Computing software
Physics Department Computing Facility
Wean Hall 6332, Phone 412-268-4382
Manager: Al Brunk, 412-268-2736
abrunk@andrew.cmu.edu
hardware software guidelines FAQ
This WWW page lists software in the Physics Department Computing Facility that may be
of general interest to physics users. Certain programs are in a special Tools
directory on Andrew. See below for information on utilizing this directory. See the Computing Services web
site for additional lists of available software.
Help
On Unix systems man command yields help on command. Linux also features the info
system. CMU has developed the Polaris
documentation collection. Windows XP and Macintosh computers have voluminous on-line help
available. If you need additional help with something, call the help center at 268-HELP or
Al Brunk at 268-2736.
Word Processing
Windows XP and Macinsoth computers run Microsoft Word. Unix users generally
separate file editing from typesetting. Popular editors are emacs, xemacs
and vi. The most popular typesetting program is latex. LaTex output is a dvi
file that can be viewed with xdvi, printed directly, or converted to PostScript
with dvips. RevTex macros are available in the Tools directory. There are
also nice graphical "front ends" for LaTex such as lyx (available on
Linux in Tools) and vortex on Macintosh. To convert PostScript files to PDF,
use the program distill on sun4.andrew.cmu.edu. To convert LaTex files to
PDF
use the program pdflatex on sun4.andrew.cmu.edu or linux.andrew.cmu.edu.
Programming Languages
The principal programming languages, Fortran (g77
on Linux in addition to the PGI fortran compilers), C (cc, c++, gcc and g++) and Pascal (pc on SunOS and p2cc
on Linux) are available on the Unix computers. Debugging and profiling is done with dbx,
gdb and gprof. DEC Visual Fortran and the Microsoft Visual Studio (C++,
J++ and basic) are installed on the dual processor NT computers.
Parallel processing is available using MPI or Open
MP, subject to our CPU usage guidelines.
Symbolic Math
Mathematica (math to run kernel, mathematica to run front end) and maple
are available on Linux , Windows XP and Macintosh computers.
Numerical Math
Matlab (matlab on Unix) is an interactive program for mathematical manipulation
with special strength in arrays and graphics. IMSL libraries are available on
sun4.andrew.cmu.edu. Numerical Recipes in fortran and C is available in the Tools
directory.
Graphics
Use xgraph or xmgr in the Tools directory for data plotting and gnuplot
for data and function plotting. Rasmol draws 3-D molecular structures. Mathematica,
maple and matlab all contain nice graphics. Kaleidagraph and Cricket
Graph are installed on the Macintosh computers. Photoshop is installed on hera.
For pdf and PostScript viewing, use Acrobat Reader (acroread on Unix) and ghostview.
For bitmapped graphics, use the various paint programs on Macintosh and Windows
XP. On
Unix, use xv and the display suite of tools for bitmapped graphics.
Tools Directory
The Tools directory contains a collection of software of special interest to
physics users. To utilize these packages you must revise your .login file to
include the lines:
set path=($path /afs/andrew/mcs/physics/Tools/bin)
setenv MANPATH $MANPATH':/afs/andrew/mcs/physics/Tools/man'
setenv TEXINPUTS /usr/local/share/texmf//: \
/afs/andrew/mcs/physics/Tools/texinputs:/afs/andrew/mcs/physics/Tools/revtex
WWW Resources
The Netlib organization has collected public domain
mathematical software packages. For further math and statistics software visit the GAMS index at NIST. The Geometry Center has collected interesting graphics and
computational geometry tools. To convert real numbers into symbolic form, try the Inverse Symbolic Calculator. To identify
integer sequences, use Sloane's On-line Encyclopedia of
Integer Sequences. Finally, the british collaborative computational project CCP provides sophisticated tools geared towards
specific research areas:
CCP1: electronic structure of molecules
CCP2: continuum states of atoms and
molecules
CCP3: computer simulation of surface
structure and properties
CCP4: macromolecular crystallography
CCP5: computer simulation by molecular
dynamics and monte carlo
CCP6: heavy particle dynamics
CCP7: analysis of astronomical spectra
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