Random algorithm

[Jacques Hausser]

Le 12 nov. 2008 à 23:41, Richard Gaskin a écrit  (excerpts):

> for pure science, probably not.  But for getting work done in Rev,  
> maybe.

One not-so-marginal problem is the criticism of pernickery* referees  
when you (try to) publish your results. They DO want pure science, and  
usually ask how you did obtain your random numbers !

> What is the application in question?


The application I'm developping presently is a general-purpose analyse  
program of ecological data mostly designed for students training (but  
it should be useful for "serious" work too). I don't want a good RNG  
for THIS application only, it's to be used as a library for several  
applications, mostly simulations in population biology and population  
genetics, but also research of solutions of systems of equations by  
processes like simulated annealing. And I suppose you will be glad to  
hear that I find Revolution excellent to built such simulations, and  
decently fast even without using externals. One quality of Revolution  
is the ease to produce (among other things) a visual and animated view  
of the progress of the simulation (progressive spreading and  
diversification of genes across a geographic area with variable  
climatic conditions, for instance). As a teacher, I like that, among  
plenty of other qualities of Rev. As a researcher, I like also the  
possibility to easy built quick-and-dirty, but efficient, programs to  
solve problems when you meet them. And as an emeritus (hum,hum)  
professor, I want to use some of the time suddently available to  
replace my quick-and-dirty programs by well presented and well  
structured applications. Made with Revolution, of course !

Jacques

* I went to the dictionary for this one ;o)

******************************************
Prof. Jacques Hausser
Department of Ecology and Evolution
Biophore / Sorge
University of Lausanne
CH 1015 Lausanne
please use my private address:
6 route de Burtigny
CH-1269 Bassins
tel/fax: 	++ 41 22 366 19 40
mobile:	++ 41 79 757 05 24
E-Mail:	jacques.hausser at unil.ch
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