From owner-chemistry # - at - # ccl.net Tue Oct 11 20:16:00 2005 From: "jle jle^^theworld.com" To: CCL Subject: CCL: Re: Where can you publish articles on software? Message-Id: <-29553-051011194650-28792-3F2t6WQnsa8hiL/d6JSt0w[*]server.ccl.net> X-Original-From: jle Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 19:52:31 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v623) Sent to CCL by: jle [jle-.-theworld.com] On Oct 11, 2005, at 11:47 AM, Noel O Boyle no228^-^cam.ac.uk wrote: > > In addition, science should involve building on someone else's work, > not > reinventing the wheel. Wouldn't it be better if authors made their code > available so that others could use it? Otherwise every person who wants > to do a particular type of charge analysis, for example, has to read > the > algorithm, write the code, and get their result. During my PhD I found > this to be the case for Hirshfeld Population Analysis. I spent a week > and a half reinventing the wheel (and not very well). > > This is why I would like to be able to publish an article on a program. > Well, if what they want is done by a commercially available program, they can purchase and use it without concern (assuming most such programs, particularly in the QM field) are validated and tested well. Otherwise, they can make the code available under the suitable open- source license or as a binary distribution on a website and post pointers on places such as CCL. We're still quite a small community, so if something's good and available, it'll turn up, or be Google-able. Writing the code's actually the smallest about of work. Debugging it, validating it, maintaining it and possibly porting it are usually way more work :-). Joe Leonard jle*|*theworld.com