[Stoves] analytical software (was Re: Wonderwerk stove, more information)

[David Young]

On Thu, Jul 07, 2016 at 05:45:35PM -0700, kgharris wrote:
> The engineer at Lawrence Berkley National Labs stove testing lab has
> supplied the following information concerning the recent tests of the
> Wonderwerk TLUD-ND stove.
> 
*snip snip*
> 
> The numbers I reported to you are calculated using equations in the
> WBT 4.2.4. We do not use a spreadsheet to calculate those numbers and
> instead use a Python code we developed to read it our raw data.

Speaking of spreadsheets, and Python, I wonder just how (dis)satisfied
are stovers with the available analytical tools?  All things
considered---usefulness, usability, cost---how good are they?

I admit that I am allergic to spreadsheets, but when I had a look
at the WBT 4.2.4 spreadsheet in Excel, my suffering was especially
bad. :-) Much of the reaction was brought on by Excel itself: the
screen is cluttered by a startling amount of "administrative debris," to
use Edward Tufte's poetic expression.  But the content and function of
the spreadsheet seemed to strain against the constraints imposed by the
software.  I imagine the author may have suffered in the writing of it.

I am prototyping an analytical tool that I hope will be a compelling
alternative to spreadsheets in many cases.  I have recorded a
bugs-and-all demonstration, https://vimeo.com/172032647 , where I write
a project estimate with words, numbers, and formulas comingled.  Then
I make each number and formula "live" and use some of the numbers like
"levers" or "dials" to adjust the resulting "parametric document."  If I
was experimenting more with stoves and writing less code, I think that I
would use this tool some in design and analysis, but I am not a stoves
pro.  I would love to hear from you whether or not a system like this
looks applicable and appealing to use for stoves analysis.

Dave

-- 
David Young         //\ Trestle Technology Consulting
(217) 721-9981      Urbana, IL   http://trestle.tech/