Attendees

Eric, Greg, Zach, TomG

Held over zoom

Agenda

General

• Move developer meetings to 2pm Mondays?
• Prune the agenda list

ChimeraX

• moving apps up vs moving core down (goal: have python modules on the same level)
• moving core source code into a src subdirectory like other bundles
• need not rearrange source to support IDEs, only need editable installs (will require workaround as namespace packages cannot be installed in this mode automatically)
  • editable installs should also let us call ChimeraX with Python for rapid iteration and the C launcher for detailed crash info
• get_libdir, get_include
• write_bundle_classifiers: bundle builder or core?
• beta releases on Toolshed
• Should we decouple the core bundle version number from the ChimeraX release version?
• How best to backport M1 support from native-packaging to 1.4 release branch
• Review prereq versions after 27 June

Chimera

• Back up the build machine to a solid state drive

Discussion

General

• Move developer meetings to 2pm Monday and keep 2pm Thursday open for extra discussion
• Python versioning philosophy: do we track versions?
  • Tom says AlphaFold back on 3.7, they seem uncompelled by updates
  • Zach says we should concentrate on interpreter features -- they're backwards compatible
  • Greg sees no reason to go to 3.10, but is excited by the 3.11 speedup. Zach agrees.
  • Eric points out that forwards compatibility doesn't hold for compiled modules
    • Greg says Bundle Builder has support for the limited API
    • Greg says limited API doesn't save a developer from the need to ensure compiler compatibility
      • PyObject layout could change, etc.
      • Would be good for us to use limited API if possible to reduce complexity
      • Toolshed bundles would work for multiple versions
  • Tom notes we have many dependencies that may not support 3.11 right off the bat
  • Python 3.9 EOL is October 2025 (3.7 is in June 2023)

ChimeraX

• Greg suggest making bundle builder into a build backend
• toml support is experimental, shouldn't announce to external developers quite yet
• Greg doesn't want hybrid builds in develop. Could do it in a branch for testing, but don't allow developers to opt in until it's ready.
  • Afraid of early adopters shooting themselves in the foot
• setuptools upgrade a little more complex than from setuptools import distutils
• More sensible move core down next to the rest of the bundles
  • Have core participate in the dependency graph that we generate with the python script

• PR order:
  • Move main to core/__main.py
  • Don't build apps first
  • (app/build) python3 -m chimerax.core as appropriate
  • Move core down
  • Put core code in core/src
  • Make bundle builder a build backend
  • Won't do hybrid builds until ready for primetime

• Removed from agenda:
  • What happens to ChimeraX Tasks at app quit (let's make a ticket)
    • Relevant to task manager
  • Rename ChimeraX.exe on Windows? (let's make a ticket)
  • Should we go to Python 3.10 in 1.5?
    • Zach put this on the agenda, says PyOpenGL-Accelerate has not been updated
    • The Python speed update is 3.11
    • Could move to Qt OpenGL API
    • Tentatively 3.11 in 1.6

Chimera

• Not going to touch Chimera as much as possible.
• Could set up VMWare machine and use that to build ChimeraX on Windows 7
  • Zach suggests QEMU
• If we're going to move to Windows 10 should do it before it's not available anymore
• Tom says we should just set up another Windows 7 machine if the current one dies
• Cygwin near to releasing last Windows 7 version
• Should do a disk level backup of Windows 7 machine

• Removed from agenda:
  • Switch Chimera daily builds from Windows 7 to Windows 10 (let's make a ticket)

• Implications of sunsetting Chimera
  • GROMACS support would probably break first
  • Tk toolkit needs another update
  • macOS support dicey

Infrastructure

• Trac much more stable than it used to be after BeeGFS upgrades
• Eric notes 1 problem in the last 3 months
• Still a good idea to upgrade the database but no longer life or death

• Removed from agenda:
  • Upgrade Trac to mysql for better reliability. (let's make a ticket)

TODO

• Present github continuous integration tutorial. Zach
• Remove pkg-config prereq if it is not being used for builds. Tom