ChimeraX Developer Meeting

Attendance: Greg, Zach, Tom, Eric

July 7, 2025

Agenda

• Trac not responding due to bots
• ChimeraX 1.10.1 patch release
  • Segmentations toolbar bad import #17662
  • Windows 1.10 build has 640 MB of unused Nvidia drivers #17970
  • 1.10 still asking to re-register, #18133
  • Session restore error #18140
• Updating prereqs.
• Switch from PyQt to PySide?
• Should we update Python from 3.11?
• ViewDockX port to Qt
• Inside ribbon color?
• 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.
• Linux ARM64 release and download page

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Discussion

• Trac hit by bots
  • Greg password protected top level Trac entry points for ChimeraX and Chimera Trac instances.
  • Individual tickets can still be viewed without login.
  • Greg got just one web server not responding email in last 24 hours versus one every 10 minutes before. So Trac login seems to fixed bot problem.
  • Tom suggests that requiring login just on Trac search queries may solve bot problem and allow ChimeraX users to access the rest of Trac (Roadmap, developer links, ...).
  • We will stick with password protection for this week and see how well it works.

• ChimeraX 1.10.1 patch release
  • Current 4 issues (listed above) are not urgent.
  • Greg and Zach will investigate solutions for 3 of the 4 issues so we know if they can be fixed easily.
  • Wait a little to see if additional serious 1.10 bug reports come in so they can also be fixed in a 1.10.1 release.
  • Want to avoid a 1.10.2 release since all users get notified of the new release and don't know if it will help them. So it is a drawback to show users to multiple patch releases.

• Prereq update
  • Update prereqs after a few more weeks, giving ChimeraX 1.10 time to settle.
  • Do we need to close the many dependabot pull requests?
  • Greg interested in new Cython supporting generic Python 3 API.

• PySide
  • Should we switch from PyQt to PySide?
  • Possible advantages: Don't have to get PyQt from plato for builds (often the cause of failed builds), don't have to pay for PyQt license, PyQt support could disappear since it is a 1 person effort, maybe some Qt crashes are caused by PyQt reference count or other problems.
  • Possible disadvantages: PySide may have difficult to fix incompatibilities with our Qt shim, PySide could disappear or cost money if Qt project decides it is not economical, PySide could introduce new crashes.
  • Need to consider whether we have time for this switch given other ChimeraX 1.11 priorities.

• Update Python
  • Current Python is 3.13 and ChimeraX uses 3.11.
  • Greg says Python project no longer provides 3.11 binary releases for patch versions. We have not been updating ChimeraX to use newer 3.11 patch versions.
  • Tom says Boltz 2 does not work with Python 3.13, but does work with Python 3.12.
  • Tom suggests Python 3.13 is too new given the hundred PyPi dependencies ChimeraX uses all need to work with it.
  • Greg says Python 3.13 has speed improvements.
  • Does not seem there is a strong reason to update from Python 3.11 for the next ChimeraX release.

• New Qt ViewDock
  • Piet has finished ChimeraX work.
  • New ViewDock is in the daily build.
  • Eric is adding some missing ViewDock features.
  • Have not yet engaged John Irwin to test new ViewDock.
  • Will notify outside testers when Eric finishes adding features.

• Group meeting schedule
  • Should we cancel group meeting this week since Tom Ferrin and Scooter are out?
  • Tom Ferrin is out the next 3 weeks. Should we cancel next 3 group meetings?
  • We will cancel this Thursdays and decide later whether the following ones should be cancelled.

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Action Items