Science forum suggestion...

[And]

Hi,

There doesn't seem to be a section on the forums for discussion of using macs in science settings. I've put a post on the Distributed Computing forum suggesting expanding its remit (but there are not many responses at all! But then there aren't many visitors!). What would people think to expanding the remit of this special interest section to also include...

1) Benchmarking
2) Macs in mathematics and statistics (matlab, spss, for example)
3) Macs for visualisation of data (matlab, graphing apps)
4) Instrumentation (labview)
5) Anything else sciencey! Astronomy, engineerng, social science, chemistry, etc. etc.
6) and of course distributed computing projects.

There doesn't seem to be a natural home here on the macrumors forums for this type of thing currently. Given the amount of posts on Distributed Computing is low and usually distributed science applications are science related (SETI) I think it would make sense to expand this section rather than make a new one.

The new special interest group might benefit from a new name - Macs in Science, Scientific Macs, please suggest more!

Thoughts?

cheers, a.

 

[miles01110]

I don't think it would have enough meaningful posts to be of interest to even the science people. Also since most of the scientific programs you mention are cross-platform and have huge user bases, why would anyone come here for answers when they could just go to dedicated forums/websites for better information?

 

[And]

I don't think it would have enough meaningful posts to be of interest to even the science people. Also since most of the scientific programs you mention are cross-platform and have huge user bases, why would anyone come here for answers when they could just go to dedicated forums/websites for better information?

Mmm. If cross platform programs couldn't be discussed then there'd be no discussion of photoshop here either... In anycase, there are differences in how programs work between machines. I don't visualise this as being a huge discussion forum, that's why it's in the special interest section! But the argument that it would be quiet doesn't wash because my proposal is to add something on to a forum that is already getting a couple of posts a week! I think there are practical reasons why it could be useful - I would like to do X on my mac, what program can i use? etc.

Any more thoughts?

 

[GoCubsGo]

miles01110 didn't exactly say that cross platform applications cannot be discussed here. He said that there was really no point to discuss something with such a limited following. I'd venture to guess more people own (legally or not) Photoshop than they do something like matlab. I'd also venture to guess given the average age bracket around here appears to be 14-18, I am unsure what kind of conversation you'll have about something like matlab. I mean face it, most of the posts or responses rather will be all hypothetical postings because (back to the original comment) is there really a market for a discussion forum on matlab on a rumor site? I presume there's a market for a forum for matlab on a matlab site; just not to so much here.

Ultimately the administrators will decide but that's just my two cents.

 

[miles01110]

Mmm. If cross platform programs couldn't be discussed then there'd be no discussion of photoshop here either...

I never said they "couldn't" be discussed, I said they wouldn't be discussed.

In anycase, there are differences in how programs work between machines.

Not at the experienced user's level. There are slight differences in menu layout and other trivialities, but as far as actual code input goes, Mathematica/Maple/MATLAB are identical to any appreciable degree on OS X/Windows/Linux.

I don't visualise this as being a huge discussion forum, that's why it's in the special interest section! But the argument that it would be quiet doesn't wash because my proposal is to add something on to a forum that is already getting a couple of posts a week!

That kind of goes both ways. What advantage does anyone get having a separate forum with "a couple of [new] posts a week!" People post in areas where they are likely to get a response. That's usually not in forums with low activity.

I think there are practical reasons why it could be useful - I would like to do X on my mac, what program can i use? etc.

What's wrong with "Mac Applications" for this?