[Radiance-general] RTCONTRIB

[Greg Ward]

Just wanted to add a word or two to Rob's excellent response...

> From: "Rob Guglielmetti" <rpg at rumblestrip.org>
> Date: May 27, 2005 7:17:07 AM PDT
>
> On Fri, May 27, 2005 6:21 am, Jelle Feringa / EZCT Architecture &  
> Design
> Research said:
>
>> If I have understood the RTCONTRIB description correctly, it has the
>> potential to change the way one deals with Radiancec quite  
>> drastically, it
>> sounds like an incredible valuable tool! How could I get my hands  
>> on it?
>
> Indeed it does.  As for obtaining the program, since Greg checked  
> it in
> yesterday, I'd guess that all you need to do is download the latest  
> HEAD
> release today and recompile. (?)

Yes, the latest version should be in today's HEAD dump.  This is the  
one of the main benefits I enjoy from Peter's CVS setup -- I get a  
lot of help finding bugs early on, rather than just after an official  
release (the most embarrassing time to find them).  The last version  
I checked in yesterday was:

     rtcontrib.c,v 1.5 2005/05/26 21:35:35 greg Exp

You can verify this ID by checking the top of the file ray/src/util/ 
rtcontrib.c after downloading the HEAD release.  The SCONS scripts  
have not been updated, so you'll have to use rmake to build it.

>> //as a more personal question: c-shells? Have you been tempted by  
>> any of the
>> //p-languages (Python, Perl, Php)? Excuse me for not being a *nix  
>> guru, but
>> //I think it would be a good idea to code the c-shell scripts as a  
>> (Python?)
>> //module? Speaking for myself myself, but it would ease up scripting
>> //radiance considerably. Idea?
>
> Programming languages/tools are like cars; they all excel at various
> things, and people tend to gravitate to one or another for many  
> different
> reasons -- availability, cost, features, ease of use, adaptability,  
> etc --
> and everyone has a favorite.  I'd think that the ideal language to use
> here would depend on the programmer, and of course the exact nature  
> of the
> program being created to use RTCONTRIB.
>
> There are plenty of Python People on this list, and Perl People  
> too.  But
> if you poke around in some of the Radiance tools you'll also see  
> that Greg
> has been putting the C shell to good use in a number of ways.  It's  
> really
> whatever you're comfy using.

In my case, it's a combination of "force of habit" with being  
uncertain whether everyone/all_machines have Perl and Python  
installed these days.  I think they do, but I never learned either of  
these languages, so that holds me back as well.  Most of the stuff I  
do in C-shell scripts is straightforward, or at least it starts out  
that way, otherwise I'd be writing a C program.  The scripts do tend  
to look pretty ugly, though.  (Not my fault -- you try to write a  
"pretty" C-shell script.  I challenge you!)  This also serves as a  
disincentive for scripting, which I think is a good thing, as it  
keeps the more complex tasks in a familiar C context.

Getting back to rtcontrib, the first script I have in mind might  
generate annual simulations (animations) of a particular view using  
daylight coefficients.  I may get side-tracked for a while before I  
get that one together, though.

-Greg