Re: Sagemath: going further
On 02/02/2015 05:39 PM, Jerome BENOIT wrote:
> Hello,
>
> On 02/02/15 16:42, Tobias Hansen wrote:
>> On 02/02/2015 12:04 PM, Jerome BENOIT wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> On 01/02/15 20:37, Julien Puydt wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Let me remind you all of this is done by using as many
>>>> system-installed packages as possible, in order to see which debian
>>>> packages need to be modified and how. Until now, only maxima needs
>>>> some love, and we're lacking packages for : libgap, cddlib, rubiks,
>>>> sagenb, sagetex, singular and jmol.
>>>
>>> Is jmol really necessary for Sage ?
>>> I think it might be Suggested (if not forget) for the coming Sage package,
>>> in such a way we can brought our effort to the core part.
>>>
>>
>> >From looking up jmol I also first thought it only draws molecules. But
>> no, it is used in Sage as the default viewer for 3D plots [1]. So it is
>> an important component.
>
> According to [1], jmol is indeed used as default viewer,
> but 3 other alternatives are also listed:
> `jmol’: Interactive 3D viewer using Java
> ‘tachyon’: Ray tracer generates a static PNG image
> ‘java3d’: Interactive OpenGL based 3D
> ‘canvas3d’: Web-based 3D viewer powered by JavaScript and <canvas> (notebook only).
>
> My understanding is that jmol is far from ready and that, obviously, its main purpose
> is to visualize molecules (and as such it is maintained by the DebiChem Team [2]):
> visualization is important, but here there is a serious bottle neck that can be easily
> worked around as at least 2 of the alternative are already ready:
> tachyon is in the NEW queue [3];
> java3d is already distributed.
>
> Furthermore Singular uses other viewers:
> can we envisage to used them instead ?
>
>
I just tested the four viewers:
* jmol works nicely and is the only viewer that shows labeled axes. I
read somewhere that it offers also advanced features like measuring in
your plot etc. It seems that it does not even necessarily need Java
anymore since jsmol is now used per default in Sage [1].
* tachyon works but is not an interactive viewer. Turning/zooming
requires to enter angles etc beforehand and you just get an image.
* java3d just crashed Firefox (even after closing the notebook and the
tab, Firefox was still super slow and had to be killed). I did not see
this mentioned in any tutorial, nobody seems to recommend it.
* canvas3d is HTML5 based and works nicely, but has limited
functionality compared to jmol.
So right now jmol is the best solution and would be nice to have, but it
may be replaced by canvas3d, especially if it is further improved, gets
labels, etc in the future.
In the VCS on alioth version 13.2 of jmol is packaged. I don't know what
the missing reverse dependencies are that are mentioned in the RFH bug
[2], maybe it's not so bad after all. That it's a popular program for
chemistry also speaks for updating the package.
Best,
Tobias
[1] http://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/16004
[2] https://bugs.debian.org/719330
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