ChimeraX Developer Meeting

Attendance: Greg, Zach, Tom, Eric

July 27, 2026

Agenda

• Deprecate mmtf reader
• Github pypi package security warnings
• Amber 26 update
• Updating PyPi packages
• Try PyQt to PySide for next release?
• Inside ribbon color.
• Work in progress reports.
• Toolshed reduce check for updates result size.
• Make Chimera end-of-life bug report and registration changes.

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Discussion

• Deprecate mmtf reader
  • Should we remove mmtf from ChimeraX?
  • Yes, announce on the mailing list and remove from daily build.
  • Greg says PDB stopped supplying mmtf binary files for new entries in 2024.
  • PDB has a newer binary mmcif format.

• Github pypi package security warnings
  • 6 security warnings about PyPi packages: lxml, filelock, requests, pygments, messagepack
  • Greg will update these

• Amber 26 update
  • Eric working on updating from Amber 20 to Amber 26 (6 year jump).
  • Trying build on Windows, not yet in daily build, currently causing test suite failure. Fix has been made.

• Updating PyPi packages
  • Looked at outdated PyPi packages using prereqs/pips/Makefile app-outdated target. Shows about 60 packages.
  • We should consider which are important to keep up to date.
  • Discussed keeping certifi up to date.

• PySide
  • Zach may try switching PyQt to PySide in daily build when Qt 6.11.2 comes out.
  • We reverted from Qt 6.11.1 to Qt 6.10.2 due to a main window resizing bug when floating tools present.
  • If we want to use PySide instead of PyQt in next December ChimeraX release need to be using it in daily builds no later than August to give enough time for testing.

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Action Items