[Joelib-help] Re: Differences/similarities between CDK, JOElib, Octet, Jmol, Jchempaint, Structure

[Joerg K. W. <we...@in...>]

Hi Ola,

all things said here are my personal opinion, so please be patient by=20
reading them.

> CDK		LGPL
> JOElib	GPL
> Octet		LGPL
> Jmol		LGPL
> Jchempaint	GPL
> Structure	LGPL
>=20
> 1) Have I understood the licenses above correctly? On some SF pages
> (joelib & jchempaint) it says GPL or LGPL. What does that mean? May I
> choose?
Not at all. GPL is harder than LGPL.
So in JOELib this means the kernel (this means the chemical expert=20
systems) is GPL and contains some LGPL parts. But you can not change the=20
GPL license. The GPL license comes from the stalled OELib project, so=20
commercial users can buy a OEChem license from EyesOpen, which is the=20
official commercial successor of OELib.

> 2) How much do CDK and JOElib overlap? I know you can use them together=
,
> what are the benefits of this? Descriptors? Will descriptors not be
> implemented in CDK?
They do not really overlap. Because they have different data structures=20
for molecules. There is a primitive converter class, but not more. So,=20
both have a different focus on what they provide. See documentation and=20
tutorials for details.
JOELib contains also LGPL code from Egon (CML) and modified 2D rendering=20
classes from Christoph (no 2D layout, only rendering, no event model)=20
which allows also to show SMARTS matchings and to export images and PDF.
Descriptors? Depends on the kind of the descriptors i would say, but=20
JOELib is here much more advanced (but i might be not objective here).

> 3) What does Octet add to this mix (except that it's LGPL and JOElib is
> not)? Can it be used with CDK? Overlap? Are the projects competing
> against each other?
No competition is the last thing we are interested in, because we are=20
too less developers to be really competitive. We are trying to combine=20
the different data structures in a general way in the octet project. But=20
this is still under discussion and far away from a concrete implementatio=
n.
So, on long terms this might provide a common interface.
Hopefully this will faciliate the usage of a chemoinformatics tools and=20
faciliate the project maintenance, we will see ...

> 4) What does the Structure project add to all this (except that it's
> built on Octet and LGPL)? The homepage says they are working on SDG,
> isn't that already present in CDK? Doesn't JchemPaint do the same thing
> as Structure?
Rich, is this project stalled or in progress ?

> I am posting this question in the CDK, Octet and JOElib mailinglists in
> order to get more extensive information.
Crossposting causes always many e-mails for users subscribed to all=20
users. If you bear such things always in mind, this is o.k.


CU, J=F6rg

--=20
Dipl. Chem. Joerg K. Wegner
Center of Bioinformatics Tuebingen (ZBIT)
Department of Computer Architecture
Univ. Tuebingen, Sand 1, D-72076 Tuebingen, Germany
Phone: (+49/0) 7071 29 78970
Fax: (+49/0) 7071 29 5091
E-Mail: mailto:we...@in...
WWW:    http://www-ra.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de
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                                     (E. Hemingway)

Never mistake action for meaningful action.
                                (Hugo Kubinyi,2004)