Computing Commission School

Recent Schools of the Computing Commission of the IUCr have largely been concerned with the application of widely distributed programs to crystallographic problems. These kinds of schools serve a useful purpose and will continue to be organized, but the Computing Commission believes that there may also be a need for schools where the emphasis is upon developing rather than using software.

We therefore need to ascertain: (a) if there would be support for such schools; (b) what topics would have wide interest; (c) who we could invite to speak in an authoritative, but comprehensible, way on the various topics; and (d) who could act as local organizer for a school.

We have assembled a short list of possible topics to demonstrate the "flavor" of such schools, and we would like to receive opinions about these and other topics, names of potential speakers at the school (either self-proposals or the names of colleagues who might be too modest to put themselves forward), and volunteers to act as local organizers. Our aim is to keep the schools rather small and inexpensive so that we can attract young crystallographers.

Possible Subjects

• How good are the recipes in "Numerical Recipes"?
• Surviving DOS
• The future of FORTRAN and FORTRAN90
• Portable UNIX
• Writing in C and C++
• Living with MS-Windows
• How to write for Xlib
• Portable VMS procedures
• Use of procedural languages, e.g., tcl, perl
• Use of CIF files
• Mixed language programs
• How to exploit the STAR/CIF data
• Writing code for multiprocessor machines definition language
• Making your program survive CTRL/C
• Use of hypertext
• Computer graphics
• Use of Networks
• Access to databases of interest to crystallographers
• Managing heterogeneous computers in a crystallography lab.

If you have any ideas/comments, contact: D. Watkin, Chem. Crystallography Lab, U. of Oxford, 9 Parks Rd, Oxford, OX1 3PD, UK. Tel.: 0865-270-826, FAX: 0865-272-690, e-mail: watkin@uk.ac.oxford.vax, BITNET: watkin@vax.oxford.ac.uk or david.watkin@chemcryst.ox.ac.uk.