Gnuplot - Revision history

Mcassdtm: /* Advantages */

2014-11-24T12:27:40Z

‎Advantages

Mcassdtm at 10:49, 24 November 2014

2014-11-24T10:49:18Z

Mcassdtm at 10:47, 24 November 2014

2014-11-24T10:47:38Z

Mcassdtm at 16:54, 21 November 2014

2014-11-21T16:54:32Z

Mcassdtm: Created page with "http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/ VMD "is designed for modeling, visualization, and analysis of biological systems such as proteins, nucleic acids, lipid bilayer assemb..."

2014-11-21T16:51:54Z

Created page with "http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/ VMD "is designed for modeling, visualization, and analysis of biological systems such as proteins, nucleic acids, lipid bilayer assemb..."

New page

[[http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/ VMD]] "is designed for modeling, visualization, and analysis of biological systems such as proteins, nucleic acids, lipid bilayer assemblies, etc. It may be used to view more general molecules, as VMD can read standard Protein Data Bank (PDB) files and display the contained structure. VMD provides a wide variety of methods for rendering and coloring a molecule: simple points and lines, CPK spheres and cylinders, licorice bonds, backbone tubes and ribbons, cartoon drawings, and others. VMD can be used to animate and analyze the trajectory of a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. In particular, VMD can act as a graphical front end for an external MD program by displaying and animating a molecule undergoing simulation on a remote computer."

====Type of Data====

Unsurprisingly, most respondents use this software for molecular/atomic/protein visualisation.

====Size of Data Set====

This varies widely. About half the respondents have data sets smaller than a few GB. Two had data sets of 40 and 50 GB. Otherwise they had 1,000 or 30,000 atoms.

====Advantages====

The most widely cited advantages are
*quality of output
*range of supported file types
*simple to use/script

====Quality of Documentation/Tutorials====

Documentation was almost universally regarded as good or very good. One respondent stated it was difficult to navigate.

====Range of Data Formats====

Again, almost universally regarded as good, with two exceptions:
*"temperamental with periodic images"
*"no support for cif"

====Level of Support Available====

A range of resources is used: mailing lists and online forum.

====Performance====

Performance generally regarded as good, especially on a desktop machine.

====Limitations====

*"Needs a good graphics card"
*"TCL scripting is limited"
*"Slow to load large data sets"
*"Some additional analysis tools are unstable"
*"Some representations not appropriate for periodic boundary conditions"
*"Cannot interpret bond types"

====Comments====

The tools are free and open source

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ====Advantages====
-Advantages are hinted at in the test quoted above, taken from gnuplot's home page: it is open source, flexible and mature.
+Advantages are hinted at in the text quoted above, taken from gnuplot's home page: it is open source, flexible and mature.
 ====Quality of Documentation/Tutorials====

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 One respondent reported using all types of data with gnuplot.
 Others were more selective.
 ====Size of Data Set====
 Again, one respondent reported using any size of input. Another reported using 100s.
 ====Advantages====
-Advantages are hinted at in the test quoted above, taken from gnuplot's home page: it is open source, flexible
+Advantages are hinted at in the test quoted above, taken from gnuplot's home page: it is open source, flexible and mature.
- and mature.
 ====Quality of Documentation/Tutorials====
 Documentation is reported to be good, although less so for advanced features. Because it is such a well-established tool, extensive online tutorial material is available.
 ====Range of Data Formats====
 Huge flexibility, ranging from csv files to latex.
 ====Level of Support Available====
 See above - extensive community support is available.
 ====Performance====
 Is assessed as being "good".
 ====Limitations====
 Input is by a scripting language that isn't to everyone's taste.
 ====Comments====
 Comments reiterated statements made earlier, the package is open source and free.