send data to Windows as
if it were being manually typed into the keyboard (important for controlling
other programs). And it can directed to respond to most keystrokes even
when another program is the active one. Unfortunately, Windows also
presently responds to those keystrokes. And that complicates things a bit.

    Not being a professional computer programmer I have been finding it
difficult to get new features such as a chart generating ability merged with
and running with Perl. And the entire research project is now being slowed
as a result. One of my colleagues has done an extensive amount of work with
Basic. And I even offered to pay him to help with the Perl development
effort. But after he downloaded a copy of Perl and examined it he decided
that this would involve too much effort. I have to agree with him.

    Once it is possible to create charts and .exe versions the plan is for
researchers around the world to develop Perl modules for generating a
variety of data related to sun, moon, planet, ocean tide crest and trough,
and Solid Earth Tide locations. Most of those data can already be generated
with other programs. Some of the data are not yet available anywhere as far
as I am aware. If the effort is unusually successful the Perl program (or
modules) might eventually be converted to CGI programs that will run at one
or more Internet Web sites.

Well ... aside from the incongruity of posting such a request for Perl
expertise on a Ruby list, I do happen to be an experienced Perl
programmer and am very familiar with the ActiveState implementation.
Moreover, I happen to own an ActiveState Perl Development Kit license,
which from the way your post reads would be a requirement to work on
this project.

I'm curious, though, why you want to re-invent a bunch of wheels? Aren't
tide tables and other astronomical calculations freely available from
various governmental agencies, in algorithm form, as tables, both
printed and on web sites, and by other means? Couldn't you just write
some simple code using modules from the ActiveState repository to go
grab data off the web and present it?

The last time I looked, the ActiveState repository had *most* of what's
in CPAN. You have to be careful about versions -- just loading things
directly from CPAN into ActiveState can get you into trouble, but as
long as you load your modules from the ActiveState repository you should
be OK.

3

"E.D.G." wrote:

This report is being posted to a number of Internet Newsgroups to
see if there are any experienced computer programmers who would
like to provide some assistance with an effort to develop a Perl
language computer program.

Where is Perl described in the C standard? This seems rather OT.

···

--
Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net)
   Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
   <http://cbfalconer.home.att.net>

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

4

"E.D.G." <edgrsprj@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:13ddcvm1bsu3s94@corp.supernews.com...

Important Research Project (Related to computer programming)

Posted by E.D.G. on August 30, 2007 edgrsprj@ix.netcom.com

    This effort was not successful. And I am returning to trying to slowly
make progress with the computer program I have been developing.

    I was hoping that there might be some people who had Perl chart and .exe
generation programs running on their own computer who could say, "Here is
how to merge them with Perl; here is how to use them; this is what they will
do, etc." Or, I was hoping that someone would respond and say that although
they are using Fortran or Basic etc. instead of Perl, they would be
interested in getting a copy of Perl running, determine how to get those
routines running, and then pass along the information. That would have
saved some time.

    I work on these projects all the time. And it has been my experience
that the world of science does not have the type of organized structure at
this time to enable people to easily obtain that type of assistance. I have
established an organization which will hopefully help with that problem. It
might be going public at a Web site some time in the next year.

There were some questions regarding the computer program I discussed. This
is what it does:

    It provides researchers with the a certain amount of ability to
determine if different events are somehow linked with one another. For
example, it can be used to compare two or more earthquakes, earthquakes and
electromagnetic pulses, tornados and electromagnetic pulses, and even
earthquakes and tornados etc.

    It makes it possible for people to study events taking place deep in the
Earth by evaluating electromagnetic pulse data associated with those events.
Under the right conditions it can be used to forecast earthquakes. That is
the reason it was developed in the first place. You can see the type of
data it generates at the following Web page:

http://www.freewebz.com/eq-forecasting/Data.html

    The plan is that when it has chart and standalone .exe program file
generation capabilities, program copies will be circulated within the
earthquake forecasting community in the People's Republic of China. It was
discussed in detail there at a scientific conference in December of 2003.
At that time it was too complex for widespread use.

    After the chart feature becomes operational etc. I am also planning to
contact U.S. government officials to see if one or more lectures can be
organized regarding the basic technology and theories, and the program's
capabilities.

These are personal opinions.

5

Hmmm, who knows.... Maybe FORTRAN will finally kick the bucket and be replaced
by Perl?

Oh well, a spider can dream :slight_smile:

TerryP.

···

--
    
Email and shopping with the feelgood factor!
55% of income to good causes. http://www.ippimail.com

6

A little OT for basic groups, too. Followups set.

Fortran group dropped, too.

···

On Thu, 30 Aug 2007 09:45:50 -0400, CBFalconer <cbfalconer@yahoo.com> wrote:

"E.D.G." wrote:

This report is being posted to a number of Internet Newsgroups to
see if there are any experienced computer programmers who would
like to provide some assistance with an effort to develop a Perl
language computer program.

Where is Perl described in the C standard? This seems rather OT.

--
ArarghMail708 at [drop the 'http://www.' from ->] http://www.arargh.com
BCET Basic Compiler Page: Basic Compiler Page - BCET

To reply by email, remove the extra stuff from the reply address.

7

"CBFalconer" <cbfalconer@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:46D6CA0E.E66ED5C8@yahoo.com...

"E.D.G." wrote:

Where is Perl described in the C standard? This seems rather OT.

It has been my experience that a person who is an expert with one computer
language can usually do reasonably well when working with other languages.
I am trying to find some people who can assist with getting a Perl program
running. It would probably be easier for expert programmers in any language
to help with this type of work compared with people such as myself who are
not experts in any programming language.

8

"E.D.G." <edgrsprj@ix.netcom.com> writes:

"CBFalconer" <cbfalconer@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:46D6CA0E.E66ED5C8@yahoo.com...

"E.D.G." wrote:

Where is Perl described in the C standard? This seems rather OT.

It has been my experience that a person who is an expert with one computer
language can usually do reasonably well when working with other languages.
I am trying to find some people who can assist with getting a Perl program
running. It would probably be easier for expert programmers in any language
to help with this type of work compared with people such as myself who are
not experts in any programming language.

CBFalconer's point is that this newsgroup (comp.lang.c, where he and I
are both reading this) is for discussion of the C programming
language. If you want to discuss something other than C, please find
another forum. Massive cross-posts like this are rarely appropriate.

···

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst&gt;
San Diego Supercomputer Center <*> <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst&gt;
"We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this."
    -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"

9

"E.D.G." <edgrs...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message

news:13ddcvm1bsu3s94@corp.supernews.com...

> Important Research Project (Related to computer programming)

> Posted by E.D.G. on August 30, 2007 edgrs...@ix.netcom.com

    This effort was not successful.

Shocking, isn't it ?

And I am returning to trying to slowly
make progress with the computer program I have been developing.

You might have more luck if you read How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
before asking for help again.

···

On Sep 1, 7:13 am, "E.D.G." <edgrs...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

10

In article <lnsl60o492.fsf@nuthaus.mib.org>,

"E.D.G." <edgrsprj@ix.netcom.com> writes:

"CBFalconer" <cbfalconer@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:46D6CA0E.E66ED5C8@yahoo.com...

"E.D.G." wrote:

Where is Perl described in the C standard? This seems rather OT.

It has been my experience that a person who is an expert with one computer
language can usually do reasonably well when working with other languages.
I am trying to find some people who can assist with getting a Perl program
running. It would probably be easier for expert programmers in any language
to help with this type of work compared with people such as myself who are
not experts in any programming language.

CBFalconer's point is that this newsgroup (comp.lang.c, where he and I
are both reading this) is for discussion of the C programming
language. If you want to discuss something other than C, please find
another forum. Massive cross-posts like this are rarely appropriate.

IOW (for the OP and for the various readers in all these groups):

  The rod up Keith's butt has a rod up its butt.

Note, incidentally, that this thread is yet the latest occurrence of a
phenomenon that I've observed many times in the past, and have
described here in clc on more than a few occasions. That is, somebody
starts a thread, posted to several different groups, in the hope of
getting help from at least one of them. The thread is pretty much
on-topic for most of the groups, primarily because the keepers of most
of the groups do not have rods up their butts.

However, and this is the big however, one of the groups listed just
happens to be clc, where rod-filled butts are the norm. The result is
that all of the responses come from clc (including, of course, this one)
and, as we see, it's all topicality BS, and nobody ever ends up
discussing the original subject. Really a pity, that.

···

Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> wrote:

11

George Sakkis wrote:

"E.D.G." <edgrs...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message

news:13ddcvm1bsu3s94@corp.supernews.com...

Important Research Project (Related to computer programming)
Posted by E.D.G. on August 30, 2007 edgrs...@ix.netcom.com

    This effort was not successful.

Shocking, isn't it ?

And I am returning to trying to slowly
make progress with the computer program I have been developing.

You might have more luck if you read http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#forum
before asking for help again.

If you feed it, it will grow. :slight_smile:

I took a look at E.D.G.'s web site. While a noble effort, it's hardly
something an amateur can expect to do better than professionals, and
that appears to be the situation here.

E.D.G., please correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you trying to use
astronomical calculations to predict earthquakes, a subject that
attracted a great deal of notoriety on Usenet when the late Iben
Browning predicted an earthquake on the New Madrid fault that failed to
happen?

E.D.G.: Are you in fact a geophysicist with a degree, published
peer-reviewed works on earthquake prediction, etc., or just an amateur
with some ideas that you'd like some help implementing?

···

On Sep 1, 7:13 am, "E.D.G." <edgrs...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

12

CBFalconer wrote:

"E.D.G." wrote:

This report is being posted to a number of Internet Newsgroups to
see if there are any experienced computer programmers who would
like to provide some assistance with an effort to develop a Perl
language computer program.

Where is Perl described in the C standard? This seems rather OT.

This is OT in every single group it was posted in... Ed wants some gullible programmer to write him up a program for analyzing this mass of "data" he's been collecting, and use it to predict earthquakes. He's been changing the requested language (Basic, Visual Basic, C, Fortran, Perl, and god only knows what else) and putting up the same request since *at least* the mid-1990s...

Jim

13

"E.D.G." <edgrsprj@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:13dhm7uec5sp855@corp.supernews.com...

I have the Gnuplot graphics program running now with Windows XP. And it
looks like it will work for my application.
http://www.gnuplot.info

14

M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:

George Sakkis wrote:

"E.D.G." <edgrs...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message

news:13ddcvm1bsu3s94@corp.supernews.com...

Important Research Project (Related to computer programming)
Posted by E.D.G. on August 30, 2007 edgrs...@ix.netcom.com

    This effort was not successful.

Shocking, isn't it ?

And I am returning to trying to slowly
make progress with the computer program I have been developing.

You might have more luck if you read How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
before asking for help again.

If you feed it, it will grow. :slight_smile:

I took a look at E.D.G.'s web site. While a noble effort, it's hardly
something an amateur can expect to do better than professionals, and
that appears to be the situation here.

E.D.G., please correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you trying to use
astronomical calculations to predict earthquakes, a subject that
attracted a great deal of notoriety on Usenet when the late Iben
Browning predicted an earthquake on the New Madrid fault that failed to
happen?

E.D.G.: Are you in fact a geophysicist with a degree, published
peer-reviewed works on earthquake prediction, etc., or just an amateur
with some ideas that you'd like some help implementing?

P.S.: To tie this to Ruby, Ruby originated in Japan, and one of the
major centers for earthquake prediction research is in Japan. E.D.G., if
you really have some *new* ideas on the subject, which I doubt, perhaps
you should learn Ruby rather than trying to work in Perl. :slight_smile:

···

On Sep 1, 7:13 am, "E.D.G." <edgrs...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

15

"M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@cesmail.net> wrote in message
news:46D9A81A.3080608@cesmail.net...

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

The main program is fully operational. And I am not having trouble with
writing Perl code. The problem at the moment is with getting new features
such as a chart generation capability merged with Perl and then getting them
running. For Perl experts or professional computer programmers that is
probably easy. For the rest of us it is a slow trial and error process.

Once the program I have developed becomes generally available, scientists
around the world will probably rewrite the code in some other language.
Right now I just need to get it into a form that can be sent to people so
that they can start using it. The technology is in my opinion quite
revolutionary in a number of ways.

I talk with leading earthquake researchers around the world all the time.