[Xrays@aps.anl.gov] 2006 XSD Scientific Software Workshop User Survey

[Alkire, Randy]

To the committee:

*1. What are the limitations of current tools for
   x-ray data reduction, analysis, modeling, and simulation?

Speaking for myself and not SBC directly, it is my opinion that most of
the protein crystallographic beamlines are using software developed by
third parties.  We have a collaboration with HKL3000 developers to work
on data collection, data processing and data reduction.  Because we are
a beta test site, most of the cutting edge processing and reduction
software is not released to our users until fully tested.  This gives us
an advantage in the short term which we use to improve our operations.
Because the requirements for developing this kind of software are highly
specialized, it is unlikely APS personnel would be able to add anything
meaningful to the existing packages we already use.  


*2. What additional tools are needed?

Due to the age of our beamline we need to completely re-work the motor
hardware and software.  Our components are end-of-life and we would
benefit from any resources available from the APS that aids this lengthy
integration step, including new tools and techniques for integrating
scalers and fast scanning techniques.

*4. What will most affect the scientific impact of your work?

We would benefit greatly by improved data collection and optics
monitoring hardware, including capabilities that would allow real-time
monitoring of the beam location, reduced source vibration and
high-precision goniometer synchronization.  We would also greatly
benefit by an improved cold-stream design that allows real-time
monitoring of nitrogen flow and temperature.

If this is just about software, we could benefit from improved
fluorescence scanning and monitoring, including an embedded MCA. We
would benefit by having scanning software developed that would allow
multiple pass scans, have well integrated plotting software and allow
high-speed scanning.  Linkage to high-speed scanning may be related back
to the motor operations.

Sometimes advice is all that we need.  However, if there were a set of
existing beamline controls that could be adapted to help setup the
beamline in a rapid time frame or maintain its optimal alignment, say
after a mode change, this would be useful to all our users.

Randy