MAGMA (Molecular Animation, Graphics and Modeling Application framework)

MAGMA is a rapid application development

Rapid application development

Rapid application development is a software development methodology that uses minimal planning in favor of rapid prototyping. The "planning" of software developed using RAD is interleaved with writing the software itself...

(RAD) system in the field of molecular modelling

Molecular modelling

Molecular modelling encompasses all theoretical methods and computational techniques used to model or mimic the behaviour of molecules. The techniques are used in the fields of computational chemistry, computational biology and materials science for studying molecular systems ranging from small...

, computational chemistry

Computational chemistry

Computational chemistry is a branch of chemistry that uses principles of computer science to assist in solving chemical problems. It uses the results of theoretical chemistry, incorporated into efficient computer programs, to calculate the structures and properties of molecules and solids...

and computational biology

Computational biology

Computational biology involves the development and application of data-analytical and theoretical methods, mathematical modeling and computational simulation techniques to the study of biological, behavioral, and social systems...

. It is an extension dynamic-link library (DLL) for The Microsoft Foundation Class Library

Microsoft Foundation Class Library

The Microsoft Foundation Class Library is a library that wraps portions of the Windows API in C++ classes, including functionality that enables them to use a default application framework...

(MFC) written completely in C++

C++

C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...

that acts as a framework

Software framework

In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by user code, thus providing application specific software...

for developing molecular graphics

Molecular graphics

Molecular graphics is the discipline and philosophy of studying molecules and their properties through graphical representation. IUPAC limits the definition to representations on a "graphical display device"...

and modelling applications under all generations of Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

operating systems. It is distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License

GNU Lesser General Public License

The GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License...

(LGPL). MAGMA has been developed in Armin Madadkar Sobhani Research Group at Bioinformatics Department of Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics

Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics

Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics is a research institute in Iran founded in 1976 to conduct research in biological sciences and related fields. It is affiliated with the University of Tehran and is located in its main campus....

(IBB), University of Tehran

University of Tehran

The University of Tehran , also known as Tehran University and UT, is Iran's oldest university. Located in Tehran, the university is among the most prestigious in the country, and is consistently selected as the first choice of many applicants in the annual nationwide entrance exam for top Iranian...

Major features

It supports all major versions of Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

and Visual C++
Visual C++
Microsoft Visual C++ is a commercial , integrated development environment product from Microsoft for the C, C++, and C++/CLI programming languages...

.
Easy installation and deployment using automated installation file.
Easy generation of new applications in few steps using a specially designed Custom Application Wizard.
A comprehensive online help which is automatically integrated into MSDN during setup and provides context sensitive help during programming in IDE
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...

.
Support for plugin technology at the library level instead of application level.
Easy development and installation of new plugins using a specially designed Custom Plugin Wizard.
Support for loading/saving molecules, models and workspaces in compressed binary file format suitable for exchanging information between all applications developed using MAGMA. In addition, each application can have proprietary compressed binary format of its own.
OpenGL
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...

was used for displaying molecular structures.
Ability to Print and Print preview of molecular graphics.
Ability to save molecular views in more than 16 different graphical file formats.
Support for exclusive full screen mode suitable for 3D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...

shutter glasses.
Support for cube map texture backgrounds.
SIMD
SIMD
Single instruction, multiple data , is a class of parallel computers in Flynn's taxonomy. It describes computers with multiple processing elements that perform the same operation on multiple data simultaneously...

extensions (i.e. 3DNow!
3DNow!
3DNow! is an extension to the x86 instruction set developed by Advanced Micro Devices . It adds single instruction multiple data instructions to the base x86 instruction set, enabling it to perform simple vector processing, which improves the performance of many graphic-intensive applications...

, 3DNow! Extended, SSE
Streaming SIMD Extensions
In computing, Streaming SIMD Extensions is a SIMD instruction set extension to the x86 architecture, designed by Intel and introduced in 1999 in their Pentium III series processors as a reply to AMD's 3DNow! . SSE contains 70 new instructions, most of which work on single precision floating point...

, and SSE2
SSE2
SSE2, Streaming SIMD Extensions 2, is one of the Intel SIMD processor supplementary instruction sets first introduced by Intel with the initial version of the Pentium 4 in 2001. It extends the earlier SSE instruction set, and is intended to fully supplant MMX. Intel extended SSE2 to create SSE3...

) are used for matrix and vector calculations for supported platforms.

External links

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Major features

See also

External links