We would be happy to provide a web site location for RasTop as part of the RasMol home page and to provide support for it as part of the RasMol.org effort. -- Herbert ===================================================== Herbert J. Bernstein, Professor of Computer Science Dowling College, Kramer Science Center, KSC 121 Idle Hour Blvd, Oakdale, NY, 11769 +1-631-244-3035 yaya at dowling.edu ===================================================== On Thu, 31 May 2007, Philippe wrote: > Dear All, > > RasTop has found a new home on sourceforge at > http://sourceforge.net/projects/rastop/. A release package, version 2.2, is > available for download and the source is accessible through a subversion > repository. I came recently to the conclusion that this was the best > opportunity for this software to continue its road as it becomes quite clear > that I don't have the time anymore to take care of it. > > Just to remind you, RasTop is a molecular visualization software derived > from rasmol. Its main characteristics are a very friendly graphical user > interface and the possibility to save working sessions for latter uses. > Otherwise RasTop is pretty much like rasmol and uses similar scripting > methods. In term of statistic, RasTop has a download rate of 10,000 per year > which hasn't changed much over the last 3 to 4 years. There is also a > French version which is a sort of standard in school although I lost contact > with the person who developped it. After calculation (following a recent a > hot thread of Molvist list (http://bioinformatics.org/lists/molvis-list in > the last few days regarding download statistics of varied molecuar > visualization packages), it appears that around 10% of all rasmol users are > in fact RasTop users! Bravo! > > At the center of the software package, we have the rasmol molecular engine > written in c, essentially by Roger Sayle (see www.rasmol.org for history). > The piece almost acts like a library and is completely independent from the > GUI; it is slightly improved over the current rasmol version for handling > multiple molecules and has a rendering a little better (although this has > nothing to compare of course with software based on OpenGL or other > dedicated graphics libraries). The user interface is in c++ based on > Microsoft Foundation Classes and has been mostly written by myself. The > restriction to Windows and use of MFCs has certainly created an obstacle for > larger developments but it wouldn't be too difficult to port the user > interface to a different langage. > > The possibilities of extension are countless and a community of users is > certainely lacking, but there is definitively a number fans waiting for it. > Anyway, if you feel that this is a project you would like to take care in > part or in all, please let me know. There is room for new ports, new > translations, new improvments, a new web site (the current one needs a new > home), a community, and most of all, new *administrators*. Just contact me. > > Thanks, > Philippe Valadon > > > _______________________________________________ > Molvis-list mailing list > Molvis-list at bioinformatics.org > https://bioinformatics.org/mailman/listinfo/molvis-list >