[phenixbb] Windows installer now available

[R.D. Oeffner]

Hi Ralf,
If you have an example of the source code with the fork that shows the problem I'm happy to take a look at it. I did a fair amount of Windows programming in my previous job and it's possibly I could find a solution.

rob

On Apr 13 2012, Ralf Grosse-Kunstleve wrote:

>We are using the Python multiprocessing module for parallelization within
>phenix.refine. If you use the multiprocessing module naively it pickles all
>inputs and outputs for each child process, which often undoes any gains
>from parallel execution. Under Unix (both Linux and Mac) we can take
>advantage of the copy-on-write feature of the system "fork" function to
>avoid pickling of the inputs. Since Windows doesn't have fork there is no
>way we can use this trick, and much more intrusive code changes are
>required to make meaningful use of multiple cores.
>Ralf
>
>On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 10:42 AM, Dima Klenchin <klenchin at wisc.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>>  includes most of the Phenix components, including the GUI, and should run
>>> on Windows XP or newer. Coot and PyMOL integration is supported if these
>>> are installed. Details are available here:
>>>
>>>        http://www.phenix-online.org/**platforms/windows.html<http://www.phenix-online.org/platforms/windows.html>
>>>
>>> We encourage anyone using this to submit the automatic bug reports, or
>>> email us concerning any other problems at bugs at phenix-online.org. An
>>> official, fully supported Windows installer, including 64-bit version, will
>>> be available later this year.
>>>
>>
>> Excellent! Thank a lot, everyone in the Phenix team!
>>
>> Just out of curiosity:
>>
>>  Parallelization of phenix.refine is not supported; this is due to
>>> built-in limitations of Windows and will not be fixed.
>>>
>>
>> What are the limitations? Parallel Python seems to work fine in Windows.
>> And some CCP4 Windows binaries also support SMP without a problem.
>>
>> - Dima
>>
>>
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>>
>

-- 
Robert Oeffner, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge
Cambridge Institute of Medical Research
Wellcome Trust / MRC Building, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 0XY
www-structmed.cimr.cam.ac.uk, tel:01223763234, mobile:07712 887162