From 4d36bdcee5c5fac125248b0c05872817080a9a96 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Carsten Dominik Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2009 01:51:30 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Add Thomas S Dye --- org-people.org | 50 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 50 insertions(+) diff --git a/org-people.org b/org-people.org index 15c17ed..bbe2da6 100644 --- a/org-people.org +++ b/org-people.org @@ -124,6 +124,56 @@ Org-mode was largely written on the commuter train to Amsterdam, where I [[http://staff.science.uva.nl/~dominik/][work]] as an [[http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html][Astronomer]] at the [[http://www.astro.uva.nl][Astronomical Institute]] of the [[http://www.uva.nl][University of Amsterdam]]. +# Thomas S Dye ---------------------------------------------------------------- + +{{{person200(Thomas S Dye,http://www.tsdye.com/images/tom.jpg)}}} + +I am an archaeologist (http://www.tsdye.com/) who switched to Linux +almost 20 years ago when the demise of DOS made most of my little +Turbo Pascal utilities obsolete. My outrage at the irresponsibility +made possible by proprietary standards led me to discover the Free +Software Foundation and, of course, emacs, which has been central to +my computing life ever since. + +With no formal computer science training and a wide range of other +interests that keep me from doing anything more than dabbling at +programming, I typically stumble across cool emacs features by +accident rather than design. Sometimes these features change the way +I conceptualize a problem and the space of possible solutions. A +short list, roughly in the order I discovered them, includes regular +expression search and replace; emacs as an interface for other +applications, like python and R; reftex, whose manual (written by +Carsten, I believe) suggests generating an index by creating a list of +unique words over a certain size found in a document, then letting +reftex guide the markup process, one unique word at a time (!); and, +most recently, org-babel, which seems to this non-programmer as equal +parts simplicity and magic. + +I'm currently integrating org-mode + org-babel into my research +workflow. Here, org-mode is half organizer (thanks to Bernt Hansen's +terrific how-to) and laboratory notebook. The org file is structured +with an eye to creating a meta-document that describes the conduct of +the research, from the mundane practical details of the lab work, +through the reasoning behind analytic decisions, and on to choices +behind presentation of results. + +I'm using org-babel to tangle two LaTeX source files -- the document +I'll submit for publication, and a beamer presentation. Org-babel's +ability to tangle (and weave) source code from several languages at +once means that my meta-document can record most of what I do, as I do +it: SQL queries and my reasons for believing they yield correct +results with respect to some specific goal; short statistical analyses +in R and my reasons for believing their results answer particular +questions; creation of graphics with ggplot2 and the design decisions +behind them; and of course the LaTeX source, along with my reasons for +presenting particular content in the order that I choose. + +I think I'm using the literate programming facilities of org-babel to +create a piece of reproducible research, but the workflow is still +developing. All I can be certain of at this stage is that org-babel +has me thinking in new ways. What fun! + + # Eric S. Fraga --------------------------------------------------------------- {{{person200(Eric S. Fraga,http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/pls/portallive/docs/1/27579696.JPG)}}} -- 2.11.4.GIT