Subject: Re: [nmr_sparky] Sparky + Chimera on Mac
From: Thomas Goddard
Date: Dec 12, 2006

Previous: 324

Hi John,

I could not get Sparky 3.112 to work with Chimera 1.2154 on Mac OS 10.4.8.
That Chimera version will not even start on its own. Something must have
changed in Mac OS that breaks that year old version of Chimera.

As discussed in the Sparky manual in the extextions in python section
under Chimera molecule display

http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/sparky/manual/extensions.html#Chimera

you have to use exactly the right versions of Sparky and Chimera to get
them to interact. This was because of a bad design decision I made.
Both programs run within the same Python interpreter and this simply
does not work well because Sparky and Chimera versions are always changing
the Python that they use. Sparky cannot work with any versions of Chimera
more recent than Chimera 1.2154 (Aug 2005) because after that version
Chimera includes a Python executable that is not the standard Python
-- it has some modifications and Chimera cannot run with the standard
Python used by Sparky. It may be that the Sparky Python can be replaced
with the modified Chimera Python. I tried this using Chimera 1.2186 on
the Mac and got an error when Chimera tries to start from Sparky about
Tix isnt loaded statically. That may be some other change in the newer
Chimera that I do not have time to look into.

So the bottom line is I know of no way to make the Sparky interface to
Chimera work on the Mac. I have tested it on Linux within the last 6 months
and it worked. It should also work on Windows though I have not tested
recently. I am the maintainer of Sparky and since there is no funding
for the project there is also no time to fix this problem.

Tom