Friday, May 28, 2010

Naming conventions: RasMol, PyMOL and Jmol

Over the years, I've used the following three molecular graphics programs the most: RasMol, PyMOL and Jmol. It is interesting to note their different naming conventions: while their names all end with m-o-l (for molecule, I believe), the cases (used in convention) are different: Mol as in RasMol, MOL as in PyMOL, and mol as in Jmol.

For Jmol, there is actually an FAQ item "How do you write Jmol?" that reads "Capital J, lower case mol. Please do not write it any other way." For PyMOL, I am not aware of a specification on its name – I know that's the "official name" from its home page. Regarding RasMol, that's the most common way to name it, even though the title of its 1995 publication is "RASMOL: biomolecular graphics for all."

As for the prefix in the names, J in Jmol stands for Java; Py in PyMOL for Python; and Ras in RasMol could well be the initials of Roger A. Sayle, the original author of the program.

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