Bombcalc — Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer
This repository is the development directory and archive for Fourmilab's Web resource, “Strangelove Slide Rule: Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer”, which provides an interactive computer emulation of the circular slide rule weapons effect computer optionally available with the 1962 edition of the U.S. government publication The Effects of Nuclear Weapons. In addition to the interactive calculator, downloadable file and instructions are included to allow printing and constructing a physical replica of the original plastic slide rule in the interest of authenticity or for use in a post-apocalyptic world where Internet access may be spotty.
Structure of the repository
This repository is organised into the following directories.
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webtree: Replica of the Web tree from the Fourmilab site containing all of the HTML documents, images, and downloads. These pages contain relative references to style sheets, icons, and other resources on the Fourmilab Web site and will not work without modification in other environments.
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cgi: Programs and supporting data files for the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) services used to generate the updated slide rule image for requests made either from the Web pages or from earlier queries. These programs will have to be modified to run in the CGI environment of the server on which they are installed.
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netpbm_tools: Source code for three additions to the Netpbm image manipulation toolkit, which are used by the programs in the cgi directory to generate the graphical results from queries. You must integrate these programs in a current version of Netpbm (which may require some work: the versions that appear here were developed and tested with Netpbm version 10.25 dating from 2005), then install them where the CGI programs can run them.
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tools: An Excel worksheet,
pixparam.xls, used to develop the mapping between pixel position and numerical parameters for processing queries. -
diy: Images used to make a printable replica of the original bumb effects calculator.