On Sat, 1 Mar 2003, Miguel wrote:
> >> > I would also want an interactive (event) GUI. > >>Do you mean that you want drive the gui with program-generated events? > > That would be great. No, I meant that the GUI should trap human mouse > > clicks, etc and send them to the calling program > We are getting closer, but I still don't understand exactly what you > mean. > > I think Jmol is *already* an interactive "event driven" GUI. > So, what I missing? Or, more correctly, what is Jmol missing in this area? I am not completely familar with the current architecture of Jmol so I may just be out of date. I want to be able to receive events such as: - AtomSelectedEvent - AtomClickedEvent - MoleculeTransformedEvent, etc. and for my application to be able to use these. If they are already there, please excuse me - I was responding with a general shopping list. > > Maybe I'm reading too much into your question, but do you just want an > event recorder/playback mechanism? > > > We need a language and agree on the primitives. The language must > > emulate much (?all) of what a human user does by clicking. The > > scripts could also be machine-generated (?XML) so that programs could > > drive a display. Also the script could log user events and replay > > them. > OK, so you want a new syntax/language. And you want an event recorder. > My shopping list did not necessarily imply I thought the functionality was missing - I simply wanted to list those things I wanted. :-) > I am going to take an extreme position to try to uncover the crux of > your issue. > - With the exception of the event recorder, you can do > what you want in Jmol *today* > - The RasMol scripting implementation *today* is a near superset of > the functionality that is available from the GUI > - The only reason it isn't a proper superset is because there is > functionality in Jmol which doesn't exist in Jmol ... I did not > want to introduce new scripting commands without some feedback > from somebody who has more problem space expertise than I do. > For example, there are no script commands for the following Jmol > functionality because the functionality does not exist in RasMol: > * wireframe rotation > * perspective view > * atom styles quickdraw & wireframe > * bond style quickdraw > * playing an animation/vibration > * exporting povray/pdf > * saving files > * turning on/off display of force vectors > * deleting atoms (and I don't like this one anyway :( I don't like that one either! It would trun Jmol into an editor and that is a lot of extra work > - as far as I can think of, *all* other GUI functionality is available > in the scripting language. > > Let me try to state it another way .. we could easily substitute almost > all the menu entries so that each menu entry was tied to an underlying > script: > - performance would be fine > - architecturally it would be very clean > - it would draw a clear distinction between the UI and the underlying > functionality > The context in which to do this is the implementation of the event > recorder. Menu events generate "scriptlets" which get recorded as they get > executed. > > I know that you don't like the RasMol syntax (or the semantics); I > don't like it either. But the fact is: > - as far as I can tell, more people know it than any other > molecular visualization scripting language > - it is there *today* in Jmol and it *works* > - true, there is no event recorder, but that can be built rather easily > > So, all that is left is: > - another syntax for the scripting language > - functionality which does not exist in Jmol today > > As I said, I know I have taken an extreme position here. So react and > tell me what you think. > > > >>I need some specific examples of things that Chime can do that are > >> missing from Jmol. > >> > >>You don't need to send me a long list. Just send me one or two > >> pointers > >> that I can follow. > > > > 2D diagrams (cf JChemPaint). I know that CHIME does spectra. I am NOT > > adding this to your list at present :-) > > OK. I know that Egon wants 2D diagrams too. > I did not know that Chime could do 2D diagrams. I will look into it. > > > > I don't know. I suspect that RasMOL cannot animate dynamics > > calculations as Jmol does > > I think you are correct. Therefore, that functionality that is > currently *not* available from the Jmol scripting language. > So we have two options: > 1. somebody tells me what syntax they want within the context of > the RasMol *grammer* (and I use that term quite loosely). > In this case it is implemented in a couple of hours followed by > a couple of hours of testing. The infrastructure for the script > compiler/interpreter already exists and adding new commands is > trivial. > 2. somebody gives me a whole new "scripting language" to implement, > with a whole new structure. I would be very interested in doing > this, I honestly would. > Unfortunately, I don't think I can contribute very much to the > generation of the language specification, much less drive the > spec generation process. I don't have a good enough understanding > of the problem space. > But I'll be glad to give you plenty of *open/honest/direct* > feedback on the specification. I should probably revist the rasmol syntax and see what functionality is present > > > >> > You must be brave to ask for a shopping list! > >>brave? ... or stupid! :) > > HTH > Don't know what HTH means ... please translate :) HopeThisHelps P. > > > Miguel > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek Welcome to geek heaven. http://thinkgeek.com/sf _______________________________________________ Jmol-developers mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/jmol-developers
