AGAIN MY email was sent prematurely---fat fingers hitting some key somewhere.
Now to finish quickly and carefully...

The point is that the use of R is exceedingly attractive, but the R packages
have wired a number of decisions with which you must become familar IN DETAIL
if it is a basis for your package. This  need for familiarity extends to
contouring packages too--a separate set of issues than estimation/gridding,
etc. 

Also note that the R package/contributor process is integal to the language's
quality and success; and this process imposes significant rigor on the
developer. Be sure to take a look at the material on developing packages before
you make your final language selection. 

You will want to compare the interfaces for windows and the nix's
versions--what is common between the different platforms and what is not--and
look over some of the GUI-related packages (typically tk/TCL). Checkout
Bioconductor and or yes there is a geospatial group within the R community
(Roger Bivand in Norway?)

2.) FORTRAN is not obsolete. FORTRAN is perhaps not appropriate for your
purposes at this time. The overwhelming majority of numerical groundwater codes
are written in FORTRAN. The overwhelming majority of quantum chemistry codes
are written in the same, many radiological codes are in the language, etc. ...
On and on, much of the heavy numerical work in the physical sciences is done
with FORTRAN. As a language it has been modernized, parallelized, optimized,
modularized, etc. There is still a lot of F77 and earlier code around and in
use but that might fade now that g77 (the GNU Fortran 77) is no longer
maintained and old FORTRAN dragons (self) ride into the sunset.

MUCH OF R is written in FORTRAN. There is a such a large body of everyday
serious numerical crunching libraries...BLAS, LAPACK, etc. Of course if you get
the GSLIB set, there is an F77 coding version and an F90 version. 

Is FORTRAN a good general purpose language? Well that depends on the nature of
the 'general' purposes of the user :o) [OK my answer is no, but I have some
acquaintances where it used for everything large and small outside office apps.
Old school has been just fine, thank you.] For scientists dealing with complex
numerical problems in many disciplines I would venture it is still an essential
skill. The work where it is used is definitely not mainstream but is not about
to fold. (Not disimiliar to another 'old' language--LISP.) Tools of the trade
and all of that.... Such debate is another thread!

I apologize to everyone for the three emails...needed to complete this ramble.
Best wishes for the New Year.

Good luck with the project. 

Michael Grant


--- Michael Grant <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> SORRY PREVIOUS  MATERIAL SENT BEFORE COMPLETED!!! Just a couple of comments. 
> 
> 1.) R has been my main programming language for a number of years now. I am
> involved with a mix of enivronmental tasks--statsitcs, geostatsitcs, site
> characterization, fate and transport, risk assessment. It is powerful,
> accessible and one can be productive very quickly. So much high-level
> functionality is already built into it, it is multi-platform and has
> production
> quality graphics. Oh yes, database connectivity is supurb.
> 
> I have not grown comfortable the the geostats packages--certainly I have used
> parts of several of them. Sometime back noticed different variograms from one
> of the packages--sorry can't remember--and GEOEAS, It was nothing major, just
> one used the mid-point distance in the lags and the other used the average
> lag
> difference. Looking--quickly I admit--at the R-package's documentation it was
> clear that no discussion was there. That left me wondering how many other
> 'little decisions' are wired into the package(s). Still I use them, but with
> caution. A standard R list response applies -- look at the code ;o)
> 
> 
> The point here is that 
> --- Isobel Clark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> > Have you looked at R? It is free and designed for statistical analysis.
> >    
> >   Isobel
> > 
> > Adrián Martínez Vargas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >     Hello List   
> >      
> >   I’m interesting to open a project for build a geostatistical open source
> > software, with this criteria:  
> >   a)      extreme simple code  
> >   b)      Math is most important, graphic is secondary.  
> >   c)      Modular, as GSLIB, to make easy changes.  
> >   d)      Star with basic (variograms and kriging)  
> >   e)      End with advanced (plurigaussian, DK, or yours on methods)   
> >   f)        This item is for your advice…  
> >      
> >   The question is what do you prefer for programming   
> >      
> >   Matlab: is really easy, but it is not free… (I hope the code is free, the
> > you can compile executable or c code in an institution with matlab
> license…) 
> > 
> >      
> >   C, C++, know for a lot of peoples, bunt not as simple as programmers
> says.
> > The advantage is that exist a lot of free compilers and toolkits as QT,
> > glade, Visual studio C++, etc. there is also a lot of preprogramming
> > algorithms…  
> >      
> >   Python, it is really easy, and simple, it is possible to do also GUI with
> > QT python, is platform free and interpreted language (you roon directly de
> > source code, the system: windows, linux, etc. doesn’t matter )   
> >      
> >   Other really easy programming languages can be used, as visual basic, but
> > it is only for windows…  
> >      
> >   Fortran is obsolete.  
> >      
> >   TCL or Visual TCL, It is interpreted language as Python, but too slow, it
> > is really useful to build GUIs.  
> >      
> >   My Idea is make a GUI with visual TCL and make separate executables, as
> in
> > GSLIB,  with matlab (compiled), or use C++ for math…  
> >      
> >   Finally, I was trying to play with SGEMS, but it is not as simple as it
> > look…   
> >      
> >   What is your advice?  
> >     
> > Dr. Adrian Martínez Vargas 
> > Revista Minería y Geología (Editor Principal) 
> > ISMM, Las Coloradas, s/n 
> > Moa, Holguín, 
> > Cuba 
> > CP. 83329 
> > http://www.ismm.edu.cu/revistamg/index.htm
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> 
>      
>
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