Re: [Bkchem-user] Using BKChem as a library for generation of 2D structure images

[Noel O'Boyle]

OSRA looks perfect for the job (particularly example2.py). I will
carry out some tests with it over the weekend.

Noel

On 27/03/2008, Beda Kosata <address@hidden> wrote:
> Noel O'Boyle wrote:
>  >
>  > Hmm...it seems that it's necessary to start the Application. Do you
>  > have any plans to separate some of the functionality into a library
>  > that could be accessed without starting the App? For example, I simply
>  > want to (1) build a molecule (using the information in the connection
>  > table of a pybel molecule), (2) generate 2D layout, (3) create an
>  > image (preferably stored in a string, rather than in a file).
>
>
> The problem here is that the started App lets you measure exact (or
>  almost exact) text size, thus enabling much nicer output.
>  Also there is the whole machinery of the App behind you, so you can
>  relatively easily work with color, fonts, etc.
>  But its true that it is slow and ineffective.
>
>
>  >
>  > It would be great to have this as a library, not just for Pybel.
>  > According to today's write up on Depth First, BKChem is one of only 4
>  > available structure diagram generators...and the only one in Python
>  > (see 
> http://depth-first.com/articles/2008/03/26/five-open-tools-for-2d-structure-layout-aka-structure-diagram-generation)
>  >
>
>
> Interesting. The 2D coordinate generation is done in the OASA library I
>  mentioned. This particular part of the library was written some 3 or 4
>  years ago when I was doing a postdoc in Germany and had plenty of free
>  time in the evenings. I did not touch the code since and it has some
>  weak points (such as possible overlaps of atoms in highly branched
>  structures), etc.
>
>  This brings us nicely to the second option I mentioned - using OASA (the
>  library that is behind BKChem). I use it on http://inchi.info to
>  generate pictures in the converter. It is not able to run without
>  X-windows installed, because it uses cairo for picture generation and
>  cairo does not work without X installed. However, you don't need X
>  running. I use it for PNGs now, but cairo is capable of producing PDF's,
>  EPS's and SVG's as well.
>  I attach two  small scripts that demonstrate what you can do. Just copy
>  it to the bkchem directory where the oasa library resides and run it. As
>  you can see the OASA api is not that different from Pybel and it would
>  be almost no effort to create a bridge between the two (as I intent to
>  do in neat future :)
>  The only problem here is that I did not put that much effort into the
>  cairo output backend, so the result is not that nice. Also there is not
>  much support for configuration of display options for atoms, fancy
>  things like sub- and superscripts, etc. (In BKChem you can say "I want
>  this atom rendered with symbol on and hydrogens on, I also want each
>  nitrogen atom painted in green"; you cannot do this in OASA (without
>  some hacking)).
>  It all depends on what you need.
>
>
>  > My other question is how stable is the BKChem API?
>  >
>
>
> Well, it depends. Some parts of the API are pretty stable, but I don't
>  hesitate when I need to change something when I need to. I try to
>  document changes in commit logs, but not very thoroughly because I am
>  the only one working on BKChem.
>  Maybe it is better to give an example - there are some batch scripts
>  that I have created some two years ago that work even with recent
>  versions. On the other hand there are a few that I had to tweak slightly
>  because they used things that changed slightly over the time.
>
>  Best regards
>
>
>         Beda
>
>