At 18:21 03/01/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>And one should
>not hestitate to concede deserved credit to the pioneers who started this
>database and did a great service to analytical chemistry over decades.
The pioneers deserve a lot. Those who deliberately prevent from
adding systematically those patterns calculated from determined
crystal structure made a big mistake that led many analytical
chemists to waste their time (me included). Organic and
organometallic chemists continue to waste their time, or are the
CSD calculated patterns already available ?-).
Let me have more nasty comments. The active membership
of ICSD is composed of over 250 scientists from 33 countries.
Well done. If each of them had sent only 12 raw powder patterns,
you would attain the 3000 patterns promised for the first PDF-3
release. Conclude by yourself (my personal collection is larger
than 500 in 20 years, this would give 125000 patterns if the
members were really active - all those thousands of diffractometers
sleeping every night and week-end, that's incredible !;-).
Evenmore, I really do not understand that powder patterns could
still be accepted as only lists of dobs and Iobs in years 2000.
The raw data should be required. Is that not an evidence for you ?
But the grant in aid system seems to continue in the old style,
unchanged. There is still some dust to remove here.
Not being a member gives you some freedom. Maybe the
contrary explains ICDD motionless all those 1980-1995 years,
adding 2000 patterns a year when 5000 to 10000 structures
were determined from single crystal in the same time ! OK,
now ICDD buys them as calculated powder patterns and would
like to present that as the genius idea of the century end ? That
is just the only thing to do now it is too late. So, please, silence
or apologies would be more convenient. Shame on some
ICDD guys, no less. Not sure if they believe in the Rietveld
method power, even now. Customers are in the situation to
buy data twice, in a sense : as ICDD+ICSD and soon as
ICSD+CSD.
Best, and stop to speak of "deserving credit", what credit ?
Armel Le Bail
http://sdpd.univ-lemans.fr/powbase/
