[Pipet Devel] 3D modelers (was Greg/Jeff)

[J.W. Bizzaro]

Hi Greg.

> gui progrqmming isn't too bad, but i know nothing about python. we'll see
> how this goes, what jobs come up and when, and how much time i have when
> they do. i certainly would not be adverse to learning a new language.

For more information on Python bindings to GTK, you can check out my info page:

    http://www.uml.edu/Dept/Chem/BICGroup/PyGTools/

> right now it isn't very big. but it may be in the future. i've been
> thinking about that, and i have come to the conclusion that mg^2 will have
> the functions required to be useful to you in a few releases from now. in
> fact, even now it has the features i think you would want (multiple views,
> solid and wireframe rendering, translate, rotate, scale, zoom, etc.), but
> those features need some work and some of the data structures need
> redesigning (i'm working on that this afternoon). so, my idea is that we
> can take a version of mg^2 that has the functionality you need while it's
> still small and then buld in the specifics to your application. but this
> all depends on what you want. i don't mind starting from scratch.

It sounds like a plan to me :-)  I'll get more detail to you ASAP.

> 
> to solve your light weight constraint, why not make a main app that runs
> the other functions as plug-ins? however, from what i saw on your site it
> seems that you want alot of it to be command line driven so maybe plug-ins
> wouldn't help so much.

The command-line programs are implemented as a special feature of Loci.  The
other tools communicate via Python object server.

If we had a small "engine" that could be modified by plug-in to make several
special-purpose tools, that would be along the line I was thinking.

> 
> a friend might be interested in the 3d area of this project also. i'll ask
> him.

Great.  Anyone you know who'd like to help is more than welcome!


Jeff
-- 
J.W. Bizzaro                  Phone: 617-552-3905
Boston College                mailto:bizzaro at bc.edu
Department of Chemistry       http://www.uml.edu/Dept/Chem/Bizzaro/
--