ChimeraX Developer Meeting

Attendance: Greg, Piet, Tom, Eric

January 13, 2025

Agenda

• Possible updates Python 3.13, numpy 2, PySide6
• Work in progress reports
• Make Chimera end-of-life bug report and registration changes.
• Back up the Chimera build machine to a solid state drive, Windows 7.

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Discussion

• Daily builds
  • Builds have failed the last 3 days because update to PyQt 6.8 could not be fetched by Github Actions.
  • Zach said by email he will fix this.

• PySide6
  • Should next ChimeraX release use PySide6?
  • Would need to start testing now.
  • Grant proposals in next 6 months may reduce ChimeraX development time available.
  • Need to discuss further. Who would take responsibility for PySide6 testing and fixes?

• Scenes
  • Piet finished documenting scenes API, ready for review.
  • Piet will submit pull request to incorporate scenes API in bundle that will not be put in distribution yet.

• N453 door lock problem
  • Still can't use keypad to keep N453 door unlocked.
  • Greg submitted a ticket in December. No word yet.
  • Greg will ask again.

• Anisotropic ellipsoid depiction
  • Eric having trouble saving sessions with AtomShapeDrawing class that Greg made for nucleotides.
  • Eric will make a ticket demonstrating problem.
  • Greg will investigate error saving sessions.

• pyKVFinder
  • KVFinder crashes often on Windows only.
  • Eric made standalone test case that only needs Python that crashes using ChimeraX --nogui.
  • Test does not crash if ChimeraX python executable used directly.
  • What about starting via chimerax executable is different than starting using python?
  • Eric will run more tests including making chimerax launcher code only call Py_Main() like python startup.

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Action Items