Archive for March, 2014
Research Software Engineers (RSEs) are the people who develop software in academia: the ones who write code, but not papers. The Software Sustainability Institute (a group of which I am a Fellow) believes that Research Software Engineers lack the recognition and reward they deserve for their contribution to research. A campaign website – with more information – launched last week:
The campaign has had some early successes and has been generating publicity for the cause, but nothing will change unless the Institute can show that a significant number of Research Software Engineers exist.
Hence this post. If you agree with the issues and objectives on the website, please sign up to the mailing list. If you know of any other Research Software Engineers, please pass this post onto them.
A recent Google+ post from Mathemania4u caught my attention on the train to work this morning. I just had to code up something that looked like this and so fired up Mathematica and hacked away. The resulting notebook can be downloaded here. It’s not particularly well thought through so could almost certainly be improved on in many ways.
The end result was a Manipulate which you’ll be able to play with below, provided you have a compatible Operating System and Web browser. The code for the Manipulate is
Manipulate[
Graphics[Map[dotCirc,
circArray[circrad, theta, pointsize, extent, step, phase,
showcirc]]]
, {{showcirc, True, "Show Circles"}, {True, False}}
, {{theta, 0, "Dot Angle"}, 0, 2 Pi, Pi/10, Appearance -> "Labeled"}
, {{pointsize, 0.018, "Dot Size"}, 0, 1, Appearance -> "Labeled"}
, {{phase, 2, "Phase Diff"}, 0, 2 Pi, Appearance -> "Labeled"}
, {{step, 0.25, "Circle Separation"}, 0, 1, Appearance -> "Labeled"}
, {{extent, 2, "Plot Extent"}, 1, 5, Appearance -> "Labeled"}
, {{circrad, 0.15, "Circle Radius"}, 0.01, 1, Appearance -> "Labeled"}
, Initialization :>
{
dotCirc[{x_, y_, r_, theta_, pointsize_, showcirc_}] := If[showcirc,
{Circle[{x, y}, r], PointSize[pointsize],
Point[{x + r Cos[theta], y + r Sin[theta]}]}
,
{PointSize[pointsize],
Point[{x + r Cos[theta], y + r Sin[theta]}]}]
,
circArray[r_, theta_, pointsize_, extent_, step_, phase_,
showcirc_] := Module[{},
Partition[
Flatten[Table[{x, y, r, theta + x*phase + y*phase, pointsize,
showcirc}, {x, -extent, extent, step}, {y, -extent, extent,
step}]], 6]
]}]
If you can use the Manipulate below, I suggest clicking on the + icon to the right of the ‘Dot Angle’ field to expose the player controls and then press the play button to kick off the animation.
I also produced a video – The code used to produce this is in the notebook.
)
If you’ve ever wanted to use MATLAB to develop personal projects or as a hobby but have been put off by the eye-watering commercial prices, the new MATLAB Home edition might be for you.
For £85 you get full powered MATLAB without any toolboxes. This is the same version that the professionals use but there are various restrictions on its use. The FAQ states “The MATLAB® Home license is for your personal use only. It is not available for government, academic, research, commercial, or other organizational use.”
It is possible to buy toolboxes for an extra £25 each but, at the time of writing at least, it is not possible to buy ALL available toolboxes on the home license.
Some of Mathworks’ competitors have had similar home-use licenses available for some time – Mathematica and Maple to name two – it’s great to see MATLAB added to this list.
Other WalkingRandomly posts you may be interested in
I found these links a while ago and forgot to post them here. Some interesting insights.