Hennig XXXI Workshop: Scripting with TNT, Riverside, CA

Participantes del taller de scripts con TNT

 

Durante las sesiones del taller

Pablo Goloboff y participantes

There has been enough interest expressed for a post-meeting workshop: Scripting in TNT.
The exact location of that, and where you might book accommodations has not been determined yet.
The workshop will run on the 28th, 29th and 30th, June, 2012

Pablo Goloboff (one of the co-authors of the program) and Mark Siddall (who has experience writing scripts) are offering to give a short, 3-day course on scripting for TNT, in connection with the next meeting of the Willi Hennig Society in Riverside, California (June 23-27, 2012).

TNT is a program for phylogenetic analysis under parsimony. Even David Swofford praises it as a good phylogeny program, and it is widely recognized as one of the most powerful programs for phylogenetic analysis. Casual users find it very difficult, because it presents so many options that it is difficult to begin using it. Thus, the program left Matthew Vavrek totally confused, and The Manual caused irreparable damage to the eyes of poor Paulo Nuin (see the Blind Scientist blog).

The powerful scripting language of TNT makes it possible to use the program for an enormous variety of calculations and tests, with a flexibility far beyond any other single program for phylogenetic analysis. See the script for consistency and retention indices as an example of a very simple script, Siddall's script for partition bootstrapping as something easily accomplished with slightly more knowledge and then as well Pol and Escapa's script for iterative PCR or Goloboff's script for testing delayed character correlation as examples of more complex scripts.

This course (see the syllabus below) would be directed to those people who already have some experience with TNT, those who are capable at least of running an entire standard analysis by means of commands (and, ideally, those with some specific problems which need scripts for resolution). The course will start from the simplest ideas and build up from there; no previous scripting or programming knowledge is required (although it doesn't hurt). It will cover the main aspects of the scripting possibilities, with Goloboff and Siddall tutoring exercises directed at solving gradually more complex problems. The last day will be dedicated to people's projects, helping them design (the initial stage, at least) of their own specific projects. People should bring their own laptops (any operating system is OK).

Course syllabus and more information here >>>