I would like to add my comments that Sharp & autoSharp are great
programs that produce excellent phases, and that installation isn't
too hard (even though the whole setup does seem unnecessarily
complicated :-) )
I would also like to say that the Global Phasing people, in particular
Clemens Vonrhein, are extraordinarily helpful and respond quickly to
any query about the software
On the original question that started this thread, as far as I can see
there doesn't seem to be a Mac OSX intel version available, publicly
at least
Thanks
Phil Evans
On 27 Oct 2008, at 08:22, Clemens Vonrhein wrote:
Dear Bill,,
On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 07:18:05PM -0700, William G. Scott wrote:
I'm actually one of those whom has struggled unsuccessfully to
install
Sharp. I can't even remember why, and I am certain it was entirely
my
fault, but this did get me wondering...
I guess this is often a more general problem: when we're dealing with
a crystallographic problem that our current set of practices doesn't
deal satisfactorily with and we would like to try out another program,
this is usually also a time of great stress and pressure (competitors,
supervisors, finishing PhD etc). Ideally one would want to install and
learn how to use a new software package when there is a half day or
day time ... seldom happens.
Without getting into details of installation, usually (> 90%) it is
enough to download our packages and then run "./installSHARP -F". I
might be wrong - but this could be a problem of not getting enough
feedback about failed attempts (time pressure?). So please tell us
about installation problems (or any problems) - hopefully this is a
small price to pay for getting the software for free. If you feel like
sending us positive feedback - even better (especially since
crystallographic software doesn't get citations anymore these days
... maybe hidden in supplementary material that isn't easily visible
through any search system I know of).
mlphare and MIR/MAD phasing seems to me the weak point in the ccp4
distribution. (I've often switched over to CNS to calculate phases
and
solvent-flatten them.)
Is there any chance your team might be inspired, persuaded or
bribed to
create a drop-in replacement for mlphare, maybe a "sharp light" for
boneheads like me? Something that uses the same I/O and interface
as ccp4?
A drop-in replacement would be very tricky: the concepts of SHARP are
quite different (there is no such thing as 'native' or 'derivative') -
but this adds a huge amount of flexibility.
However, in the next 6.1 release there will be a autoSHARP CCP4i
interface already in the CCP4 distribution (it's already there in the
latest 6.0.99 prerelease or the CVS sources). Although this will still
require the installation of SHARP/autoSHARP itself, at least one could
run autoSHARP without the need of running a httpd. But be aware that
using the CCP4i interface does limit you somewhat - a lot of the
additional tools (regarding density modification, checking/finding
sites via LLG maps, fine-tuning SHARP and viewing maps directly)
aren't easily accessible this way.
But autoSHARP should deal with all the situations that mlphare etc are
dealing with: SIRAS, SAD, MIRAS, MAD etc. And if you want to do (or
need to do) MAD+native+derivative or TaBr-cluster phasing or
site-specific radiation damage or other more complex phasing
scenarios: SHARP itself is the tool for doing all that.
Cheers
Clemens
--
***************************************************************
* Clemens Vonrhein, Ph.D. vonrhein AT GlobalPhasing DOT com
*
* Global Phasing Ltd.
* Sheraton House, Castle Park
* Cambridge CB3 0AX, UK
*--------------------------------------------------------------
* BUSTER Development Group (http://www.globalphasing.com)
***************************************************************
