| galathaea 2006-10-03, 4:02 am |
|
galathaea wrote:
> recently
> i participated in this out-of-context exchange:
>
>
> In article <N6uTg.18275$Ij.16044@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com>, "Phlip"
> <phlipcpp@yahoo.com> wrote:
> !! galathaea wrote:
> !! > a friend of mine has actually sent emails to the NIST
> !! > asking for CVS access to their simulations
> !! > and she has never received a response
> !!
> !! The disinformation campaign also has the pleasant benefit of overloading our
> !! stressed government agencies with all kinds of unwise requests.
>
>
> now i have followed phlip's responses for several years
> (among other great posters in the comp newsgroups)
> and have learned much from the lurking
>
> however
> i never would have expected this response
> from one who has often promoted the virtues of reuse
>
> to be clear
> the request was for read-only CVS access
> (or equivalent source control
> or copy of source)
> to simulations
> that she wanted to experiment with
>
> the source was from a government agency doing public research
>
> there were two principles at play in the request:
>
> 1) reuse of algorithms helps save time in scientific simulations
> 2) nonclassified governmental software should be opensource
>
> principle 1 was one of the points behind the object revolution
> and is one of the key benefits of declarative style
>
> many agile technologies promote methods of reuse
>
>
> principle 2 could be the controversial one
> but many fields of scientific research
> require openness of models in order to peer review
>
> i am  at the request being deemed unwise
> so here are my questions:
>
>
> a) are there characteristics of physical simulations
> that make reuse less advantageous in development?
>
> ii) is principle 2 a valid extention
> of the principles behind
> other commonly opensource advocated governmental software
> like that of voting?
>
> 3) does the response to any of these questions change
> if this request is for simulations
> of the collapse of the world trade 7 building
> on 2001-september-11?
>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> galathaea: prankster, fablist, magician, liar
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