ANNOUNCE: Yorick interpreter with interactive graphics

Announcing the release of Yorick version 1.0, now available for UNIX
and MacIntosh platforms from several Internet archive sites.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


Yorick Version 1.0


What is Yorick?
---------------


Yorick is an interpreted language like Basic or Lisp, but far faster
for many scientific applications. It features:


          * A C-like language, but without declarative statements. Operations
              between arrays require no explicit loops, which accounts for
              Yorick's high speed. Scientific computing and numerical analysis
              are the goals of most Yorick sessions.


          * An X window system interactive graphics package. Concentrates on
              x-y plots and filling and contouring quadrilateral meshes. Also
              handles cell arrays. Hardcopy to binary CGM or PostScript files.
              Includes a separate CGM browser. The MacIntosh version draws
              graphics to an ordinary Mac window and can write PICT files.


          * Yorick's binary file package can read or write floating point
              formats foreign to the machine where Yorick is running. Thus,
              you can share binary files freely on heterogeneous networks.


          * A library of functions written in the Yorick language. Includes
              Bessel, gamma, and related functions, multiple key sorting,
              spline, rational function, and least squares fitting, and routines
              to read and write netCDF files.


          * Provisions for embedding compiled subroutines and functions within
              a Yorick interpreter. Includes a sample package which solves
              matrices and performs FFTs.


Because Yorick can read either text or binary files, it can be used
"out of the box" as a pre- and post-processor for most existing
physics simulation programs:


    As a pre-processor, you can write a Yorick program that produces
    complicated input files for a simulation. These might be based on
    output from other programs, or might require evaluation of complicated
    functions or involve a lot of repetition.


    As a post-processor, Yorick allows you to compare the results of
    several simulations or to analyze results of a single simulation in
    ways you did not forsee when you ran it.


Also, developing a simulation code is considerably easier when you
have a tool like Yorick: If you plan to use Yorick to generate input
files, you don't need to fuss about making your input "user friendly";
if you plan to post-process with Yorick, your simulation code doesn't
need any graphics, and its output can be generally less flexible.


Finally, you can build special versions of Yorick to act as drivers
for your compiled routines. An interpreted Yorick program can
generate input for your routine and plot its output. A large modular
simulation code could be built by loading several such routines and
writing the main control loop as interpreted code.




Requirements
------------


You need an ANSI C compiler in order to build Yorick "as is".


The Yorick configure script knows about the following platforms:


          Sun SPARC (SunOS or Solaris)
          HP PA-RISC (HPUX)
          SGI (IRIX)
          Cray Y/MP (UNICOS)
          IBM RS6000 (AIX)
          DEC alpha (OSF)
          Intel 80486 (Linux)


Other flavors of UNIX should present few problems.


A 99% complete port to the MacIntosh architecture exists. This is
especially useful for sharing binary data between UNIX and Mac platforms;
not only can Yorick read data files, but analysis algorithms written in
the Yorick language can be used on either platform. The MacIntosh Yorick
is distributed as executable binaries in self-extracting archives.


Availability
------------


Yorick is available at the following archive sites:


          wuarchive.wustl.edu: /languages/yorick/yorick-1.0.tar.gz
          sunsite.unc.edu: /pub/languages/yorick/yorick-1.0.tar.gz
          sunsite.unc.edu: /pub/Linux/apps/math/matrix/yorick-1.0.tar.gz
          netlib.att.com: /netlib/env/yorick-1.0.tar.gz
          netlib2.cs.utk.edu: /env/yorick-1.0.tar.gz


The MacIntosh version of Yorick will soon become available at:


          sumex-aim.stanford.edu: /info-mac/dev/yorick-*


and its many mirrors (e.g.- ftp.uu.net:/archive/systems/mac/info-mac).
It is available now at ftp-icf (below) and wuarchive.


My home machine is not really equipped to be an archive, but if any
version of Yorick is there, it will be the current one. Please use the
mirror of /pub/Yorick on my machine at wuarchive.wustl.edu: in the
/languages/yorick directory, if possible:


          ftp-icf.llnl.gov:/pub/Yorick/yorick-1.0.tar.gz
          ftp-icf.llnl.gov:/pub/Yorick/macintosh/yorick-*
          (only off hours; use wuarchive mirror if possible)


I will also keep a list of known bugs and installation problems on ftp-icf:


          ftp-icf.llnl.gov:/pub/Yorick/yorick-README




Who to contact
--------------


If you write an interesting, self-documenting Yorick include file,
please tell me about it at munro@icf.llnl.gov. I will try to collect
useful programs to be part of the next distribution.


If you repair a bug or have constructive comments, send email to:


          munro@icf.llnl.gov <David H. Munro>


The MacIntosh port was done by Steven H. Langer, shl@icf.llnl.gov.
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