Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ucla-cs!zen!ucbvax!decvax!dartvax!eleazar!earleh
From: earleh@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU (Earle R. Horton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: MacII basic question:  What tools for serious scientific stuff?
Keywords: This guy needs to know SOON.
Message-ID: <7880@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 7 Jan 88 00:35:27 GMT
Organization: disorganized
Lines: 80

HELP!

I have been awarded use of a MacII for six months for the purpose of
developing a graphical simulation of stellar electromagnetic fields and
radiation patterns.  I hope to put together a program which will allow
scientists to input physical parameters (mass, rate of rotation,
magnetic field strength, etc.) into one window, and view changes in the
star's behavior in another window.  I would like some advice from MacII
users on "What is the best choice of programming tools to use?"

Here is what comes with the MacII:

	Color Monitor (with 8 bit video card)
	80 MB Internal hard disk
	Ethertalk Card
	A/UX and Macintosh Operating System
	MPW and MacApp
	HyperCard
	(Sorry, no more details available yet.)

Here is a digest of my resume:

	Learned to program on a Cyber with strict ANSI Fortran 77.
	Extensive programming experience on the Mac in C (LightSpeed).
	Extensive programming experience with 4.3 BSD.
	No MacII experience (I think I saw a prototype once).
	Wrote a DA in TML Pascal once, then scrapped the code and rewrote
	 everything using MDS.
	Have a vague idea of what MacApp is.
	Enough Assembler to write glue if I need it.

I am pretty confident I could do the project in Lightspeed C according
to the specifications, and using only the Macintosh native OS, assuming
that LightSpeed works well on the MacII, doesn't crash too often, and
produces workable code (68881 support?)  I could also spring for a
Fortran compiler, if there is a good one that supports the 68881 and the
ToolBox.  I KNOW I could do a bang-up job in Fortran.  I am not at all
well informed about the other options.  I know what the physics at the
base of the problem are, and have some idea of what the computing
capabilities of the MacII, but I simply have no idea how well the tools
offered work.

Can anybody answer these questions?

	A/UX:	Do I get "CC" and "F77"?  If so, how good?
		Is this a stable OS? (Arrives in two weeks.)
		How good is ToolBox support?
	MacApp: Is it suited to a project of this type (heavy numerical
		analysis)?
	HyperCard: Would this be of any use?
	MPW:	What will this do for me?
		I know csh, is it as good?  (Csh is better than popup
		menus, as far as I am concerned!)
		How well do the "tools" it comes with work?  (As well as
		the utilities that come with 4.3 BSD?)
	LightSpeed C: Is this good on a MacII?
	Fortran: Is there a zippy Fortran that works on the MacII?

	With my experience, is there something else I could buy that would
	 work better than any of the above? ($500, tops, unless it is 
	 REALLY good, and EVERYBODY says to get it.)

The machine and software are being shipped January 15, and the project
is supposed to be COMPLETED July 31.  I would love to use A/UX, but I
plan to make heavy use of Mac things (windows, menus, controls) and I do
not see myself as a beta-tester.  I want to start off with a compiler
that is at least as solid as LightSpeed C is on a Mac Plus, or as "CC"
and "F77" are with UNIX.  (You can make fun of F77 if you like, and you
can deride weird UNIX shell syntax, but these things work on the
machines I have used, and they work well.)  Perhaps I can get enough
advice from net-land to minimize the surprises after I open the box...

What would you do?

(Btw, I don't mean to imply that non-scientific stuff is not "serious",
but each field does have its unique requirements...)
-- 
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*Earle R. Horton, H.B. 8000, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755   *
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