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Date:	Mon, 31 Mar 2003 14:26:29 PST8
From:	"Gregory W. Smith" <gsmith@well.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-programming@scoug.com
To:	< "scoug-programming@scoug.com" > scoug-programming@scoug.com >
Subject:	SCOUG-Programming: Message One

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

On Mon, 17 Mar 2003 06:54:54 PST8, Lynn H. Maxson wrote:

>Where in today's marketplace does the user assume the role
>of his own vendor of SDP tools? In open source. This
>completes the ownership circle in enterprises today which rely
>on proprietary vendor tools they license but do not own to
>develop application source code which they do own.
>
>Open source gives them and us unrestricted ownership of SDP
>tools which we can modify or distribute in any manner we
>choose. If we choose to make the modifications freely
>available, a basic tenet of open source and the GPL license,
>then we can distribute them equally freely among ourselves.
>
>So open source allows us to transform a win-lose situation
>with closed (proprietary) source into a win-win one.
>However, it will only do so if we carry the intent of AD/Cycle
>to its completion: define a seamless set of SDP activities and
>transform them into a seamless set of tools.

Well, at least we have moved the analogy to something somewhat
more accurate. I have a good collection of Victronix, ToolLogic,
Leatherman, etc.... Nothing like having a bottle opener, can
opener, corkscrew, AND a knife all in one package. A Swiss Army
Knife is great for a picnic, but a REAL fillet knife is much
better for cleaning fish.

As for the "one tool" analogy, I have my doubts. What I have
seen in the computer world of this philosophy is a monstrosity
that I avoid at all costs: Perl.

For comparison, I did the depth-first peg solitaire program in
Python. I set an erarlier version of the program to work a few
weeks ago; I am still waiting for the first solution. My recent
revisons added a few extra initial configurations. The cross
layout took 0.2 seconds to solve on my 1.3 GHz Celeron. The
plus layout took 0.6 seconds and the fireplace layout took 12.5
seconds to run. I let the pyramid, arrow, and double arrow
layouts run for about three hours each. The solution files for
these runs ran to several megabytes each before I killed them.

I let the diamond layout run for twelve hours without getting
any solution. Anyone with a faster machine can have a shot at
the diamond and the solitaire layouts. The program and the first
three solutions are attached.

-- Greg Smith

===============================================================
Gregory W. Smith (WD9GAY) gsmith@well.com
finger gsmith@well.com for PGP public key

File attachment: Peggy.py

File attachment: Cross-Solution.txt

File attachment: Plus-Solution.txt

File attachment: Fireplace-Solution.txt

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