[chimera-dev] Multi-touch and Chimera

[Tom Goddard]

Hi Greg,

  Sounds neat.  Will a multi-touch interface work with a standard laptop 
touch-pad?

  The source code for Chimera is on the web though it isn't up to date.

    http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/sourcecode.html

All of the functions you are interested in are implemented in Python 
code which is included in the distributed Chimera.  The Python code is 
in files (with ".py" suffix) in directories under

    chimera/share

or on Mac under directory Chimera.app/Contents/Resources/share.  But it 
is quite difficult to find the Chimera Python routines you need.  Our 
programming reference guide (automatically generated from code comments) 
is not too useful but we provide programming examples that might help.

    
http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ProgrammersGuide/Examples/index.html

The easiest approach is to ask us by email for the routines you need, 
e.g. list all chain identifiers, select chain given id, color equivalent 
to actions menu, move models, rotate models, show atom-atom distance, 
find atom under mouse, draw label....  Eric Pettersen is the most 
familiar with that code and what simple routines already exist  to do 
those things.  He is on vacation now but expected back around Thursday.

  You are interested in atom-atom distances.  Will the user choose an 
atom through the touch interface?  It seems that would require visual 
feedback in the Chimera window -- equivalent of the mouse pointer.  I 
suppose you could take over the mouse pointer, or you could create a new 
"cursor" implemented perhaps as a Chimera 2d label.

    Tom