Class News
Here I will try and post class related, dated messages and/or clarifications
for your information. I suggest you check it periodically (weekly or more)
just in case.
- 08/23/11: Hello! Please make sure you have access to the class
website password protected links e.g. Lecture Notes, etc. If not, email me
your Purdue Career account username and I can give you access. Also, after
today's lecture you might want to make sure you can login to one of the Purdue
ME Linux machines. If you can't, let me know so I can help you either get
your computer environment setup or get your account set up if it is not already.
You will have a couple weeks to work on this so don't panic.
Two tips to success in this class: (1) Don't wait till the last minute to start
your assignments, in fact, start on time; (2) If you get stuck, don't wait till
the last minute to get help, ask for help right away! One more tip, smile all
the time!
Here is a tip from one your classmates regarding setting up a virtual machine (VM)
on your Windows (or Mac I assume) computer which allows you to run a virtual
Linux machine without actually installing Linux itself or via dual-boot.
Please keep in mind when you mess with your own personal computer to try and
set up a computing environment for this class you do so at your own risk:)
Here you go:
I have VMWare Workstation, which is a paid version, but they make VMWare Player,
which is free and should work just as well. That can be downloaded from here
(http://www.vmware.com/products/player/overview.html). I downloaded Ubuntu
11.04 from this link (http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download). That
downloads the .iso file with the OS on it. When you start VMWare, you can
select "Create a New VM". You can tell it to install from the Ubuntu .iso
file that you just downloaded. I had VMWare already installed, but the
whole process, excluding downloads took less than 20 minutes.
- 08/29/11: I updated the syllabus on the website with the TA
contact information and office hours as well as the ME computer room number.
I have posted lecture notes which we will probably first get to on Thursday.
To summarize our Fortran90 experience here is a very nice
Fortran90 reference card
for you. Enjoy!
- 08/31/11: Abhro Pal's office hours are changing to
Tuesday and Thursday between 10 and 11AM in ME 2028. Off (and on)
campus students can email either of the TA's anytime with questions.
- 09/02/11:
For those of your registered through ProEd they have posted a survey to provide
feedback on how the course is going etc. You can find it here:
ProEd Survey
Also, a few on campus students have inquired about the ability to watch the
streaming videos of the lectures etc. and what is my "policy" on this. If you have
to miss class for a valid reason e.g. attending a professional conference, illness,
etc. you can email me and if approved you will be able to make an appointment with
one of the TA's to meet them and be able to watch the video on your laptop computer.
- 09/08/11:
I posted a "new" code at the downloads link on the website that is a modification of the
prec.f90 code. This code shows a couple examples of how to (a) call a subroutine and
send down an argument list or (b) use global variables and avoid an argument list.
I also posted a program available online called gnufor2.f90 which contains subroutines
and a driver program to show how you can call gnuplot directly from your Fortran 90
code. You simply include a USE gnufor2 in your main program and then call your favorite
gnuplot routine e.g. plot, or surf etc.. Then when you compile your code you can
do gfortran gnufor2.f90 prog.f90 and you should be all set. Enjoy! You could use this
for HW2 if you want to have your code plot your function as part of its output. You
can also use Tecplot for this if you want to learn that.
Also, below is link to a very nice book on gnuplot (chapter 2 is available as free pdf
and may have all you need for using gnuplot. Of course, you really don't need a book
since there is alot of free documentation/tutorials available at http://www.gnuplot.info/
as I mentioned on day one of the class.
Gnuplot book if you want to purchase
- 09/09/11:
Some of you asked me for a template for preparing the write-up of your computer programming
activities on the homework. In general, A title, such as "Programming Root Finding Methods",
an abstract describing in a short paragraph what you are doing, how you did it, and what
you found, an introduction, in this example providing a short overview of numerical methods
for root finding, a numerical methods sections describing the details of the algorithms
under study, a results section where you present your results both in writing, graphically,
and with tables as appropriate, a discussion section where you describe what you found
by analyzing your results, and a conclusion section. Sample output can go in an appendix
along with your code. Remember you need to email your code to the TA's when you submit your
HW. All of this is described in the syllabus etc.. Use whatever word processor you like
e.g. Word, Pages, etc., but if you want to broadern your horizons trying using \LaTex (available
on Linux and downloadable for Windows/Mac as per info. already on the website) and the
template files available here
and download template_basic.tex and figure_magnet.eps and give it a try.
I also put a template I created called report.tex on the Downloads section of
our website.
- 09/14/11:
I hope you have been checking the website for new items (especially here
on class news). I just added a relatively new review article (on the
downloads page) on Gauss
Elimination by Prof. Nick Highham. He is one of my numerical methods heroes.
It is an excellent article and should resonate with a large part of what
we are talking about in class vis a vis direct methods for linear systems.
Enjoy! Please be sure to (a) continue working on your homework while at the
same time (b) keep up with lecture/textbook current topics.
- 09/19/11:
Regarding HW2 submission:
1. Please name the code and pdf as hw2_purdueusername.f90/
hw2_purdueusername.pdf. This will help us keep track of the
homework without mixing them up.
2. On campus students should email the code to both TA`s.
Off campus students should email both code + report and
the textbook problems to both TA`s.
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