Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!uunet!bionet!kristoff
From: kristoff@genbank.bio.net (David Kristofferson)
Newsgroups: bionet.software
Subject: Re: X-Windows, InterViews, and molecular biology software
Keywords: Unix, C++, X-Windows, InterViews, computational molecular biology
Message-ID: <Feb.12.21.58.54.1991.10061@genbank.bio.net>
Date: 13 Feb 91 05:58:54 GMT
References: <1991Feb13.005957.3523@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Organization: GenBank Online Service
Lines: 35


> I'd like to hear your comments on whether X-Windows software for 
> molecular biology will grow in importance over the coming decade 
> over personal computer software.  Also, are you currently using X-
> Window software?  Do you expect to in the next year or so?

Don,

	As long as you are speaking in decades I am sure that the
answer is yes 8-).  I still think that the standard Mac interface
remains the most popular for biologists in the near term and am unsure
of the appeal of A/UX.

	I personally use an X terminal which serves off of one of our
Sun fileservers for most of my work.  X terminals utilize X windows
(obviously).  They have the advantage of being cheaper than a
workstation (or a Mac loaded up enough to run A/UX) and allow one the
same type of working environment, i.e., multiple windows, cutting and
pasting, etc.  However, within the windows themselves I am simply
running the various standard character-based software on GOS.  Others
in the systems group here are running software written specifically
for X windows in their environments, but I haven't had sufficient need
yet to "upgrade" since my current set up handles my needs quite
adequately (the old inertia problem again 8-)!  But then, I am a
humble administrator, not a software engineer, and my needs are not
complex.

From a commercial developer's standpoint the size of the molecular
biology software market makes it essential to produce software that
runs on as many different platforms as possible with minimal
additional coding effort.  This portability grail has been elusive in
the past, but because of developments like X, it is rapidly becoming
realizable.

Dave