This is the November, 2001 newsletter of the ITC Research Computing Support Group. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the information presented here please contact the ITC Research Computing Support Group via e-mail to res-consult@virginia.edu, or at the Research Computing Support Center, 244 Wilson Hall, 243-8800. The Research Computing Support Center is open 9AM-5PM, Monday through Friday.
The Academic Computing Health Sciences (ACHS) News can be found at: http://www.med.virginia.edu/achs/news/
Join the members of the ITC Research Computing Support Group for the final event of our Fall 2001 Brown Bag Series. Bring your lunch, we'll supply the drinks, snacks and cookies.
Notes from earlier Research Computing Support Center talks are available online at: http://www.itc.virginia.edu/research/talks/home.html which is also linked from our Researchers Services page: http://www.itc.virginia.edu/researchers/services.html
All faculty, staff and students affiliated with the University of Virginia
can obtain the Academic Site Edition of S-Plus 6.0 Release 2 software for installation
off-grounds. For off-grounds use, users are provided with a stand alone license
version of S-Plus 6.0. Our license with Insightful Corporation for S-Plus provides
a very limited number of stand alone, off-grounds licenses for use by faculty
and staff, therefore we ask that only faculty and staff with a scholarly, ongoing
need for S-Plus at home obtain the stand alone license version instead of the
networked version available for on-grounds use. The site license provides for
an unlimited number of student stand alone, off-grounds licenses. Insightful
Corporation licenses S-Plus in this manner because students typically do not
have computers with a direct connection to the U.Va. network on-grounds and
as a way to encourage them to use S-Plus over other statistical software packages..
The standalone license version of S-Plus 6.0 Release 2 can be obtained from
the Research Computing Support Center. Detailed
installation instructions for the stand alone Windows version of S-Plus 6
are available online at:
http://www.itc.virginia.edu/research/splus6-install.htm
The Academic Site Edition of S-Plus 6.0 for Windows is a full copy of S-Plus
6.0 Professional Edition. It is intended for customers at university and college
campuses that have academic site licenses with Insightful Corporation. This
software expires one year after the date of initial installation.
This release of S-Plus 6.0 for Windows is a full 32-bit Windows application
with an Office 97/2000-compatible graphical user interface. Before you get started,
you should notice that the working data in this version of S-Plus is stored
in a "..Data" directory, rather than the "_Data" directory
used in earlier versions. Similarly, the audit file is now named ".Audit"
instead of "_Audit", and the preferences directory is now named ".Prefs"
instead of "_Prefs".
S-Plus 6.0 for Windows incorporates the S Version 4 engine used in S-Plus 5
and later for UNIX This engine includes specific features to add or extend S-Plus
capabilities in the following areas:
For more information on what's new in S-Plus 6.0 visit the Web page:
http://www.itc.virginia.edu/research/splus/60ReleaseNotes.htm
For an overview of S-Plus at U.Va. visit our Web page:
http://www.itc.virginia.edu/research/splushelp.html
The compilers for Sun workstations and servers will be switched over from
Sun Workshop 5.0 to Sun Forte Developer 6.1 on Thursday, November 15. This includes
a suite of products that provides an integrated programming environment with
a full set of graphical tools to create and maintain C, C++, and FORTRAN applications,
simplifying the tasks most often performed: compiling, building, browsing, editing,
debugging, and tuning.
The compilers can be found in the directory "/opt/SUNWspro/bin", and
to check the version of a compiler on a Sun machine use:
f77 -V
The best general optimization flag to use with the Sun compilers is "-fast",
e.g.,
f77 -fast -o test.x test.f
The manpages for the compilers can be found in /opt/SUNWspro/man. More information
on Sun compilers can be found on the following Web page.
http://www.sun.com/forte/
The Sun Workshop 5.0 compilers will continue to be available using the path
/opt/SUNWspro5.0/bin.
On Thursday, November 15, ITC will upgrade the data analysis/visualization software IDL to version 5.5 on the server jeeves.itc for the UNIX platforms it supports (RS/6000, Sun, SGI, and Linux). IDL 5.5 for the Windows (95/98/NT/2000) and Macintosh platforms will be available on CDROM (for on grounds use) from the Research Computing Support Center in Wilson Hall room 244. A detailed description of this upgrade can be found at the URL: http://www.rsinc.com/idl/whatsnew.cfm
Further information on how to access IDL 5.5 from either a UNIX workstation
or a PC, as well as help using IDL, can be found on the Research Computing Services
Web page at:
http://www.itc.virginia.edu/research/idl.html
Users who have IDL 5.4 installed locally on their computer will have to download the new license.dat file from the above Web page if they choose to maintain the older version. Version 5.4 will still be available from jeeves.itc by using the command "idl.old" until the end of December in case your use of 5.5 uncovers incompatibilities.
Specific questions about the upgrade as well general questions concerning as
the use of IDL should be directed to res-consult@virginia.edu.
The MINITAB 13.31 maintenance update for Windows is now available and can be downloaded FREE at http://www.minitab.com/support/maintenance/
This patch has been applied to Windows machines in ITC maintained public labs
and classrooms on-grounds.
MINITAB 13.31 fixes problems reported in previous releases, most of which are
related to incorrect output, graphics pasting, and the opening or closing of
files or projects. The patch also corrects minor isolated operational failures
and includes some cosmetic improvements.
YOU HAVE THE POWER...To Shape The Future Of SAS! A lot of companies say they
listen to their customers, but at SAS it's more than a slogan.
For more than 25 years, SAS software users have had the opportunity to vote
in the SASware Ballot(r) Survey and tell them what features they would like
to see added to SAS's software. Your vote helps SAS plan the direction of future
software development, and assists them in setting goals and priorities. More
than 85 percent of the top items on the SASware Ballot have been implemented
by their Research and Development Division.
To cast your vote in the 2002 SASware Ballot Survey, just go to the SASware
Ballot site at http://www.sas.com/sasware/
. Voting ends on January 4, 2002. Remember...you have the power!