[sdpd] Re: SDPD stagnation

[K.Shankland...@rl.ac.uk]

Armel,

No one is saying that a good GUI
(or for that matter, a good command
line driven interface) overcomes the 
limitations of a poor underlying program 
or poor data.

However, if the underlying program
is good, a good interface can make all
the difference between a program being
taken up by people who are not steeped
in crystallography, and its use being
restricted to experts.  A good example
would be ORTEP, an incredibly useful
program that pretty much anyone can now
now due to the plethora of interfaces
available for it.

Anyway, it's wrong to say that all the
time goes into interface development.
Lots goes into program development and
testing too.  That's where open source
wins out, provided you can get a critical
mass of people using the program.

Best,

Kenneth