[sdpd] Search-match software

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

Hi,

I would be curious to know what are the search-match
programs used along the ICDD clinics.

The first week of the SDPD Internet Course is devoted
to identification by powder diffractometry. As no search-
match program is available for free, to my knowledge, 
the future student is informed that he should find, for that
week, an access to PDF-2 and a search-match program.

As the students are now 9, a small report on that question
can be done. Possibly, that need for PDF-2 and a search-
match program may discourage subscriptions. Indeed, 3
students had not any access to PDF-2 or to a search-match
program or to both of them... so that they should directly
go to the week-2 material (and of course I give advice
to make efforts for acquiring or accessing PDF-2 in another
close lab - so I am sometimes a rational ICDD defender ;-).

Seems to me that there is a bolt.

I understand well that one way of distribution for PDF-2
is by manufacturers which sell an independent search-match
software together with a diffractometer. This is probably
why PDF-2 does not include any native search-match process
(if I am wrong, tell me !). But this is amazing... Has ICDD
any project to add a basic search-match process into PDFWin ?
Or is it too much in contradiction with other commercial
interests ?

Best,
Armel Le Bail
http://www.cristal.org/course/