Important Research Project

Important Research Project (Related to computer programming)

Posted by E.D.G. on August 30, 2007 edgrsprj@ix.netcom.com

This report is being posted to a number of Internet Newsgroups to see if
there are any experienced computer programmers who would like to provide
some assistance with an effort to develop a Perl language computer program.

Interested parties can try contacting me by e-mail or by posting a
response note to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup. They would need to
download a recent (free) MSI copy of Perl from the ActiveState Web site and
get it running on a Windows XP or Vista system.

http://www.activestate.com

I am presently using Perl 5.8.8 but plan to upgrade to the latest
version as soon as possible. People can use Windows 98 if that is the only
operating system available. Perl also runs on other operating systems. But
at this time I specifically need help with the Windows version.

The goal is to have a single Perl program (or modules) perform functions
that have been done by a sizeable collection of other language programs in
the past.

Help is presently needed with learning how to get Perl to generate
charts and also produce standalone .exe copies of itself. The plan is to
then make those .exe copies available to other scientific researchers around
the world for free use along with free use updates when they become
available. If other researchers wish to get Perl running on their own
computers then they will probably also be given the source code for the
original program for free use so that they can do their own development
work.

Perl was originally chosen because it is quite versatile, is a free
download, and is supported both by ActiveState and quite a few independent
programmers. So other researchers could get their own versions running
without having to worry about viruses or cost.

So far the work is fairly advanced. The effort has been underway for at
least a decade. The core data generation program was formally copyrighted
several years ago. My present version of Perl will send data to Windows as
if it were being manually typed into the keyboard (important for controlling
other programs). And it can directed to respond to most keystrokes even
when another program is the active one. Unfortunately, Windows also
presently responds to those keystrokes. And that complicates things a bit.

Not being a professional computer programmer I have been finding it
difficult to get new features such as a chart generating ability merged with
and running with Perl. And the entire research project is now being slowed
as a result. One of my colleagues has done an extensive amount of work with
Basic. And I even offered to pay him to help with the Perl development
effort. But after he downloaded a copy of Perl and examined it he decided
that this would involve too much effort. I have to agree with him.

Once it is possible to create charts and .exe versions the plan is for
researchers around the world to develop Perl modules for generating a
variety of data related to sun, moon, planet, ocean tide crest and trough,
and Solid Earth Tide locations. Most of those data can already be generated
with other programs. Some of the data are not yet available anywhere as far
as I am aware. If the effort is unusually successful the Perl program (or
modules) might eventually be converted to CGI programs that will run at one
or more Internet Web sites.

Re: Important Research Project

"E.D.G." wrote:
>
> This report is being posted to a number of Internet Newsgroups to
> see if there are any experienced computer programmers who would
> like to provide some assistance with an effort to develop a Perl
> language computer program.

Where is Perl described in the C standard? This seems rather OT.

--
Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net)
Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Re: Important Research Project

On Aug 30, 2:54 pm, Paul McGuire wrote:
> On Aug 30, 8:12 am, "E.D.G." wrote:
>
> > Important Research Project (Related to computer programming)
>
> > Posted by E.D.G. on August 30, 2007 edgrs...@ix.netcom.com
>
> > This report is being posted to a number of Internet Newsgroups
>
> Always the hallmark of a considerate poster.
>
> > to see if
> > there are any experienced computer programmers who would like to provide
> > some assistance with an effort to develop a Perl language computer program.
>
> > Interested parties can try contacting me by e-mail or by posting a
> > response note to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup. They would need to
> > download a recent (free) MSI copy of Perl from the ActiveState Web site and
> > get it running on a Windows XP or Vista system.
>
> >http://www.activestate.com
>
> This is a little backwards, one usually presents their research topic
> *first* and their contact info *last*. The reason? SO PEOPLE KNOW
> WHAT THE @#$(&#!@ YOU ARE WORKING ON! Ok, I'll bite, keep reading...
>
> > I am presently using Perl 5.8.8
>
> Whoop-de-doo for you.
>
> > but plan to upgrade to the latest
> > version as soon as possible. People can use Windows 98 if that is the only
> > operating system available. Perl also runs on other operating systems. But
> > at this time I specifically need help with the Windows version.
>
> I suspect Perl is largely the same Perl on all those platforms. Win
> 98? Is this a zombie spam from the turn of the century?
>
> > The goal is to have a single Perl program (or modules) perform functions
> > that have been done by a sizeable collection of other language programs in
> > the past.
>
> Doing what!? Grrr..., keep reading, there's gotta be a punch line...
>
> > Help is presently needed with learning how to get Perl to generate
> > charts and also produce standalone .exe copies of itself. The plan is to
> > then make those .exe copies available to other scientific researchers around
> > the world for free use along with free use updates when they become
> > available. If other researchers wish to get Perl running on their own
> > computers then they will probably also be given the source code for the
> > original program for free use so that they can do their own development
> > work.
>
> Ohmigod, is Google broken? Or has Perl gone this long and this far
> without support for creating charts and graphs? Sounds like about 10
> minutes of research.
>
> > Perl was originally chosen because it is quite versatile, is a free
> > download, and is supported both by ActiveState and quite a few independent
> > programmers. So other researchers could get their own versions running
> > without having to worry about viruses or cost.
>
> (Why is this posted on all these non-Perl newsgroups, then? I've
> *seen* Perl already, and never want to again!)
>
> > So far the work is fairly advanced. The effort has been underway for at
> > least a decade.
>
> ... and we are just getting around to plotting some data.
>
> > The core data generation program was formally copyrighted
> > several years ago.
>
> Red flag #37 - "formally copyrighted", wooo-ooooh
>
> > My present version of Perl will send data to Windows as
> > if it were being manually typed into the keyboard (important for controlling
> > other programs). And it can directed to respond to most keystrokes even
> > when another program is the active one. Unfortunately, Windows also
> > presently responds to those keystrokes. And that complicates things a bit.
>
> ... and has for the past decade, and I still haven't figured it out.
>
> > Not being a professional computer programmer I have been finding it
> > difficult to get new features such as a chart generating ability merged with
> > and running with Perl. And the entire research project is now being slowed
> > as a result. One of my colleagues has done an extensive amount of work with
> > Basic. And I even offered to pay him to help with the Perl development
> > effort. But after he downloaded a copy of Perl and examined it he decided
> > that this would involve too much effort. I have to agree with him.
>
> Maybe that up-front language choice could stand a review...
>
> > Once it is possible to create charts and .exe versions the plan is for
> > researchers around the world to develop Perl modules for generating a
> > variety of data related to sun, moon, planet, ocean tide crest and trough,
> > and Solid Earth Tide locations. Most of those data can already be generated
> > with other programs. Some of the data are not yet available anywhere as far
> > as I am aware. If the effort is unusually successful the Perl program (or
> > modules) might eventually be converted to CGI programs that will run at one
> > or more Internet Web sites.
>
> AHHH! The "research", I almost forgot! Why is it left to the end of
> the message? And do we still know what the @#(*&$ this "variety of
> data" is for? I'm going to take a wild guess here - earthquake
> prediction? perpetual motion? picking guaranteed-to-win lottery
> numbers?
>
> After a pitch like that, who could not be tempted at the prospect of
> "generating a variety of data related to sun, moon, etc. etc."? Sign
> me up - NOT!
>
> GTFA,
> -- Paul

Thanks for the amusing reply Paul, i think you summed up a few
people's feelings quite fairly, but maybe a little more tact next
time? :-)

I'm going to begin my answer with the age old taboo of 'use a
different language', but since you cross-posted to comp.lang.python, i
feel justified.

so... use python.

you didnt exactly state what you wanted out of the project, so i'm
going to take a few guesses.

if you want astrophysical data, there is a python module which is
based on NASA JPL's ephemerides system, you can find it here:

http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~rfisher/Python/py_solar_system.html

and yes, i know there is Astro::SLA on CPAN.

if you want (basic) ocean/tidal modelling, you can use this (again...
python)

http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~cdieterich/swom/

or take a look at this PDF entitled 'python for assembling climate
modelling toolkits':

www.esmf.ucar.edu/presentations/pres_0305_jacobs.pdf

if you want to connect to online databases etc., using urllib2 (a
standard python module), you can fetch the data you need in only a few
lines of code (and i mean 2 or 3 lines for basic requests)

for plotting... use matplotlib, in most python programmers minds it
has reached legendary status.

if you're still thinking about plotting in Perl, look here

http://biptest.weizmann.ac.il/course/prog/graphics/success.h tml

it is the graphing page from the Weizmann institute in Israel which
does a course entitled 'Perl programming course for bioinformatics and
internet'; perhaps you could use some of your research money to send
someone on the course?

and if you want to put graphs online, you can use matplotlib server
side to generate a jpg for example, and then show that using html
(again, not very many lines of code).

without knowing exactly what needs accomplished, i ts difficult to
help, but it seems like most of your programming has already been
done, and just needs some code to glue different modules together
(trust me on this one - use python).

with python, matplotlib etc, everything is cross platform, if it is
web-based access you're after, it doesnt matter what platform you
develop on
you also talk about generating standalone .exe files - use py2exe w/
NSIS, or pyInstaller, both of which have tutorials online.

most importantly of all... re-read Paul's post above.
if you don't find it as amusing as the rest of us, here's the gist...

"Ohmigod, is Google broken?"

cheers
Dave

Re: Important Research Project

On Thu, 30 Aug 2007 09:45:50 -0400, CBFalconer
wrote:

>"E.D.G." wrote:
>>
>> This report is being posted to a number of Internet Newsgroups to
>> see if there are any experienced computer programmers who would
>> like to provide some assistance with an effort to develop a Perl
>> language computer program.
>
>Where is Perl described in the C standard? This seems rather OT.
>
A little OT for basic groups, too. Followups set.

Fortran group dropped, too.
--
ArarghMail708 at [drop the 'http://www.' from ->] http://www.arargh.com
BCET Basic Compiler Page: http://www.arargh.com/basic/index.html

To reply by email, remove the extra stuff from the reply address.

Re: Important Research Project

"dave_w" wrote in message
news:1188500139.411988.127100@q5g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

My main Perl program is presently about 3500 lines of code long and 160 KB
in size. So I am not too anxious to translate it into another language.

The problem I am having is largely with the mechanics of linking modules to
the Perl compiler etc. So I am looking for experts who can help with
cookbook instructions, start with step 1, step 2, step 3 etc.

With trying to find a chart program to use for example, there appear to be a
number of them. But from examining their instructions it looks like most of
them must also be linked to a third program called Gnuplot. And that
increases the complexity of getting something running.

Re: Important Research Project

"E.D.G." writes:
> "CBFalconer" wrote in message
> news:46D6CA0E.E66ED5C8@yahoo.com...
>> "E.D.G." wrote:
>
>> Where is Perl described in the C standard? This seems rather OT.
>
> It has been my experience that a person who is an expert with one computer
> language can usually do reasonably well when working with other languages.
> I am trying to find some people who can assist with getting a Perl program
> running. It would probably be easier for expert programmers in any language
> to help with this type of work compared with people such as myself who are
> not experts in any programming language.

CBFalconer's point is that this newsgroup (comp.lang.c, where he and I
are both reading this) is for discussion of the C programming
language. If you want to discuss something other than C, please find
another forum. Massive cross-posts like this are rarely appropriate.

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org
San Diego Supercomputer Center <*>
"We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this."
-- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"

Re: Important Research Project

"CBFalconer" wrote in message
news:46D6CA0E.E66ED5C8@yahoo.com...
> "E.D.G." wrote:


> Where is Perl described in the C standard? This seems rather OT.

It has been my experience that a person who is an expert with one computer
language can usually do reasonably well when working with other languages.
I am trying to find some people who can assist with getting a Perl program
running. It would probably be easier for expert programmers in any language
to help with this type of work compared with people such as myself who are
not experts in any programming language.

Re: Important Research Project

E.D.G. wrote:
> "dave_w" wrote in message
> news:1188500139.411988.127100@q5g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>
> My main Perl program is presently about 3500 lines of code long and 160 KB
> in size. So I am not too anxious to translate it into another language.
>
Apparently, having painted himself into a corner, our warrior wants a
few expert roofers to slither up and extricate him.

One of the best experiences that a programmer can have is that of
admitting that the lovingly nurtured brainchild is now terminally ill,
and showing enough fortitude to make a fresh start.

> The problem I am having is largely with the mechanics of linking modules to
> the Perl compiler etc. So I am looking for experts who can help with
> cookbook instructions, start with step 1, step 2, step 3 etc.

Experts saintly enough to salvage the possibly hopeless would some idea
of whether they are being asked to donate their time to work on a
fundamentally flawed design.

> With trying to find a chart program to use for example, there appear to be a
> number of them. But from examining their instructions it looks like most of
> them must also be linked to a third program called Gnuplot. And that
> increases the complexity of getting something running.
>

Since Perl, as also most other general purpose languages, has no
plotting primitives or intrinsics,
you will have to use _some_ graphics protocol -- there is no escaping that.

Gnuplot is by no means the only choice, but it is simple and provides
a wide selection of output devices. Your Perl program can write the plot
script to a
file, and call Gnuplot to run that script.

-- mecej4

Re: Important Research Project

E.D.G. wrote:
> "dave_w" wrote in message
> news:1188500139.411988.127100@q5g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>
> My main Perl program is presently about 3500 lines of code long and 160 KB
> in size. So I am not too anxious to translate it into another language.

That's not terribly big, you know.

Tell you what - do some legwork, find a relevant forum,
and post your ACTUAL requirment, instead of deciding
you already know the solution.

At the moment, you're being amazingly cryptic
about the problem you're trying to solve,
which has made some people (including me)
suspicious.

BugBear

Re: Important Research Project

On 2007-08-31 16:58:53 +0200, bugbear said:

> E.D.G. wrote:
>> "dave_w" wrote in message
>> news:1188500139.411988.127100@q5g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>>
>> My main Perl program is presently about 3500 lines of code long and 160 KB
>> in size. So I am not too anxious to translate it into another language.
>
> That's not terribly big, you know.
>
> Tell you what - do some legwork, find a relevant forum,
> and post your ACTUAL requirment, instead of deciding
> you already know the solution.
>
> At the moment, you're being amazingly cryptic
> about the problem you're trying to solve,
> which has made some people (including me)
> suspicious.

if "E.D.G." hasn't changed course, it is about
earthquake prediction. The method is alledgedly superior to whatever the state
of the art is these days. E.D.G makes regular reappearences (with
years in between).
Not worth much consideration.

Anno

Re: Important Research Project

Anno Siegel wrote:
> On 2007-08-31 16:58:53 +0200, bugbear
> said:
>
>> E.D.G. wrote:
>>> "dave_w" wrote in message
>>> news:1188500139.411988.127100@q5g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>>>
>>> My main Perl program is presently about 3500 lines of code long and
>>> 160 KB
>>> in size. So I am not too anxious to translate it into another language.
>>
>> That's not terribly big, you know.
>>
>> Tell you what - do some legwork, find a relevant forum,
>> and post your ACTUAL requirment, instead of deciding
>> you already know the solution.
>>
>> At the moment, you're being amazingly cryptic
>> about the problem you're trying to solve,
>> which has made some people (including me)
>> suspicious.
>
> if "E.D.G." hasn't changed course, it is about
> earthquake prediction. The method is alledgedly superior to whatever
> the state
> of the art is these days. E.D.G makes regular reappearences (with years
> in between).
> Not worth much consideration.
>
> Anno
>

If another of his projects is any indication, the mysterious E.D.G. is
so far ahead of most people that it would be futile to try to help:
http://www.knowledge-database.org/grp/sci_-psychology_-resea rch_l18.html

-- mecej4

Re: Important Research Project

"E.D.G." wrote in message
news:13ddcvm1bsu3s94@corp.supernews.com...
> Important Research Project (Related to computer programming)
>
> Posted by E.D.G. on August 30, 2007 edgrsprj@ix.netcom.com

This effort was not successful. And I am returning to trying to slowly
make progress with the computer program I have been developing.

I was hoping that there might be some people who had Perl chart and .exe
generation programs running on their own computer who could say, "Here is
how to merge them with Perl; here is how to use them; this is what they will
do, etc." Or, I was hoping that someone would respond and say that although
they are using Fortran or Basic etc. instead of Perl, they would be
interested in getting a copy of Perl running, determine how to get those
routines running, and then pass along the information. That would have
saved some time.

I work on these projects all the time. And it has been my experience
that the world of science does not have the type of organized structure at
this time to enable people to easily obtain that type of assistance. I have
established an organization which will hopefully help with that problem. It
might be going public at a Web site some time in the next year.

There were some questions regarding the computer program I discussed. This
is what it does:

It provides researchers with the a certain amount of ability to
determine if different events are somehow linked with one another. For
example, it can be used to compare two or more earthquakes, earthquakes and
electromagnetic pulses, tornados and electromagnetic pulses, and even
earthquakes and tornados etc.

It makes it possible for people to study events taking place deep in the
Earth by evaluating electromagnetic pulse data associated with those events.
Under the right conditions it can be used to forecast earthquakes. That is
the reason it was developed in the first place. You can see the type of
data it generates at the following Web page:

http://www.freewebz.com/eq-forecasting/Data.html

The plan is that when it has chart and standalone .exe program file
generation capabilities, program copies will be circulated within the
earthquake forecasting community in the People's Republic of China. It was
discussed in detail there at a scientific conference in December of 2003.
At that time it was too complex for widespread use.

After the chart feature becomes operational etc. I am also planning to
contact U.S. government officials to see if one or more lectures can be
organized regarding the basic technology and theories, and the program's
capabilities.

These are personal opinions.

Re: Important Research Project

On Sep 1, 7:13 am, "E.D.G." wrote:
> "E.D.G." wrote in message
>
> news:13ddcvm1bsu3s94@corp.supernews.com...
>
> > Important Research Project (Related to computer programming)
>
> > Posted by E.D.G. on August 30, 2007 edgrs...@ix.netcom.com
>
> This effort was not successful.

Shocking, isn't it ?

> And I am returning to trying to slowly
> make progress with the computer program I have been developing.

You might have more luck if you read http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#forum
before asking for help again.

Re: Important Research Project

In article ,
Keith Thompson wrote:
>"E.D.G." writes:
>> "CBFalconer" wrote in message
>> news:46D6CA0E.E66ED5C8@yahoo.com...
>>> "E.D.G." wrote:
>>
>>> Where is Perl described in the C standard? This seems rather OT.
>>
>> It has been my experience that a person who is an expert with one computer
>> language can usually do reasonably well when working with other languages.
>> I am trying to find some people who can assist with getting a Perl program
>> running. It would probably be easier for expert programmers in any language
>> to help with this type of work compared with people such as myself who are
>> not experts in any programming language.
>
>CBFalconer's point is that this newsgroup (comp.lang.c, where he and I
>are both reading this) is for discussion of the C programming
>language. If you want to discuss something other than C, please find
>another forum. Massive cross-posts like this are rarely appropriate.

IOW (for the OP and for the various readers in all these groups):

The rod up Keith's butt has a rod up its butt.

Note, incidentally, that this thread is yet the latest occurrence of a
phenomenon that I've observed many times in the past, and have
described here in clc on more than a few occasions. That is, somebody
starts a thread, posted to several different groups, in the hope of
getting help from at least one of them. The thread is pretty much
on-topic for most of the groups, primarily because the keepers of most
of the groups do not have rods up their butts.

However, and this is the big however, one of the groups listed just
happens to be clc, where rod-filled butts are the norm. The result is
that all of the responses come from clc (including, of course, this one)
and, as we see, it's all topicality BS, and nobody ever ends up
discussing the original subject. Really a pity, that.

Re: Important Research Project

CBFalconer wrote:

> "E.D.G." wrote:
>
>>This report is being posted to a number of Internet Newsgroups to
>>see if there are any experienced computer programmers who would
>>like to provide some assistance with an effort to develop a Perl
>>language computer program.
>
>
> Where is Perl described in the C standard? This seems rather OT.

This is OT in every single group it was posted in... Ed wants some
gullible programmer to write him up a program for analyzing this mass of
"data" he's been collecting, and use it to predict earthquakes. He's
been changing the requested language (Basic, Visual Basic, C, Fortran,
Perl, and god only knows what else) and putting up the same request
since *at least* the mid-1990s...

Jim

Re: Important Research Project

"E.D.G." wrote in message
news:13dhm7uec5sp855@corp.supernews.com...

I have the Gnuplot graphics program running now with Windows XP. And it
looks like it will work for my application.
http://www.gnuplot.info

Re: Important Research Project

I understand why you are cross posting this problem ... it is because
you are *not* a programmer. You see there is a law about programming
that most non-programmers do not understand - it is this:


***>> Thou shalt not force the language to the application. <<***


I can not tell you the amount of time I have wasted, and money I have
made, from clients that don't understand this and have tried to
disprove this law.

The question you should be asking yourself is what language should I
be using to accomplish all these goals. You always pick the language
for the application, not the other way around.

Unfortunately you have run up against an age old problem ... what
language can I use that will compile to a standalone program (for my
"scientist" that don't wish/can't install an interpreter on their
platform) but will have the flexibility of a simple interpreted
language?

There is no language that can do all that (well, there have been some
half assed attempts to make this problem go away, but obviously, if
they were any good, we would not be having this discussion! Java comes
to mind ) but there is a *system* that will. But it will require some
good programmers and a good deal of time - it's called a web server.
(or what the marketing types call a "web app")

It would be fairly easy to embed some kind of interpreter into a web
site that would allow uploading of code to be tested. Once tested, it
could be moved from a developmental area on the site, to a working
area. This way it would be cross platform, (no screwing around with
".exe" files) and anyone on any platform with a browser could use
it ... sort of a "wiki" system for your code ... Actually, you could
probaly use perl as your interpreter - there are some security issues
to deal with, but it's doable.

I'll send you my bill ...

now go forth and cross post no more

s



On Aug 30, 9:12 am, "E.D.G." wrote:
> Important Research Project (Related to computer programming)
>
> Posted by E.D.G. on August 30, 2007 edgrs...@ix.netcom.com
>
> This report is being posted to a number of Internet Newsgroups to see if
> there are any experienced computer programmers who would like to provide
> some assistance with an effort to develop a Perl language computer program.
>
> Interested parties can try contacting me by e-mail or by posting a
> response note to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup. They would need to
> download a recent (free) MSI copy of Perl from the ActiveState Web site and
> get it running on a Windows XP or Vista system.
>
> http://www.activestate.com
>
> I am presently using Perl 5.8.8 but plan to upgrade to the latest
> version as soon as possible. People can use Windows 98 if that is the only
> operating system available. Perl also runs on other operating systems. But
> at this time I specifically need help with the Windows version.
>
> The goal is to have a single Perl program (or modules) perform functions
> that have been done by a sizeable collection of other language programs in
> the past.
>
> Help is presently needed with learning how to get Perl to generate
> charts and also produce standalone .exe copies of itself. The plan is to
> then make those .exe copies available to other scientific researchers around
> the world for free use along with free use updates when they become
> available. If other researchers wish to get Perl running on their own
> computers then they will probably also be given the source code for the
> original program for free use so that they can do their own development
> work.
>
> Perl was originally chosen because it is quite versatile, is a free
> download, and is supported both by ActiveState and quite a few independent
> programmers. So other researchers could get their own versions running
> without having to worry about viruses or cost.
>
> So far the work is fairly advanced. The effort has been underway for at
> least a decade. The core data generation program was formally copyrighted
> several years ago. My present version of Perl will send data to Windows as
> if it were being manually typed into the keyboard (important for controlling
> other programs). And it can directed to respond to most keystrokes even
> when another program is the active one. Unfortunately, Windows also
> presently responds to those keystrokes. And that complicates things a bit.
>
> Not being a professional computer programmer I have been finding it
> difficult to get new features such as a chart generating ability merged with
> and running with Perl. And the entire research project is now being slowed
> as a result. One of my colleagues has done an extensive amount of work with
> Basic. And I even offered to pay him to help with the Perl development
> effort. But after he downloaded a copy of Perl and examined it he decided
> that this would involve too much effort. I have to agree with him.
>
> Once it is possible to create charts and .exe versions the plan is for
> researchers around the world to develop Perl modules for generating a
> variety of data related to sun, moon, planet, ocean tide crest and trough,
> and Solid Earth Tide locations. Most of those data can already be generated
> with other programs. Some of the data are not yet available anywhere as far
> as I am aware. If the effort is unusually successful the Perl program (or
> modules) might eventually be converted to CGI programs that will run at one
> or more Internet Web sites.