[dnd] DND Goals?

[Westley A Sherman]

I'm a grad student in a lab that does experimental protein folding stuff.
I've been trying to learn more about computational protein folding but
none of the most famous molecular dynamics programs are free software.

I went to the Linux conference in New York on February 4th where there was
discussion of how GPL software can help to promote standardization and can
keep people from having to reimplement common algorithms. It seems that
computational protein folding efforts could benefit from standards (exact
file format specifications, program interfaces, etc.) and libraries
implementing common algorithms for stuff like setting up atom connectivety
and force fields, molecular dynamics simulations, and molecular graphics.

Are these issues that DND is intended to address? Also, I'm still working
on getting DND to work. Are the any plans for a user interface that
doesn't require so many (Linux specific) libraries and other files?

Westley Sherman