A Remote Collaboration Environment for Protein CrystallographyHEPiX-HEPNT Conference, 8 Oct 1999
Nicholas Sauter, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory
http://smb.slac.stanford.edu [email protected]
General Goal: Allow a team of researchers distributed anywhere in the worldto perform a complete crystallographic experiment, from data collection to structure publication.
User at SSRLTeam Member at
Home LabRemote
Collaborator
CollaboratoryManager
EquipmentControl
Data CPU
InternetLocal Area
Network
Designing a Modern System from the Ground Up
• High Performance Computing Environment at the Beamline Distributed Architecture Cross Platform Compatibility GUI’s Implemented in Tcl/Tk
• Extending this System for Remote Access Viewing the Data from a Remote Platform Live Video Feed from the Experimental Floor Remote File Access and Data Archiving General Security Considerations Delivering X-window Legacy Applications with Terminal Server
Tcl / Tk for GUI Development
Source: John Ousterhoust, IEEE Computer, March 1998
• Rapid Development GUI needs only a
fraction of the code necessary in C, C++ or Java.
Easy for the novice programmer!
Quick coding & easy maintenance is essential for rapidly changing beamline environment.
Other Advantages of Tcl /Tk
Platform Independence Unix, VMS, Mac, and Win32. Scripts can be distributed without compilation and run on any computer Tcl/Tk
has been installed on. Or…scripts can be bundled with Tcl/Tk binaries and distributed as a single
executable file.
Extensible in C/C++ Tcl was designed to be extended readily in C or C++. High performance code, multiple threads, etc., best implemented as
extensions. XOS library is used for sockets.
Object Orientation The [Incr Tcl] extension to Tcl provides object-oriented features such as
classes. The [Incr Widgets] extension provides an object oriented framework for
building complex widgets from built-in Tcl widgets.
Video Feeds from the Experimental Floor
SampleManipulation
BeamlineInstruments
Videoconference
Metadata for Diffraction Images
File Header
Thumbnail View
File Parameters• Creation date• Access control list• Tape archive status• User annotation • Annotation by data processing software• Move, rename, and copy tracking
Larger JPEG ViewLarger JPEG View
Legacy Applications Can Run Within X-window on Metaframe
SGI Desktopat home lab
WindowsTerminalServer
at SSRLSeen Through ICA Connection
WRQ Reflection-XShowing SGI Desktop at SSRL Data Analysis Application
Running at SSRL
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