Not quite. I think we're mostly in agreement.
I'm saying that one solution, if you want to implement Jmol on a tablet,
is to to Android. I'm not interested in getting into a debate here of
"Apple vs. Android." People have their passions. I was just reacting to
Craig's urge to go out and get an iPad, suggesting there are alternatives.
I think what I'm saying is that Jmol is now in a state that whoever wants
to develop it for the iPad is clear to do so. The Android port shows that
the Jmol library is totally independent of graphics environment, and people
are coming up with solutions that port Java to iPad-based languages. All
the pieces are there that are needed, as far as I can see. What a
developer would need to do is replace one package (org.jmol.awt) with
whatever works on their platform, and work that into a new GUI. You don't
have to give up the functionality of Jmol or feel like Jmol is a dead end
because it is a Java program anymore. Whether or not someone wants to work
on that, that's another question. Personally, I'm not planning on becoming
an iPad developer.
But there are other fine solutions for the iPad. WebGL is great for simple
displays of simple models. (I have yet to see ChemDoodle not crash on large
proteins. I haven't seen surfaces yet from ChemDoodle, either. Maybe they
just haven't had time; maybe it's not possible/practical. I don't know. I
think they have other priorities, and if you can send me a link to surfaces
from ChemDoodle, I'd be interested in coming up to speed with their
environment. I note that ChemDoodle runs most effectively when connected to
their site, which uses Java.)
One could easily tweak the page-based ChemDoodle library to point to any
other site, and have that site running Jmol in the background to do the
heavy lifting. Since the iPad is fundamentally based on being connected,
this is a very simple Jmol-based iPad solution that takes almost nothing
to implement -- just set up your own server and change one line in the
ChemDoodle code. I happen to think that's a fine solution for the iPad.
The main problem with ChemDoodle developers is their philosophy that it
should not be scriptable. To my knowledge, is not scriptable, at least.
Sure, you can make JavaScript calls using matrices to do rotations and
such, but that's not what I mean. What Jmol has over every other web-based
molecular graphics option is scriptability. If you don't need that, there's
little need for Jmol. I think the sort of applications that people are
talking about -- books that show a 3D model that can be twiddled -- have
plenty of other options at their disposal than Jmol, and Jmol wouldn't
necessarily be the best option even if it were available, because for that
you don't need anything more than a few simple WebGL calls.
Bob
On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 8:08 AM, Rzepa, Henry S <h.rz...@imperial.ac.uk>wrote:
>
> But Bob, you are saying that the solution to Jmol on a tablet is to go
> Android (and keep Java). I think others are saying there may be a
> second choice for the future as well, which may or may not involve an
> evolution of Jmol.
>
>
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--
Robert M. Hanson
Professor of Chemistry
St. Olaf College
1520 St. Olaf Ave.
Northfield, MN 55057
http://www.stolaf.edu/people/hansonr
phone: 507-786-3107
If nature does not answer first what we want,
it is better to take what answer we get.
-- Josiah Willard Gibbs, Lecture XXX, Monday, February 5, 1900
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