Starship Asterisk*

Would adding a new forum involving astronomy and astrophysics computer codes be a welcome addition to our Asterisk? Years ago I started the "Astrophysics Source Code Library" at ascl.net. Although it seemed like a good idea at the time, it has not been getting much attention of late and I was thinking of merging it into the Asterisk as a regular forum. On the positive side, I see computer programs as a very important part of astronomy/astrophysics and so a more prominent collection of the best of the free codes might be good thing for astronomy.

But would it be good for the Asterisk? On the negative side, most of the codes are written and used by professional astronomers, very few of which currently post to the Asterisk. I therefore expect this forum to get relatively little action compared to other forums. Also, such a forum might make the Asterisk a bit more intimidating to non-professionals as typically only source code writers or users would have something to say in this forum.

Last, were such a forum thought OK, I would ask for a (non-professional) volunteer to copy much of ascl.net over to the new forum, and also to maintain this forum by occasionally trolling for new source codes.

- RJN

Hey RJN, you could add it into the Asterisk forum list I think there are a lot of tech minded people (of which I am not one) who would love the idea of putting down their own computer codes and those who would love to amend computer codes to make them better.

Maybe you could put it down as "The Engine Room"


I hope you do, because the idea of contributing to the forum lists name is something that would make me quite proud.


Paul.

There's a page here at the wikiversity which lists many astro-programs under various categories.

Would a forum be appropriate for this sort of thing if you don't expect much discussion? Is there no place on the web where calculating astronomers go to discuss these things? If not, then I guess it would be a good thing to start one here.

Rob

Well there is no doubt that it would make the forum better, more interesting and would possibly attract more visitors and create members, so I do not see why the actions of another website should affect the actions of this one, especially if it would make the forum better.


Paul.