Diego A. Casas

Delft3D Flexible Mesh Compilation

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 19:20:00 -0300

This in an update to my Delft3D 4 Compilation tutorial. This tutorial explains how to compile the latest stable release of the Delft3D Flexible Mesh source code, which includes the Delft3D 4 (structured) kernels too. However, the Delft3D 4 kernels created from this source code package do not seem compatible with the Delft3D 4 GUI.

Delft3D 4 Compilation

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 16:22:06 +0000

This tutorial explains how to compile the last tag of the Delft3D 4 source code available on Deltares’ Subversion repository. The kernels created from this source code are compatible with the Delft3D 4 GUI, available free-of-charge from Deltares.

Migrating from LaTeX and MathJax to Wolfram Language and MathML

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Mon, 19 May 2025 16:00:00 -0300

Throughout the development of this blog, I have read a lot about the HTML standard specification. In fact, I consider HTML one of the greatest inventions in human history. What I love most about HTML is its semantics—I strongly support separation of content (semantics) and presentation (appearance). While typography helps conserve reader's attention and conveys the message more effectively, from a computational standpoint, elements like font size and color do not provide unequivocal information about a text's intended meaning.

Welch Periodogram in Wolfram Language

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 18:00:00 -0300

This is a continuation of my post on the wave spectrum in Wolfram Language. I discovered that my Wolfram Language code could be significantly improved given some limitations in the PeriodogramArray function and an error on my part:

Wave Spectrum in Wolfram Language

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 02:30:00 -0500

Warning/Update I published a post with an improvement and correction of the code below. The new post is Welch Periodogram in Wolfram Language. I’ll keep the old code below for historical reasons.

Looking for the Formula of Sodium Laureth Sulfate

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 22:19:10 -0300

In October 2024, I did a simple laboratory experiment. It consisted of simulating waves in an acrylic tank filled with water. Waves were generated by an axial fan blowing air towards the tank. I measured water surface elevation with a conductivity-type wave gauge and velocity with an acoustic Doppler velocimeter. Two sets of measurements were made: with ordinary tap water and water containing a soluble surfactant. The surfactant was sodium laureth sulfate, commonly used in personal care products like shampoos. The objective was to observe the effects of surfactant on waves and on momentum transfer across the air-water surface.

Flattening a PDF file

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:45:00 -0500

My mother is a graphic and book designer. As part of her work, she sends drafts and previews to the customers for them to review. While she has a loyal and trustworthy clientele, some one-time customers may try to take advantage to get free or “cheap” designs. They initially agree to a service that include design and printing, but once they get the design, they disappear without notice. Sometimes they only paid a small advance, sometimes they paid nothing before disappearing. One way to mitigate this is not to provide samples in vector formats. If they receive a JPEG image, for example, they will not be able to edit it freely or print it with a different company.

Mathematica for my Ph.D.

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 06:00:00 -0500

I have been using Wolfram Engine Community Edition (free) to learn Wolfram Language through my participation in Advent of Code. The free engine only comes with the Wolfram kernel and interfaces for command line (WolframScript), web apps, Python, C, and Java. This allows for programming in code editors and notebook interfaces (e.g., Jupyter). That’s why I was using VS Code to practice Wolfram Language. The VS Code extension runs an instance of the kernel to offer features such as syntax highlighting, diagnostics, and formatting. In fact, I had an issue with the extension’s linter. I was also using the feature-rich WLJS Notebook that was developed specifically for Wolfram Language and is compatible with the free engine.

Advent of Code 2024, Day 4

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 19:00:00 -0500

Index – Advent of Code

Update See Appendix B below for a commentary.

Part One

This puzzle is a word search. You are asked how many times does the word “XMAS” appear.

Advent of Code 2024, Day 5

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 20:37:00 -0500

Index – Advent of Code

Part One

There is a list of printing updates that are lists of page numbers indicating the order in which the pages must be printed. There is also a list of page ordering rules of the form X|Y, which means that page number X must be printed before page number Y, but it does not need to be immediately before Y. Puzzle input is a list of rules followed by a list of updates.

My Tools for Windows

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 22:12:00 -0500

This post is a list of great software that I—an engineer and researcher—use on Windows and can personally recommend. I don’t include ubiquitous programs such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; they are already essential for engineers and researchers.

Advent of Code 2024, Day 3

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Index – Advent of Code

Part One

In this puzzle, you are given a long string that represents a computer’s memory. This memory contains substrings of the form mul(x,y), where x and y are integers of 1 to 3 digits. They denote multiplication of x and y. The memory is said to be corrupted because it also contains other random, function-like expressions and symbols.

Advent of Code 2024, Day 2

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 07:00:00 -0500

Index – Advent of Code

Part One

The puzzle input in this one is a list of reports. A report is a series of integers called levels and separated by spaces. They ask you to determine the number of safe reports. A safe report is defined as one in which its levels are all increasing or decreasing, and the difference between adjacent levels is at least 1 and at most 3.

Advent of Code 2024, Day 1

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Sat, 04 Jan 2025 14:00:57 -0500

Index – Advent of Code

Part One

You are given a file with two columns of integers. They first ask you to pair up the ranked column numbers, i.e.:

Trackball and switching mouse buttons

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Sat, 04 Jan 2025 01:31:50 -0500

I acquired a trackball last month. I never had one and wanted to experience a different pointing device. Also, I was interested in comparing its ergonomics with my vertical mouse.

Disable NonASCIICharacter warnings for Wolfram Language in Visual Studio Code

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 20:14:19 -0500

I recently started learning the Wolfram language, the language that powers Mathematica and WolframAlpha. Wolfram is a language that focuses on symbolic and functional programming. It has thousands of built-in functions and a very regular functional syntax.

PackageCompiler.jl, Gaston.jl, and GMDApp

contact@diegocasas.net (Diego A. Casas) — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -0500

PackageCompiler.jl allows you to compile a Julia project into a relocatable “app” that can be sent and run on other machines that don’t have Julia installed. The main downsides of these “apps” are: