/ jansonius / scientific software

Philosophy behind these pages

Performing up-to-date science should be possible without being forced to buy a new computer and expensive software every third year. The solutions as offered here are a mixture of open source and freeware, mainly DOS, some Linux. Old hardware is sufficient to get everything up and running. However, it is not a museum: another important aim is to keep all this very useful software useful on modern hardware. This avoids waste of time during the mastering of yet another program. Most of the software is text-based. But, after all, those who cannot use a computer without a mouse, are they really ready to do science?

Homemade DOS programs

• NJSTAT: rather complete free statistical program for DOS
• NJPLOT 2.1: program for viewing histograms and scatter plots (supplementary to NJSTAT)
• CHIASM 2.6: program for analysing chiasmal misrouting from VEP (latest update: 17-5-2008)
• CYLINDER 3.1: program for calculations on astigmatism
• D15 1.0: program for analysing the Farnsworth D-15 (colour vision) test
• PSVIEW: PostScript/PDF viewer for DOS
• PS: text formatter with PostScript/PDF output
• NTPMAIL: utility that enables the use of Nettamer email with network/(A)DSL and/or SMTP server authentication

Other DOS software

Many of the programs as presented below are stripped down versions of the original software, dating back to the time I was using an XT with 20 Mb HD, and, later, a 386 with 120 Mb HD. The programs are, however, still fully functional and can be used on any modern DOS-compatible system. Many of these programs are DOS ports of Unix programs and they are still widely used in the academic world, especially in the field of mathematics and physics.

• ChiWriter: printing and PDF output from ChiWriter (a homemade solution)
• LaTeX for DOS
• GhostScript and Printing from DOS
• GnuPlot: scientific plotting program (including several homemade additions)
• DOS itself: all you need to run DOS (including bootable CD iso file)
• Free compilers for DOS: no science without programming
• Editor ZED: DOS editor (userfriendly due to homemade configuration file)

Linux

Today, an up-to-date browser and word-excel-powerpoint compatible software are inevitable to keep in touch with the scientific world. Here DOS failed to survive the battle. Fortunately, Linux offers this compatibility. The prefered distribution depends on your system:

• With 64-128 Mb RAM and 500 Mb HD space, BasicLinux version 2.1 running Opera version 8.54 or 9.27 and OpenOffice version 1.1.5 can be used. Look at my BasicLinux page for the software needed and installation instructions.
• For those having a computer with at least 384 Mb RAM and 6 Gb HD space, Ubuntu may be tried (slower than the Slackware derivative BL2 but more suitable for those who are familiar with Windows only).