...inability of someone to program a functional program...
So here's the deal. Almost all Unix programs, I suspect including the ones you're trying to use, are written by volunteers, as open-source programs, for other people to use. Open source programmers rarely make much money, are are thus more interested in programs that do what they're supposed to than programs that are easy to use for non-experts, because they're generally expecting other experts to be using them.
As someone who does in fact write open source programs for other people to use, and that have no GUI because I'd prefer to extend functionality, I resent the hell out of your attitude. Programmers who work for free and give away the fruits of their work to benefit others do not have an obligation to work even harder so that you don't have to figure out how to use their programs properly. If you don't want to learn it, then you can either 1) Not use it, and do your work yourself 2) Buy proprietary software and make the company help you or 3) Hire someone else to install and run it for you.
On the one hand, I see where you are coming from - most of these programs were written in academic labs by other poor postdocs being underpaid for their work (as all postdocs are). On the other hand... some of the issues that I have run into are things that probably could be fixed with one or two lines of code. For instance, one of the programs that we use to process data is called imosflm, and for some reason does not have a scroll bar. This means that you cannot use it on a standard laptop monitor, because it doesn't fit on the screen, and you can't reach the buttons on the bottom that you need. Scroll bars seem to be a pretty common feature of many of the other unix programs that I have used, so this is probably not a difficult thing to add. Instead,I spent $160 on a new monitor and $30 on the connector to plug my laptop in (damn you apple and your proprietary connections) just so that I could do work from home. As a postdoc in a lab, I do not have many options for the software that I am using. I cannot, as you suggest, just go buy something...first of all, I'm not even sure that such commercial software exists (for some aspects it may, for others I am certain it doesn't, for instance, controlling the Stanford robot), and secondly, as a newbie, I need to use the same software that the rest of the lab uses. As far as not using it and 'doing the work myself', that really isn't an option given what the work is (analyzing and refining crystallography data sets...something that no one has done by hand in decades). And, well, hiring someone...see the postdoc thing. The advice I got from my labmate was to buy a bigger monitor. The advice on the internet pointed out that I should install the new xcode tools to make everything work right... which apparently Apple won't let you do unless you register as a "developer"...so now apparently I am writing programs, even though I really just intend to install and use a few.
I feel like software shouldn't create barriers to entry into certain fields of science just because you need to be 'an expert' to use it.
With respect to the scrolling issue, it sounds like that's a legitimate bug. Have you submitted a bug report to the folks who develop iMosflm? I can guarantee you that if you have a legitimate bug interfering with your use of their program, they will appreciate your pointing it out and will try to fix it. And if you haven't told them about it, how do you expect them to know that they should fix it?
I understand that you can't purchase commercial software to do a lot of what you want to do, and that you're not particularly keen on writing your own new software. This is why I'm confused. Open source software does not create barriers, it lowers them. Would you prefer that the people behind Mosflm not have shared their software? Do you think it's easier or harder to get into crystallography when publicly available, but flawed, crystallography software exists or when every new scientist has to develop their own? Or would you rather that instead of using a command-line program to get your data from the beamline at Stanford you had to drive up and do it yourself?
So here's the deal. Almost all Unix programs, I suspect including the ones you're trying to use, are written by volunteers, as open-source programs, for other people to use. Open source programmers rarely make much money, are are thus more interested in programs that do what they're supposed to than programs that are easy to use for non-experts, because they're generally expecting other experts to be using them.
As someone who does in fact write open source programs for other people to use, and that have no GUI because I'd prefer to extend functionality, I resent the hell out of your attitude. Programmers who work for free and give away the fruits of their work to benefit others do not have an obligation to work even harder so that you don't have to figure out how to use their programs properly. If you don't want to learn it, then you can either 1) Not use it, and do your work yourself 2) Buy proprietary software and make the company help you or 3) Hire someone else to install and run it for you.
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As a postdoc in a lab, I do not have many options for the software that I am using. I cannot, as you suggest, just go buy something...first of all, I'm not even sure that such commercial software exists (for some aspects it may, for others I am certain it doesn't, for instance, controlling the Stanford robot), and secondly, as a newbie, I need to use the same software that the rest of the lab uses. As far as not using it and 'doing the work myself', that really isn't an option given what the work is (analyzing and refining crystallography data sets...something that no one has done by hand in decades). And, well, hiring someone...see the postdoc thing.
The advice I got from my labmate was to buy a bigger monitor. The advice on the internet pointed out that I should install the new xcode tools to make everything work right... which apparently Apple won't let you do unless you register as a "developer"...so now apparently I am writing programs, even though I really just intend to install and use a few.
I feel like software shouldn't create barriers to entry into certain fields of science just because you need to be 'an expert' to use it.
Reply
I understand that you can't purchase commercial software to do a lot of what you want to do, and that you're not particularly keen on writing your own new software. This is why I'm confused. Open source software does not create barriers, it lowers them. Would you prefer that the people behind Mosflm not have shared their software? Do you think it's easier or harder to get into crystallography when publicly available, but flawed, crystallography software exists or when every new scientist has to develop their own? Or would you rather that instead of using a command-line program to get your data from the beamline at Stanford you had to drive up and do it yourself?
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