> Specifically, the American Chemical Society now provides MOL files andother online content in the Web versions of their publications, but it does not deliver applets to render the content. (Maybe it should, but it doesn't.)
(Perhaps we should suggest that they consider using Jmol :-)
Actually, I've already done this. (I think I suggested Marvin, too, which is free to scientific publishers, but Jmol would be just as good or better.) The publishers at ACS, though, are novices when it comes to Web content. The first time I published a paper with MOL files as EWOs (Extended Web Objects, their name for Web-only content) in late 2002, I had to back-and-forth with them a dozen times before I could convince them that they needed to include the MIME type of the MOL file when they delivered it to the browser. I have just published another paper with MOL files as EWOs, and now they have stripped all of the return characters from the MOL files (probably from transferring them across platforms), so even Chime can't display it properly. I alerted them to the problem several days ago, and it still hasn't been fixed. :-(
The problem is made worse by the fact that the publishing folks don't like to communicate directly with the authors. They want the editors to act as a buffer. Then communication ends up like the child's game of Telephone. Argh!
In any case, if you can convince ACS to deliver applets along with the EWOs, you will have done a great service to the chemistry community. Meanwhile, though, we need another solution.
Here are my personal thoughts/comments ... in random order:
* In general, it is extremely expensive to develop and maintain plug-ins. To the best of my knowledge, there is no well-defined standard Plug-in architecture (although Netscape's API is probably somewhat standard). This means that plug-ins have to be developed on a per platform/browser basis. This is very costly and painful, and can only be undertaken by companies that have significant financial resources. That is why Chime went down the toilet.
* The Applet architecuture was designed to replace this. Everyone fell in love with Applets because they were supposed to solve this problem ... cross-platform compatibility and a standard interface to the Browser.
* It is possible to install an applet locally. This is called a *signed* applet.
* It may be possible for us to create a JmolApplet that could be installed locally as a signed applet and would operate offline by detecting the mime-type ... I do not know ... but I will put it on my list of things to investigate.
A signed applet would be a great alternative to a plug-in. I didn't know such a thing was possible.
This morning I also sent an email to Manfred Schubert, who has created at least two very nice plug-ins for Safari (http://www.schubert-it.com), about converting Jmol to an applet. Maybe you can get in touch with him and discuss the possibilities.
-- Bob
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