From munro@icf.llnl.gov Fri Dec 2 14:45:09 1994 From: munro@icf.llnl.gov (David H. Munro) Newsgroups: comp.sources.d Subject: ANNOUNCE Yorick interpreter with interactive graphics Followup-To: poster Date: 29 Nov 1994 21:27:52 GMT Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Distribution: world Reply-To: munro@icf.llnl.gov (David H. Munro) NNTP-Posting-Host: icf.llnl.gov Keywords: interpreter, interactive graphics, data analysis Announcing the release of Yorick version 1.0, now available for UNIX and MacIntosh platforms from several Internet archive sites. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yorick Version 1.0 What is Yorick? --------------- Yorick is an interpreted language like Basic or Lisp, but far faster for scientific applications. It features: * A C-like language, but without declarative statements. Operations between arrays require no explicit loops, which accounts for Yorick's high speed. Scientific computing and numerical analysis are the goals of most Yorick sessions. * An X window system interactive graphics package. Concentrates on x-y plots and filling and contouring quadrilateral meshes. Also handles cell arrays. Hardcopy to binary CGM or PostScript files. Includes a separate CGM browser. The MacIntosh version draws graphics to an ordinary Mac window and can write PICT files. * Yorick's binary file package can read or write floating point formats foreign to the machine where Yorick is running. Thus, you can share binary files freely on heterogeneous networks. * A library of functions written in the Yorick language. Includes Bessel, gamma, and related functions, multiple key sorting, spline, rational function, and least squares fitting, and routines to read and write netCDF files. * Provisions for embedding compiled subroutines and functions within a Yorick interpreter. Includes a sample package which solves matrices and performs FFTs. Because Yorick can read either text or binary files, it can be used "out of the box" as a pre- and post-processor for most existing physics simulation programs: As a pre-processor, you can write a Yorick program that produces complicated input files for a simulation. These might be based on output from other programs, or might require evaluation of complicated functions or involve a lot of repetition. As a post-processor, Yorick allows you to compare the results of several simulations or to analyze results of a single simulation in ways you did not forsee when you ran it. Also, developing a simulation code is considerably easier when you have a tool like Yorick: If you plan to use Yorick to generate input files, you don't need to fuss about making your input "user friendly"; if you plan to post-process with Yorick, your simulation code doesn't need any graphics, and its output can be generally less flexible. Finally, you can build special versions of Yorick to act as drivers for your compiled routines. An interpreted Yorick program can generate input for your routine and plot its output. A large modular simulation code could be built by loading several such routines and writing the main control loop as interpreted code. Requirements ------------ You need an ANSI C compiler in order to build Yorick "as is". The Yorick configure script knows about the following platforms: Sun SPARC (SunOS or Solaris) HP PA-RISC (HPUX) SGI (IRIX) Cray Y/MP (UNICOS) IBM RS6000 (AIX) DEC alpha (OSF) -- but top level README describes compiler bug Intel 80486 (Linux) Other flavors of UNIX should present few problems. A 99% complete port to the MacIntosh architecture exists. This is especially useful for sharing binary data between UNIX and Mac platforms; not only can Yorick read data files, but analysis algorithms written in the Yorick language can be used on either platform. The MacIntosh Yorick is distributed as executable binaries in self-extracting archives. Availability ------------ Yorick is available at the following archive sites: wuarchive.wustl.edu: /languages/yorick/yorick-1.0.tar.gz sunsite.unc.edu: /pub/languages/yorick/yorick-1.0.tar.gz sunsite.unc.edu: /pub/Linux/apps/math/matrix/yorick-1.0.tar.gz netlib.att.com: /netlib/env/yorick-1.0.tar.gz netlib2.cs.utk.edu: /env/yorick-1.0.tar.gz The MacIntosh version of Yorick will soon become available at: sumex-aim.stanford.edu: /info-mac/dev/yorick-* and its many mirrors (e.g.- ftp.uu.net:/archive/systems/mac/info-mac). My home machine is not really equipped to be an archive, but if any version of Yorick is there, it will be the current one. Please use the mirror of /pub/Yorick on my machine at wuarchive.wustl.edu: in the /languages/yorick directory, if possible: icf.llnl.gov:/pub/Yorick/yorick-1.0.tar.gz icf.llnl.gov:/pub/Yorick/macintosh/yorick-* (off hours; use wuarchive /languages/yorick mirror if possible) I will also keep a list of known bugs and installation problems on icf: icf.llnl.gov:/pub/Yorick/yorick-README For the next week or two, the icf.llnl.gov anonymous FTP site will be at laura.llnl.gov instead. Who to contact -------------- If you write an interesting, self-documenting Yorick include file, please tell me about it at munro@icf.llnl.gov. I will try to collect useful programs to be part of the next distribution. If you repair a bug or have constructive comments, send email to: munro@icf.llnl.gov The MacIntosh port was done by Steven H. Langer, shl@icf.llnl.gov. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ An early release of Yorick 1.0 had a minor problem in the configure script which sometimes led to an error message about Bad_Codger_Fortran_Linkage The problem is that the variable FORTRAN_LINKAGE in Yorick/Makefile is not set properly. The configure script has been repaired. Several minor improvements to the MacIntosh version, including command-period interrupts, are being tested. ------------------------------------------------------------------------