So I have a functioning web site (www.chemtoolbox.com) with a download manager called remository that is pretty easy to use and tracks download totals. To date, ChemPup-0.2.6 has been downloaded 8 times since its release on 10.7.09 (2 days). I posted a forum thread at the official puppy linux forum (http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/) and have 85 views in just 2 days. I am hoping for feedback and may ask for some when my downloads total reaches ~20.
ChemPup-0.3.0 is bothersome. I am very excited that I got Avogadro to work!!! However, at a bit of a cost. First the success story. I downloaded a copy of Barry K's UPup which includes the ubuntu-debian repositories in his powerful new package manager. This was accomplished through project "Woof" which is essentially a project aimed at making puppy buildable/extendable with any existing linux repo. Very cool! I used UPup to download Avogadro, analyze it's dependencies and add them as obtainable and install everything automatically. I had to deal with one "lib" problem (I wish I had documented it earlier) and then had Avogadro running in UPup in about an hour. Then I had an idea....prompted from some research at the forums. I saved my UPup session and then renamed the .2fs save-file to the standard pup_save* format so ChemPup (based on Puppy 4.2.1) would read it. I then booted ChemPup-0.2.5 (the devx version) and loaded the new save-file and voila! I had a new version of ChemPup with Avogadro working.
However, after testing several other programs, I found everything worked except one: BKChem. Grrrr. This is not an acceptable trade-off in my view as BKChem is by far the best 2D structure editor I have found for linux. I believe the problem lies in the python libs added with Avogadro, since BKChem runs with python. I spent a couple hours trouble-shooting this but since I am not a trained CS-guy (i.e. self-taught) I have yet to correct the problem. In the mean time I am thinking of offering both versions and explain the deficiencies in each. Essentially, the addition of Avogadro is very beneficial for people that want to do computational chemistry and JChemPaint is still available as a 2D structure editor. However, for those who want to produce higher quality 2D structures for use in documents or publication, the BKChem version is better.
TO DO:
1. Fix the BKChem/Avogadro incompatibility issue
2. Find a silk-screen CD package
3. Find/Buy 3D glasses
4. Work on a multi-session DVD
5. Assemble packages and make sell-able on chemtoolbox.com
6. Make donations page on chemtoolbox.com (remember to show $flow)
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