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# RE: [femm] FEMM Vs. commercial code

- To: "'femm@yahoogroups.com'" <femm@yahoogroups.com>
- Subject: RE: [femm] FEMM Vs. commercial code
- From: "Martin, Dick" <dick@imtmems.com>
- Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2002 08:10:13 -0800

If there were a Nobel Prize for Benevolent Contribution to the Scientific and Educational Communities, it should go to Dr Meeker and his associates who created and provide the support for this wonderful program.
Dick
Richard T. Martin
Principal Engineer
Innovative Micro Technology
75 Robin Hill Road
Goleta, CA 93117
(805) 681-2824
dick@imtmems.com
www.imtmems.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Meeker [mailto:dmeeker@ieee.org]
> Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 10:16 PM
> To: femm@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [femm] FEMM Vs. commercial code
> Keith Gregory wrote:

> > `[...] That said it is not bullet proof and David
> > would be the first to admit that it does fall over occasionally in ways
> > that most commercial code would not.`

> Ha! I certainly would be the first to admit that the program isn't bullet-proof!

> > ``

> As had been noted, it's the entire group of people that are associated with the program that are a big strength. That is, people (e.g. Keith) who thoughtfully answer questions; people who report bugs, make suggestions, and ask questions when the program is doing something unexpected. Several people have also made essential contributions to the program on the source code level, e.g. Si Hang with his fast triangle search algorithm and Robin Cornelius by adding in the Lua scripting capabilities. What's sort of the coolest thing about it is that the people who are associated with the program come from all over the world and hail from a number of different backgrounds, providing everyone with a unique global networking opportunity.
> The biggest "FEMM vs Commercial Code" difference that hasn't really been mentioned yet in this thread is that the complete source for FEMM (even including the LaTeX source for the manual) is available for download. In contrast, there is little insight into how the commercial programs are doing what they do, aside from the occasional article in Transactions on Magnetics. Now, the typical user might not care a whole lot about the source, but the source could be potentially valuable in a number of ways:
> -- For students. During the creation of FEMM, I kept finding that there were crucial implementation details and "gotchas" that have been omitted in the standard treatments on the subject. Having the source allows students to lift up the hood and check out an attempt at stringing all of the pieces together into a working tool, resolving these "hidden" fine points. Now, the methods in FEMM might not always be the best or most optimal way that one could write things (see above comment about "bullet-proof" and let me invoke Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology one more time), but thinking about how things could be done better might be a useful exercise in itself.
> -- For "power users." I know of several people who have been twisted enough to modify FEMM to suit their needs for some unique problem, which is possible because the source is available. This level of flexibility just isn't available with commercial solvers.
> -- If there are bugs. If the program is doing something that seems "weird," it's possible to look inside it and see exactly what the program is doing and whether or not it is reasonable.
> -- It enables the code to "grow" faster. Having the source has enabled people to contribute a number of extensions to the program that have expanded the functionality of FEMM in some big ways (see above).
> At any rate, if anyone is interested in the range of what's out there as far as commercial codes, I've listed all of the ones that I know about at:
> http://femm.berlios.de/links.htm Exploring those links will paint a pretty good picure of the state of the art as far as commercial programs.
> Dave.
> --
> David Meeker
> dmeeker@ieee.org
> http://femm.berlios.de/dmeeker
> `Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.`

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