Category Archives: programming for scientists

Silicos contributes Commercial Open Source – thank you

Posted on October 25, 2006 by pm286

It is very uncommon for commercial organizations in chemoinformatics to make any of their material Open Source. (Unlike the contributions of many IT companies – e.g. Eclipse, Netbeans, etc.) So I was very pleased to see an announcement of open … Continue reading →

Posted in "virtual communities", chemistry, open issues, programming for scientists | 1 Comment

The Ridge of Refactoring

Posted on October 13, 2006 by pm286

The Island of Skye has the most dramatic mountains in the UK, and Sgurr Nan Gillean is one of the most visible and well known. For me the Pinnacle Ridge (left) [1] epitomises the reality of computing. There is an … Continue reading →

Posted in programming for scientists | Leave a comment

Knowledge-limited, not time-limited

Posted on October 12, 2006 by pm286

In recent comments, JamesM raised the idea of “spike solutions“. I had never heard of these (nor had Wikipedia) so I asked and found they came from the XP school – here is a reasonable description. Particularly: Spikes are good … Continue reading →

Posted in programming for scientists | 6 Comments

Extreme Programming for Small Scientists?

Posted on October 9, 2006 by pm286

We have a new autumn intake of researchers into our Centre and are aware that there are constantly changing demands on the software and informatics skills needed. In Big Science projects there is provision for infrastructure and training and well-developed … Continue reading →

Posted in programming for scientists | 23 Comments

Chemistry, Chess and Computers

Posted on September 21, 2006 by pm286

Sometime in the 1970’s the Amer. Chem. Soc. published a review of Computers in Chemistry (cannot remember date or title and I’ve lost my copy) and it has remained an inspiration ever since. In it was summarised the work of … Continue reading →

Posted in chemistry, open issues, programming for scientists | 8 Comments

The Blue Obelisk: A volunteer!

Posted on September 16, 2006 by pm286

I flew back from SF to Heathrow yesterday and, as usual, was hacking on the laptop (with difficulty as Virgin doesn’t seem to give enough space to open a laptop). After a while my neighbour (S) asked: S: “do you … Continue reading →

Posted in "virtual communities", programming for scientists | 2 Comments