Optick Illusions

Opticks Extension Development Quick Start - Updated for latest Opticks 4.4.0 Release

2010-08-12T10:41:00.004-04:00

I've updated my Quick Start for Opticks Extension Development since Opticks 4.4.0 was just released. You can use this on Windows to get started and only need to download this, which is 33MB instead of the regular Opticks Windows SDK, which is 290MB.

So, what do you get out of the Quick Start?
Download it, double-click on two batch files and you will have two tutorial plug-ins compiled and installed into your Opticks install that you can start using with a sample data file that's been bundled into the Quick Start. From there you can modify these plug-ins or create your own using the instructions bundled in the Quick Start.

So, what do you need?

Quick Start Download

exe - this is a self extracting 7z, just double-click. No need to install anything.
OR
7zip - if you don't want to use above self extracting exe. You should download and install 7-Zip File Manager to extract this.

Opticks 4.4.0 32-bit
Python, 2.5 or 2.6 are known to work.

Then unzip the Quick Start package and open the README.html in your web browser for further instructions. You'll be up and running in 15 minutes, probably less.

Opticks Extension Development - Get Started In Less Than 15 Minutes

2010-05-12T13:47:00.003-04:00

The Opticks Open-Source Programming Contest deadline is just 3 weeks away (June 4th, 2010). And along with this, I was inspired to come up with a way to quick start extension development for Opticks. So, over the weekend I created a Quick Start package for use on Windows, which is only 33 MB. You only need to download this and can skip downloading the Opticks Windows SDK, which is 266 MB, so I just saved you 233 MB of download time.

So, what do you get out of the Quick Start?
Download it, double-click on two batch files and you will have two tutorial plug-ins compiled and installed into your Opticks install that you can start using with a sample data file that's been bundled into the Quick Start. From there you can modify these plug-ins or create your own using the instructions bundled in the Quick Start.

So, what do you need?

Quick Start Download

exe - this is a self extracting 7z, just double-click. No need to install anything.
OR
7zip - if you don't want to use above self extracting exe. You should download and install 7-Zip File Manager to extract this.

Opticks 4.3.3 32-bit
Python, 2.5 or 2.6 are known to work.

Then unzip the Quick Start package and open the README.html in your web browser for further instructions. You'll be up and running in 15 minutes, probably less.

Hopefully, this is the impetus you need to start developing a plug-in for the Opticks programming contest or just to develop plug-in for Opticks in general. Don't forget you can win a Nintendo Wii or PS3 in the contest.

Visual Studio 2010

2010-03-20T22:05:00.002-04:00

I am very excited about the Visual Studio 2010 release. Why would I be so excited about a compiler release? I guess because I'm that nerdy. Ok, it's a little more than that. This new compiler release has some real benefits for Opticks.

Easier Deployment - right now Opticks deployment is complicated by Visual Studio's insistence on manifests and use of the windows side by side cache. This insistence complicates user level installs (e.g. without admin privileges) and wreaks havoc when they push a new Visual Studio patch out. But, all of this goes away with Visual Studio 2010. They have seen the errors of their ways and are reverting to the deployment used with Visual Studio 6. Yeah!

Faster - Visual Studio 2010 is including a new feature in the next C++ standard, R-value references. You don't need to care about and I don't need to either. But what you will care about is when applied to STL, they provide an order of magnitude speed up. We use a lot of STL in Opticks, so I expect some noticeable speed-up.

Needless to say, can't wait until Visual Studio 2010 gets released. And yes we are planning on upgrading to use Visual Studio 2010 for the Opticks 4.4.X line.

Google Summer of Code

2010-03-20T09:07:00.003-04:00

Woot! Opticks has been accepted into Google Summer of Code 2010 as a mentoring organization. I'm very excited and the interest we've had from students already is amazing. It's going to be a very good summer. I've been looking forward to this for 2 years, we applied last year but weren't accepted.

I will say I find this year's summer of code very interesting because there seem to be a good number of other scientific software packages. Might just be me, but this is pretty cool.

New Opticks Website

2009-10-19T10:02:00.002-04:00

I've just flipped the switch on the new Opticks website. Just go to http://opticks.org/ to see the new site. The goal of the new site is to better separate the Opticks community into three user groups (end-users/analysts/scientists, extension developers, and opticks developers) and then tailor the site towards those users. So, check out the new site and let us know what you think, either as a comment here or on the Opticks mailing list or real-time chat.

Over the next week or so, I'll be updating the old site (http://opticks.ballforge.net/) to point people to the new site.