VMD-L Mailing List

From: Jim Nettles (jnettle_at_emory.edu)
Date: Sun Oct 24 2004 - 08:21:11 CDT

Dear John,

I feel the bite of this issue too. Back in June, I ran into the
problem when trying to run Interactive Essential Dynamics (IED)
http://mccammon.ucsd.edu/ied/ on my Powerbook. I've slogged through
trying to get it work multiple ways, as has one of my colleges. We have
these amazing simulations that we can see on the Linux box in the lab,
but we can't take on the road. I would have VMD-IED in a presentation
on next Monday if I could get it to work.

Thanks John, for all you do. Yours is an amazing interface to
scientific visualization. The above reflects that this scientist
really does want VMD/Python to run seamlessly on all platforms and also
appreciates that it is time consuming. If you are in a position to put
a push on this, I feel sure that we could coordinate some testers and
helpers. Matt?

Thanks again.

With regard,

Jim Nettles

On Oct 24, 2004, at 4:47 AM, hinsen_at_llb.saclay.cea.fr wrote:

> On 22.10.2004, at 22:40, John Stone wrote:
>
>> to try and do this as well as a number of other related Python
>> improvements
>> before 1.8.3 gets released. None of the libraries VMD uses are really
>> "permanent versions", but we often choose to stick with well-tested
>> revs
>> for two releases in a row since that avoids the possibility of new
>> bugs
>> creeping in as a result of library upgrades. I haven't upgraded the
>
> That's a reasonable choice, and doesn't bother anyone except for the
> Python stuff, which always depends on items outside the VMD
> distribution.
>
> I have similar issues with VMD's Python support as Lars, but I have
> drawn a different conclusion: I don't use it any more. Which is a bit
> ironic, considering that I do nearly all my computational work in
> Python. But making VMD and Python compatible is a lot of work, and
> even though I might be willing to do it for my own machines, I would
> end up doing lots of tech support for my collaborators who couldn't
> use my code.
>
> Since this is really "just" a build issue, it could be solved at least
> for those platforms that have automated build procedures (RPMs and
> Debian packages for Linux, fink for MacOS). And I guess there would be
> volunteers to do the necessary adaptation of the build scripts. Does
> that sound like a promising approach?
>
> Konrad.
>
________________________________________________________
Jim Nettles, Scientific Consultant
Liotta/Snyder Group, Modeling Division, Department of Chemistry
Emory University 1515 Pierce Dr. Atlanta, Ga. 30322
________________________________________________________