Help Request Form Letter

Being a co-author of an increasing popular package of XAS analysis software, I find that I receive a lot of mail from a lot of people asking for my help with their analysis problems. Indeed, if you are reading this page, you probably sent me just such an email and received my response directing you here.

I am genuinely concerned with helping the users of my software and with elevating the state of the art in the practice of X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy. I want everyone who needs a bit of help to get the answers to their questions. However, there is no way that I can provide individualized support for everyone who asks. The Ifeffit user base is quite large and I am quite busy with all the responsibilities of my job.

The purpose of this page, then, is to direct those who ask for help to the many resources that already exist on the web. I trust that you understand that am not being mean by directing you here rather than simply answering your question, neither am I unhappy with your email. Quite the contrary, I want you to get your answers and I want you to be aware of how many resources are already available to you. Had I answered your email directly, I would probably say the same things I say here. Not having to retype all this is a significant time saver for me.

The Ifeffit mailing list

The single most valuable resource for learning about Ifeffit and the related software is the Ifeffit Mailing List. You can find information about joining the list and links to the archives by following this link.

The mailing list is the appropriate place to ask most questions about XAS, Ifeffit, Athena, and Artemis. Indeed, it is far better to ask your question on the list than to send mail to me personally. I often answer questions that are posted on the list. Even better, the list gives you access to a large number of experts and to the entire Ifeffit community. When you send you question directly to me, you may find me on travel, in the middle of an experiment, or simply unwilling to read and write email. When you send mail to the list, you are much more likely to get a useful answer from someone (and that someone is often me). In fact, you may spark a discussion in which your question will be hashed out in much more detail than you would see in a response from a single person.


  • If you are reading this page because I sent you email directing you here, please understand that I am not refusing to answer your question. I am merely asking for a change of venue. Consider it this way -- the cost of receiving my answer is that you ask your question in the public forum.


You can use google to search the mailing list archives. Google provides a very useful modifier to your search term. Using site: restricts the results of the search to URLs which match the site provided. Here is what you would type in the google search box when looking for information about cumulants: 

   site:millenia.cars.aps.anl.gov cumulant

<!> If you are asking for help, I encourage you to ask specific questions rather than vague ones. For example, "I don't understand multiple k-weight fitting. What does it mean to use more than one k-weight in a fit and why should I want to do so?" is a good question and is likely to get a detailed answer. On the other hand, "I have lots of data from the synchrotron on TiO2 doped with dysprosium. Can someone send me an atoms input file and tell me how to get coordination numbers?" is a really vague, open-ended question that is unlikely to garner much of a response from the extremely busy people who populate the mailing list. Remember that the people who answer questions on the list are doing so as volunteers.

For more hints about how to ask good questions "How to Report Bugs Effectively" by Simon Tatham and "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" by Eric Raymond and Rick Moen are very useful. Please note that none of Tatham, Raymond, or Moen are associated in any way with this web site or the IFEFFIT software nor should they be contacted with questions about this software.

/!\ If you are reporting a bug, please read this web page before writing to the mailing list. Remember that if you do not provide enough information to reproduce the problem on my own computer, there will be little I can do to help you. As I explain on that page, you should send along a project file, a data file, a screenshot -- something that helps to explain your problem.

XAFS.ORG

The community web site, http://xafs.org, provides a wealth of information, educational materials, links to other sites of interest to XAS practitioners, and other community tools. The tutorials page contains links to educational materials written by a number of the luminaries of the XAS community. The workshops page contains links to several workshops and schools from recent years. Many of those workshops post PDF or PowerPoint files for the lectures given at the workshop. Go ahead and poke around http://xafs.org -- many of your questions will be answered.

My software

You can download Ifeffit from http://cars9.uchicago.edu/iffwiki/Downloads and information about Athena, Artemis, and Hephaestus can be found at http://cars9.uchicago.edu/~ravel/software/.

Documentation about Athena and Hephaestus can be found at http://cars9.uchicago.edu/~ravel/software/doc/Athena/html/. You can find a nice PDF version of the documentation there, should you want to print out hard copy. Be warned, though, that the PDF file is of a 150+ page, full color document.

The state of documentation for Artemis is quite a bit thinner than for Athena, but you can find lots of useful information at http://xafs.org or at http://cars9.uchicago.edu/~ravel/software/docs.html. Another useful lecture by me can be found here.

Feff

If your question pertains to Feff -- specifically in the area of using Feff for XANES calculations -- remember that I am not the principle author of Feff and may not in a position to answer your question authoritatively. The PI of the Feff project and his students all read the Ifeffit mailing list and often answer questions posted there.

BruceRavel/FormLetters/HelpRequest (last edited 2008-08-26 13:15:12 by BruceRavel)