[sdpd] Re: Fwd: Re-using software pieces

[Armel Le Bail <armel... @fluo.univ-lemans.fr>]

>From David Watkin :

>Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 09:40:34 +0000 (GMT)
>From: David Watkin <david.watkin... @chemistry.oxford.ac.uk>
>To: Armel Le Bail <armel... @fluo.univ-lemans.fr>
>Cc: viterbo... @ch.unito.it
>Subject: Re: Re-using software pieces
>
>Hello
>       Many thanks for copying you e-mail to me.
>
>The Computing Commission is not quite forgotten, but since Galsgow I have
>been very pre-occupied with creating the basis for a ECA computing SIG.
>The formalities have now been completed and submitted to the Council.
>Briefly, I have proposed an Acting Chairman for the current year, Davide
>Viterbo, whose main task will be to organise an Inaugural Session in Nancy
>n ext year, which will be an open meeting to decide on details of the
>constitiution, and elect memebers. I was not keen on the alternative plan,
>which was to propose a full committee before the open meeting. 
>
>Once we hear that the proposal is accepted (I hope it will be), then we
>will try to circulate all interested groups, and make use of CCP4 and
>CCP14 to contact people.
>
>Your suggestions are very well put and very timely. There is a real
>problem facing crystallogrpahic programmers now. The line between
>re-inventing the wheel and improving the wheel is not always evident, and
>in business it is now quite common just to re-write things rather than
>excavate old code (which may not be reliable anyway!). On the other hand,
>20 years of using code often hepls remove the worst bugs. 
>
>       To my mind, wven more worrying is the prospect of loss of
>diversity. Just as Microsoft now dominate the small computer market, and
>in effect we have no real alternaive environment to Windows, so there is a
>risk that we shall loose alternative programs in crystallography. I got
>the impression that the powder community was in a better state than the
>single crystal community, and was still rich in variety. That is something
>to hang on to. Diversity and innovation are important to evolution, and
>domination by one particular system may lead to the software dinasaur. Big
>but no where to go. 
>
>       Lachlan has already taken me to task about my neglect of the
>Computing Commission. Its only a passing phase, and after this term we
>will get into full gear.
>
>
>       Please do not hesitate to copy this reply to anyone you think
>might be interested. 
>
>               Best wishes
>                                       David
>