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Ferenbaugh, Charles R.

Publications and source records attributed to Ferenbaugh, Charles R..

4 records
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DOE OSTI2022

For the Public Good: Connecting, Retaining, and Recognizing Current and Future RSEs at U.S. National Research Laboratories and Agencies

U.S. national research laboratories and agencies play an integral role in advancing science and technology for the public good. The authors of this article, as research software engineers (RSEs) and allies from eight unique national R&D organizations, came together to explore RSE needs from the perspective of national institutions. We identified three key areas of improvement for future RSEs to pursue science in the national interest: community establishment, hiring and retention, and recognition. In conclusion, to retain and cultivate this essential talent, U.S. national institutions must evolve to support appropriate career pathways for RSEs, and to recognize and reward RSEs’ work.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2010

Shavano Infrastructure Upgrade Study

At the beginning of FY10 I was given the task of investigating possible options for upgrading the Shavano backplane code, and forming a plan for implementing upgrades beginning in FY11. The following pages document the results of my investigation. The major task done for this activity was a feasibility study for converting the entire Shavano code base to C++. This study is documented briefly in the next section. In addition, several other upgrade possibilities are listed, and a proposed plan for FY11 work is presented.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2010

Shavano C++ Conversion Proposal

The following document proposes a three-year plan for conversion of the Shavano project code base from augmented Fortran to standard C++. The Shavano project has been developing physics applications since about 1995, using the homegrown AJAX backplane that augments Fortran 77 to provide a type of object-oriented programming. This unconventional approach has provided some advantages to the project over the years; however, as time progresses, its disadvantages have become more pronounced: (1) Most AJAX capabilities can now be done (and done better) using modem languages and standard tool; (2) Modem software tools, such as static code analyzers, cannot be used with AJAX; (3) Shavano developers are hard to find/train/retain; (4) AJAX maintainers are hard to find/train/retain; (5) Student or faculty collaboration is rare; (6) Third-party library developers are often unable/unwilling to integrate their libraries into Shavano code, leaving the task to the core team; (7) Mastery of AJAX-based programming is a nontransferable skill. To address these problems, conversion of the Shavano code base to C++ has been proposed. This proposal builds on an earlier study on C++ conversion, done in March-July 2010 (see Appendix A). This study anticipated a short conversion process: roughly one year for the main work, with cleanup to be done afterward as time allowed. Unfortunately, we discovered that some of our initial assumptions were false, and the scope of the project would be much greater than we had expected. Therefore, in this revision we have increased the estimated project length to approximately three years.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗