THIS IS A PRELIMINARY RELEASE INVOLVING EXTENSIVE MODIFICATIONS
***** USE WITH CAUTION ******

IMPORTANT

This version is based directly on RasMol version 2.7.2, on RasMol 2.7.1.1, on RasTop 1.3, on RasMol version 2.6_CIF.2, on RasMol version 2.6x1, on RasMol version 2.6.4, and RasMol 2.5-ucb and 2.6-ucb. Please read the file NOTICE for important notices which apply to this package. If you are not going to make changes to RasMol, you are not only permitted to freely make copies and distribute them, you are encouraged to do so, provided you do the following:

• 1. Either include the complete documentation, especially the file NOTICE, with what you distribute or provide a clear indication where people can get a copy of the documentation; and
• 2. Please give credit where credit is due citing the version and original authors properly; and
• 3. Please do not give anyone the impression that the original authors are providing a warranty of any kind.

If you would like to use major pieces of RasMol in some other program, make modifications to RasMol, or in some other way make what a lawyer would call a "derived work", you are not only permitted to do so, you are encouraged to do so. In addition to the things we discussed above, please do the following:

• 4. Please explain in your documentation how what you did differs from this version of RasMol; and
• 5. Please make your modified source code available.

This version of RasMol is not in the public domain, but it is given freely to the community in the hopes of advancing science. If you make changes, please make them in a responsible manner, and please offer us the opportunity to include those changes in future versions of RasMol.

Combining RasMol Variants

The first steps in combining RasMol variants have been performed. Much of the work of upgrading the documentation has been done. It remains to make the changes to prepdoc to generate the RasFrames version. Several source mod packages are being reviewed for inclusion. Features from other variants of RasMol will be considered for inclusion in RasMol 2.7.n if the features are particularly popular and if available resources (or helpful colleagues) make inclusion of those features feasible. When we are done, probably in the early fall, the resulting best version should be a reasonably stable and reliable single version combining most of the features of the major current variants of RasMol.

Some other important things still to be done

• Add smooth double buffering to switch molecules for movies.
• Additional language variants.
• Fix problems with very large zoom scale.
• Add GUI toolbar interface.
• Resolve color management issues (including auto-sensing bit depth).
• Make cross-eyed and wall-eyed setreo equally accessible.
• Fix printing under windows.
• Allow for longer names.
• Add FAQ.
• Finish incorporating A. Mueller's fixes for color management.
• CIF and mmCIF write logic.
• The read logic for large NMR structures on a Mac needs to be made to work.
• The field widths for alternate conformer ID's and chains need to be extended to allow for the more flexible naming in mmCIF.
• Resolve problem with interaction of stereo and shadows.
• Allow writing of GIFs from high colour-resolution mode.
• Improve memory management on Macs to allow larger structures.