COLUMBUS BETA Release



Since last Saturday, October 12, was Columbus Day, and today, Monday
 October
 14, is the official holiday this year, it seems appropriate to announce at this
 time the availability of a BETA version of the COLUMBUS Program System for
 molecular electronic structure calculations.  The following is a short
 description of the program system, with instructions on how to obtain a copy of
 the source code and documentation.
 The COLUMBUS Program System is a collection of Fortran programs for performing
 general ab initio Multireference Single- and Double-excitation Configuration
 Interaction (MR-SDCI) and related calculations, such as averaged coupled-pair
 functional (ACPF) and linearized coupled-cluster method (LCCM).  Closed- and
 open-shell single-reference CI calculations are subsets of the more general
 expansion forms.
 The source code, documentation, sample calculations, and shell scripts are
 available in three forms via anonymous FTP: (1) individual files within the
 directory structure, (2) a "tar" file of the entire program system,
 and (3) a
 compressed form of the "tar" file.
 If you only want to examine the documentation files before downloading the
 entire system, the following is a sample ftp session:
         % cd where/ever/you/want/the/files/to/go/
         % ftp -n ftp.tcg.anl.gov
         ftp> user anonymous local_user_name
         ftp> cd pub/columbus/doc/
         ftp> prompt                             # turn off prompting.
         ftp> mget *                             # get everything in doc/.
         ftp> bye
 If you decide you want to get the compressed tar file, and install the existing
 directory structure, then do the following:
         % cd where/ever/you/want/the/files/to/go/
         % ftp -n ftp.tcg.anl.gov
         ftp> user anonymous local_user_name
         ftp> cd pub/tars/
         ftp> binary                             # enable binary transfers.
         ftp> dir                                # see what's there.
         ftp> get Columbus.07-oct-91.Z           # get the latest version.
         ftp> bye
         % uncompress -c Columbus.07-oct-91.Z | tar -xvf -  # restore everything
 ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
 Please note that this is a BETA version of the program system.  It is
 recommended that these codes be used with caution for "production"
 work, and
 even then only if the results can be verified independently for correctness.
 All of the programs are close to their research-level counterparts EXCEPT for
 the MCSCF program, which is currently being modified.  The updated MCSCF
 program will be added to the distribution codes as soon as it is available, and
 this new version will replace the old version completely.
 The integrals through SCF programs (ARGOS, CNVRT, SCFPQ) can be run in parallel
 on distributed memory parallel computers, shared memory parallel computers,
 homogeneous workstation networks, and heterogeneous mixtures of all of the
 above.  This version of these codes has been included primarily as a
 demonstration of how simple it can be to port production-level chemistry codes
 to a parallel environment.  However, there is no dynamic load-balancing in
 these codes, so this is not intended to be the optimal parallel implementation
 of these job steps.  The TCGMSG library, written by R. J. Harrison and also
 available from the above anonymous ftp site, is necessary to run these codes in
 parallel (TCGMSG is not required for the "normal" serial codes).
 The MCSCF and MRCI analytic gradient codes and the parallel version of the
 diagonalization program (CIUDG) are not yet included in the COLUMBUS
 distribution.  These codes are now being modified in preparation for inclusion
 at a later time (probably next spring or early summer).  Other additions and
 enhancements are also in the works.
                                 ***************
                                 * DISCLAIMERS *
                                 ***************
 The computer programs described here contain work performed partially by the
 Argonne National Laboratory Theoretical Chemistry Group under the auspices of
 the Office Of Basic Energy Sciences, Division Of Chemical Sciences, U.S.
 Department Of Energy, under contract w-31-109-eng-38.  Additional work was
 performed at the Ohio State University, with partial support from Cray
 Research, Inc., at the University of Vienna, and at other sites.
 These programs may not be (re)distributed without the written consent of the
 Argonne Theoretical Chemistry Group or the other development sites.
 Since these programs are under development, correct results are not guaranteed.
 The Argonne National Laboratory Theoretical Chemistry Group and the COLUMBUS
 programmers at the Ohio State University, the University of Vienna, and other
 sites disclaim all warranties, either express or implied, including but not
 limited to implied warranties of fitness for a particular purpose, with respect
 to these computer programs.  In no event shall the Argonne National Laboratory
 Theoretical Chemistry Group, the Ohio State University, the University of
 Vienna, or the COLUMBUS programmers be liable for any damages whatsoever
 arising out of the use or inability to use these programs.
                     ***************************************
                     * COLUMBUS PROGRAMMER EMAIL ADDRESSES *
                     ***************************************
 The COLUMBUS Program System has been developed over the last 10-15 years with
 contributions from several research groups and from many students, postdocs,
 and other collaborators.  The references cited in the various program listings
 indicate the extent of this development effort.  The following is a list of
 email addresses for the current COLUMBUS programmers who are primarily
 responsible for the ongoing development of the codes.
         shepard;at;tcg.anl.gov                # Ron Shepard (Argonne)
         shavitt;at;mps.ohio-state.edu         # Isaiah Shavitt (Ohio State)
         pitzer;at;neon.mps.ohio-state.edu     # Russell M. Pitzer (Ohio State)
         lischka;at;itc.univie.ac.at           # Hans Lischka (Vienna)
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