ChimeraX Developer Meeting

Attendance: Greg, Tom, Eric

November 13, 2023

Agenda

• Updating prereqs, cython.
• Antechamber and ffmpeg in Mac ChimeraX are Intel-only. Add ARM versions? Ticket #10132
• Release candidate progress.
• Review ChimeraX 1.7 roadmap and tickets.
• Worm ribbon implementation, ticket #9942
• Tristan Toolshed install dependency issues, Ticket #9861, blocking Clipper update #9786
• Tristan, bundle version number not reported correctly. Ticket #9873
• Log slow to update when it gets long, Tristan ticket #9909
• Create Grafana dashboards to monitor web services.
• ViewDockX port to Qt progress
• How long should code commits be added to release branch after release?
• Make Chimera end-of-life bug report and registration changes for 1.18 release in Spring 2024.
• Back up the Chimera build machine to a solid state drive, Windows 7.
• ChimeraX Ideas milestone clean-up.

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Discussion

• Update Cython
  • Eric says Cython version has advanced from version 0.29 to 3.0.5.
  • Supposed to have better Python 3 support.
  • Used by chimerax atomic data structures.
  • We should update after ChimeraX 1.7 release is made.

• Intel-only Mac binaries
  • ffmpeg and AmberTools in Mac ChimeraX are Intel only.
  • This causes an error "Bad CPU architecture" if Rosetta is not installed.
  • Eric more than a year ago caught AmberTools error and showed warning saying to install Rosetta.
  • Today got ffmpeg bug report. Tom will try to find a Mac ARM ffmpeg binary and test and put into our builds.
  • Mac universal build output shows only two other binaries are Intel-only: OpenVR and libHoloPlay (LookingGlass display). VR is no longer supported on Mac and LookingGlass display will likely be out of business soon. So neither of those need ARM versions.

• Reviewed ChimeraX 1.7 tickets
  • Greg working on ChimeraX registration add to annouce mailing list, mmCIF issue, flatpak distribution, Toolshed installed tools breaking build.

• Windows 7 Chimera build machine backup
  • Do we need to backup Windows 7 Chimera build machine or is it ok to let it die and never build on Windows again?
  • Tom suggests we make some changes to Chimera before final release such as disconnecting Report a Bug and instead showing a message saying there will be no bug fixes and use ChimeraX. Also disconnect request to register.
  • Plan to have a final Chimera 1.18 release around the same time as ChimeraX 1.8 (May 2024) with end--of-life changes made.

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Action Items