Posted by: Peter Willendrup in software, simulation, Scandinavia, open source, neutron, Monte Carlo, McStas, Internet, denmark, computer on
Jul 18, 2010
The McStas developer team is happy to report that the 1.12b release of our software is finally out.
You can get the installer packages from our download page
McStas 1.12b is mostly a bugfix release, but some new components and example instruments have been included. McStas 1.12b will be the VERY last release in the 1.x series.
Part of the reason for McStas 1.12b and its late arrival is our delay in releasing the next major version, McStas 2.0.
McStas 2.0 will be released late 2010 / early 2011 and will introduce new features that could break ceartain backward compatibility, hence we move from the 1.x series. We are also considering a replacement of the GUI and plotting tools for McStas 2.0.
For a complete list of changes in McStas 1.12b, see our CHANGES document.
The new relase was tested on these platforms:
- Mac OS 10.5 Leopard and 10.6 Snow Leopard (but should work on 10.4 and 10.3 also). Both 32 and 64 bit, Intel and PPC systems are supported.
- Ubuntu Linux 9.10 Karmic Koala and 10.04 Lucid Lynx, 32 and 64 bit .deb's are provided. Note: Do not expect these debs to work on earlier releases or other distributions, e.g. Debian
- Windows XP, Vista and 7, 32 and 64 bit. We only provide 32bit executables, but they are tested to run OK on 64 bit
- On other systems, feel free to try our source distributions
Neutron scattering does not only enable important research to be carried out, which helps us to understand materials and life a bit more, but also brings people to nice countries. Being part of the ESS Scandinavia team, I'm based at ILL in Grenoble, the capital of the French Alps. I'm preparing for the future, working with world-class leading scientists from all over Europe in the fields of materials science and neutron instrumentation.
Today was an "Analyzing data day" at ILL. Numbercrunching you might say. Digging too much into data made my senses continue analysing even on my way home to our place in the outskirts of Grenoble. I, as always, had first to face the stochastic motions - the origin of quasielastic scattering for a neutron freak - in French traffic. By this I mean a more or less "amorphous" behaviour in car-driving here, where red lights and parking spots appear to serve only as guides for strangers like me. However, the opposite (the ordered structure) exists as well - here in France you need to fill in loads of papers and they may even ask you about your shoe size if you, for example, are about to buy a radio. These are just some of my observations of everyday life in France - and I like to make the comparison to Sweden, where you probably can buy a castle without signing a single paper and without telling the seller who you are.
Passing by the grocery store on my way home, I purchased the essentials for this weekend's activity, walking. My skis were stolen a few weeks ago, but the scenery is nevertheless magnificent on foot! So what did I buy? - Baguettes, cheese, wine and yoghurt of course!!! I'm still amazed about the thousands of different kinds of yoghurt you find here!. But then again a foreigner in Sweden would marvel at the hundreds of different kinds of milk we seem to need to survive. Does anyone know what "långfil" is for example...
Ten years ago I came across a book called "Envisioning Information" by Edward Tufte. It's a lovely book and in there I discovered the ingenious train graphs from Indonesia which visually display train timetables. These train graphs, perhaps surprisingly, can be used to demonstrate how neutron time of flight spectrometers function.
However I found it rather difficult to pronounce the title without tripping over my tongue, and I suspect I am not alone. But, not long afterwards I heard the first use of the word "envision" to mean "envisage." It really grated with me I admit. And now at the two conferences I have been to this week I find this usage becoming more and more the norm with our North American colleagues. Why has this happened when a perfectly good word already exists ? Is it an example of political utterances where extra (and redundant) syllables are added to words, perhaps to make them sound more dazzling ? It's a mystery.
