Updated codes

Gyula Józsa has been updating TiRiFiC and fixing minor bugs, and has added features and made the code standalone software, no longer requiring GIPSY; instead, input files are in FITS format now. You can be alerted to updates by subscribing to the TiRiFiC thread on the ASCL.

Peter Teuben reported on the ASCL that an updated version of ZEUS-MP (V1.5) has been made public by the U.Maryland group. Please find the updated version here: http://www.netpurgatory.com/zeusmp.html

He also provided an additional download site for new code GRID-core.

If you would like to receive an email whenever a new post is made on the ASCL forum which houses the code entries, instructions for subscribing to the forum are available.

February 2013 additions to the ASCL

Seventeen codes were added to the ASCL in February:

ACS: ALMA Common Software
DisPerSE: Discrete Persistent Structures Extractor
EPICS: Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System
ESO-MIDAS: General tools for image processing and data reduction
FASTPHOT: A simple and quick IDL PSF-fitting routine

GALA: Stellar atmospheric parameters and chemical abundances
GRID-core: Gravitational Potential Identification of Cores
IAS Stacking Library in IDL
ICORE: Image Co-addition with Optional Resolution Enhancement
ISIS: Interactive Spectral Interpretation System for High Resolution X-Ray Spectroscopy

MARX: Model of AXAF Response to X-rays
ME(SSY)**2: Monte Carlo Code for Star Cluster Simulations
Minerva: Cylindrical coordinate extension for Athena
NIFTY: A versatile Python library for signal inference
pNbody: A python parallelized N-body reduction toolbox

SYNMAG Photometry: Catalog-level Matched Colors of Extended Sources
XDQSO: Photometic quasar probabilities and redshifts

We also added CSCview: A Graphical User Interface to the Chandra Source Catalog to our web tools page, and pyro: hydro by example — A simple python-based tutorial on computational methods for hydrodynamics to our list of online resources. As of February 28, there were 585 codes in the ASCL.

New home page for ascl.net

The ASCL has a new home page! ascl.net continues to be the permalink but now redirects to the index page of this site, which provides easy navigation and access to information.  Code entries remain on the Asterisk phpbb, which offers full-text searching capability and subscription service.

Suggestions for improving the resource are always welcome! They can be made here or emailed to editor@ascl.net.

AAS 221 splinter meeting “Astrophysics Code Sharing?”

Yesterday, Peter Teuben (UMd) moderated the splinter meeting “Astrophysics Code Sharing?” at the AAS 221 meeting in Long Beach. Panelists Omar Laurino (CfA), Robert Hanisch (STScI/VAO), Bruce Berriman (IPAC, Caltech), and I (that’d be Alice, editor of the ASCL) made short presentations before the floor was opened for comments. Spirited, even passionate, discussion, ensued, touching on why codes might not be released, sociological changes needed to foster release, the difference between release for transparency and release for reuse, the need to find a way to recognize those who join a collaborative coding project after the initial code paper is written, how to improve software writing skills among astrophysicists, and how nice it would be if the ASCL had a system and funding like the Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse’s. Okay, that last thing might have just been in my head, but it would, indeed, be nice!

The slides for the splinter meeting are online and will be made available shortly as a downloadable PDF.

Omar Laurino joins panel for AAS splinter meeting “Astrophysics Code Sharing?”

Omar Laurino (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) has joined the panel for the ASCL-sponsored splinter meeting “Astrophysics Code Sharing?” at the upcoming AAS meeting in Long Beach. The topic of his short presentation is What do we want to accomplish?

Session date/time/location:
Wednesday, January 9
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Regency Ballroom D (Downtown Hyatt Long Beach)

Peter Teuben (Astronomy Department, UMD) will discuss the results of sessions on code release and discoverability from earlier conferences; he will also moderate the discussion. Robert Hanisch (STScI/VAO) will talk on Integrity in the publication process and Bruce Berriman (IPAC, Caltech) will cover Code repositories in other disciplines. ASCL editor Alice Allen will share a little information about (surprise!) the ASCL. The floor will be open for discussion and sharing after the five-minute presentations. And we’ll have glow-in-the-dark pencils to give away, too!

ASCL poster at AAS

The ASCL will have a poster at AAS on Tuesday, January 8; it is poster 240.01, one of the Computation, Data Handling, and Image Analysis posters, and is titled Using the Astrophysics Source Code Library. Editor Alice Allen will be at the poster handing out glow in the dark pencils. Please stop by to pick one (or a dozen) up!

A preferred reference method seems to be evolving

Looking recently at references to code entries, I see most are in the format:

    author, year, in Astrophysics Source Code Library, record ascl ID

For example: Barnes, J. E., 2011, Astrophysics Source Code Library, record ascl:1102.027

Using the entire ascl ID (ascl:xxxx.xxx) in the reference enables ADS to more easily pick up the citation. It may be helpful to the reader to include the name of the code as well:

    Barnes, J. E., 2011, ZENO, Astrophysics Source Code Library, record ascl:1102.027

The ascl ID number can be used to provide a link to a particular entry. For the example above, typing ascl.net/1102.027 into your browser brings up the entry for the code ZENO.

Astrophysics Code Sharing?

Astrophysics Code Sharing? is the title of a splinter meeting the ASCL is sponsoring at the upcoming AAS meeting in Long Beach. The session date/time/location are:

Wednesday, January 9
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Regency Ballroom D (Downtown Hyatt Long Beach)

Peter Teuben (Astronomy Department, University of Maryland) will chair the discussion. Some of the subjects to be covered in the presentations highlight recent developments:

    • Astrophysics Source Code Library (ASCL)
    • Results of recent discussion about code release and discoverability: eScience meeting (Chicago, Oct 2012), ADASS conference (Urbana-Champaign, Nov 2012)
    • Integrity in the publication process
    • Code repositories in other disciplines

We invite participants to suggest other short topics to present by contacting the organizers at editor@ascl.net. The panelists presenting the topics listed above include Bruce Berriman (IPAC, Caltech), Robert J. Hanisch (STScI/VAO), and Alice Allen (ASCL).

After short presentations on the state of astronomical software, the floor will be opened for discussion on issues relating to the discoverability of codes and transparency of numerical and computational research methods.