[Chimera-users] non-GUI use of Chimera

[Daniel Greenblatt]

Do you need access to graphics, or just the data ?
What are some intended scenarios ?

It would take some work, but would certainly be possible
to provide the kind of access you need from a shell. This
is an idea we have considered before, and it is good
to know that there is a demand for it.

--Dan


----------------------------
Daniel Greenblatt
UCSF Computer Graphics Lab
dan at cgl.ucsf.edu

On Thu, 20 May 2004, Randy Heiland wrote:

> Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 14:21:56 -0500
> From: Randy Heiland <heiland at indiana.edu>
> To: 'Daniel Greenblatt' <dan at cgl.ucsf.edu>
> Cc: chimera-users at cgl.ucsf.edu
> Subject: RE: [Chimera-users] non-GUI use of Chimera
> 
> Thanks for the reply Dan.  Yes, I was familiar with the 3 options you
> describe and none of them really do what I want, although, I guess, the
> 'interactive nogui' mode you hinted at would be closest.  In short, I'd
> like server-side Chimera functionality; I don't want users to have to
> download/install Chimera.
>
> --Randy
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Daniel Greenblatt [mailto:dan at cgl.ucsf.edu]
>> Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 1:59 PM
>> To: Randy Heiland
>> Cc: chimera-users at cgl.ucsf.edu
>> Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] non-GUI use of Chimera
>>
>> Hi Randy,
>>
>>> I am evaluating Chimera as a tool for providing (pseudo-interactive)
> vis
>>> functionality from a web server and therefore would like to use it
> in a
>>> non-gui mode.
>>
>> I'm not completely clear on what you mean by this.
>> Exactly what type of functionality do you want to provide?
>> Do you plan on using Chimera on the server-side, or client-side?
>>
>> There are several different [potential] solutions here, depending on
>> what it is you want to do:
>>
>> (1) Chimera as a web-browser client
>>    A locally installed copy of Chimera can be used as a
>>    web browser 'helper application', responding to certain
>>    links clicked on in a web browser. These links contatin information
>>    about files to open, and commands or python code to execute in
>>    Chimera (Chimera runs in its own window -- not embedded in the
>> browser).
>>    See
>>
>>
> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ContributedSoftware/webdata/webdata
> .h
>> tml
>>    for more information.
>>
>> (2) The IDLE interpreter
>>    Currently, the only way to access Chimera's Python API in an
>>    interactive fashion is through the IDLE window
>>    (Tools->Programming->IDLE) from within Chimera. This, of
>>    course, requires having Chimera running in normal (i.e. not
> 'nogui')
>>    mode. If there is sufficient demand, we may include an 'interactive
>>    nogui' mode, that gives you access from the shell.
>>
>> (3) chimera --nogui
>>    As you already know, Chimera can be started with the '--nogui'
> flag,
>>    which doesn't bring up any graphics windows, and is used mainly for
>>    carrying out molecular calculations. Since there is no graphics
> window,
>>    it is not possible to do any visualization (including saving
> images).
>>
>> This sounds like an interesting problem - please let us know if any of
>> these solutions are appropriate, or require further explanation.
>>
>>
>> --Dan Greenblatt
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------
>> Daniel Greenblatt
>> UCSF Computer Graphics Lab
>> dan at cgl.ucsf.edu
>>
>
>
>