The CASINO discussion forum is the first place to ask for help with CASINO, to report a fault, or to discuss quantum Monte Carlo and computational electronic structure. It has been the place since June 2013, and the users’ mailing list that came before it was closed in 2014. Its members are CASINO’s users and developers, so there is a good chance that a question will be answered. Its five sections are General announcements, where new versions of the program, summer schools and workshops are announced; The CASINO program; Quantum Monte Carlo; Computational electronic structure; and Jobs.

Reading and joining

Anyone can read the forum. To post, register with the button at its top right, preferably under a real name, first name then last name, as “Albert Einstein”. The registration asks one question meant to stop automated sign-ups, and a new account is then activated by hand by the administrator, usually within a day; an account whose purpose he cannot make out may be refused, in which case write to Mike Towler to say who you are. The Download CASINO form, which the Request a copy page describes, has a box that requests a forum account at the same time as a copy of CASINO.

Once registered, the User Control Panel lets you describe yourself in a profile and choose what the forum sends you. By default it sends an e-mail for each new topic and not for the replies; under Board preferences, Edit post notification options, you can ask for every post, only the first post of a topic, only posts in subscribed sections, one message between visits, or nothing. To follow one section, open it and press Subscribe forum at the bottom of its page; a subscription is undone under the panel’s Overview, Manage subscriptions. The announcements of new versions reach every member this way unless they switch them off. The forum also publishes Atom feeds, for the whole board at app.php/feed and for each section and topic, which a feed reader can follow without an account.

Asking well

Before asking, try the manual, the casinohelp utility, which describes every keyword, and the FAQ. A report of a fault, a crash, a wrong result or a statement of the manual that the program contradicts, gives the input files that show it, the output, the version of CASINO, which the file out prints at its head, the architecture it was built for, and whether it happens in serial or in parallel; a case that runs quickly is best. A fault that can be reproduced from the report can be found and fixed; an error message on its own usually cannot. Keep the discussion to quantum Monte Carlo, CASINO and electronic structure, and know that an account that posts advertisements is removed at once.