lim2pov - Create POV-Ray script from output of Curt McMullen's program lim

This python script parses a postscript file produced by lim and writes the list of circles to a text file in a format suitable for use with the open-source ray-tracing program POV-Ray. I used this script to create all of my 3D limit set pictures.

Download: lim2pov.py (python script)

HDF-XSL - HTML Prettyprinter for HDF5 data files

I use this with Apache Ant to create my gallery of Bers Slice Images.

Download: hdf-xsl-0.1.0.tar.gz

dfiler - Document Filer (Updated 7/2009)

I use this python script to download preprints from the web, particularly the arXiv. It helps you to choose an appropriate location and filename for a document by displaying a short section of extracted text (which probably contains key metadata like the title and author). Uses the wxPython GUI toolkit.
Changes in version 0.0.4: Better handling of missing 'wxversion' module and version detection in general. First version to be licensed under GPL3.
Changes in version 0.0.3: Better wxPython version detection and selection; now scrubs unicode strings if wxPython does not support unicode, resulting in lower-quality text extraction instead of an exception and exit.

Download:

• dfiler-0.0.4.tar.gz
• dfiler-0.0.3.tar.gz   (old version)
• dfiler-0.0.2.tar.gz   (old version)
• dfiler-0.0.1.tar.gz   (old version)

hmath - BibTeX style with author initials and URLs

This BibTeX style is derived from Curt McMullen's style math.bst, which is in turn a better version of the standard style alpha.bst included with BibTeX. The only feature I've added to McMullen's style is the ability to include arXiv-style eprint references in your BibTeX entries; this mechanism is also suitable for including URLs for preprints.

Download: hmath.bst (BibTeX style file)

ps2web - Postscript to PNG for web presentation

This shell script uses ghostscript to convert the pages of a postscript or PDF document to PNG files at a resolution suitable for screen reading of larger text. This might be useful to put the transparencies from a talk on the web.

• See a sample page image created with this script

Download: ps2web (bash script)

ps2web_full - Postscript slides to HTML gallery converter

A companion to the previous entry, this script calls ps2web and then creates an HTML galley of the page images using igal.

• See a sample slideshow created with this script

Download: ps2web_full (bash script)

h5frames - Create image sequence from HDF5 data

This python script generates a series of images from datasets in a HDF5 data file using Steven Johnson's utility h5topng. It looks for datasets and groups within the data file whose names are part of a sequence (e.g. group01, group02, …) and converts them to similarly named PNG images. I used this script (and transcode) to create all of my Bers slice animations.

Download: h5frames (python script)

replacer - Replace delimited text

This shell script replaces a section of a text file with the contents of another based on arbitrary delimiters. At one time, I used this extensively to generate the HTML for my web page from a bunch of data files.

Download: replacer (bash script)

assembleppm - Assemble PPM chunks from POVRay distributed rendering

The ray-tracer POV-Ray supports partial rendering, where a horizontal slice of a scene is generated. However, the resulting PPM files are technically invalid because the header size information refers to the entire image, rather than the rendered section. This small C program assembles a bunch of such partial image files into a single valid PPM.

This utility is based on combineppm by Paul Bourke.

Download: assembleppm.c (C source)