Dear Colleague,

A bug has been found in the Dissipative Particle Dynamics (DPD) code of DL_MESO 
2.5.

When reading input files, the routine for parsing double precision real numbers 
(parsedble) in parse_utils.f90 incorrectly multiplies a number by 10 if it does 
not include a decimal point. Many thanks are due to Simão Pereira (University of 
Trieste) for spotting and reporting this bug.

This bug can be fixed by adding the following line immediately before line 268 
of parse_utils.f90:

  IF (p==0) p = 1

This change has been made to the DL_MESO package available for download: 
registered users of version 2.5 can re-download and decrypt this package using 
the same procedure and password given in the original instructions email.

In addition to the above bug fix, I would like to draw your attention to two new 
features available via the DL_MESO website (www.ccp5.ac.uk/DL_MESO).

A new page of Example Simulations, based on the test cases available in the 
DL_MESO package, has been created to demonstrate the capabilities and features 
of the LBE and DPD codes in DL_MESO. This page now includes the .AVI videos that 
were removed from the downloadable package to reduce its size: these and still 
images of results are freely downloadable from this page, although I encourage 
you to acknowledge their source when using them for presentations etc. You can 
find the link to this page from the main DL_MESO website.

A DL_MESO forum has also been created to allow users to directly communicate 
with each other and discuss matters related to using the software package and 
its methodologies. These can include queries and recommendations on using the 
software, requests for advice and information on mesoscale modelling, problems 
and/or fixes for particular computers, interesting observations, announcements 
about the results of your research etc.

I would particularly encourage DL_MESO users to use this forum as an additional 
form of software support and as a means to share experiences of and ideas for 
using the software. (Bug reports should still be sent directly to me at 
michael.seaton@stfc.ac.uk, however.) To use the forum, go to the main DL_MESO 
website (www.ccp5.ac.uk/DL_MESO) and follow the link to the relevant page, which 
will give you initial instructions and a link to the forum itself. My thanks go 
to Dave Cable at the Distributed Computing (DisCo) Group at STFC Daresbury 
Laboratory for creating the DL_MESO forum.

Michael Seaton
2012-05-03