IUCr forums

I still believe it is important to have an IUCr-supported C API, and we should continue to push forward on that front. The reasoning behind my current proposal is to formalise what we have already agreed and put it to a good use. If we are agreed on proceeding with a 'Level 1 etc' compliance spec, I...

In the "Requirements List" thread we have a set of requirements relating to both implementation and functionality. May I suggest that we extract the three points that relate to the core functionality and agree that any library meeting those requirements is "Level 1 CIF API compliant&q...

Though I had hoped to hear from a few more authors, I think we have enough to work with for now, and the discussion has languished for too long. None of the packages reviewed so far meet all of the requirements, though CBFLib seems to come pretty close. At the same time, each requirement is met by ...

I think it would be good for CIF software authors to compare this requirement list to their own software. My comparison with PyCIFRW follows: ⋅  The API will support both CIF 1.1 and CIF 2.0 . (Degree and form of support for non-standard features and other syntax variants is yet to be dete...

As previously noted, I think failing to make allowances for validation in the initial design will greatly increased the difficulty in incorporating it later, while designing to include validation from the start costs very little and, when properly done can easily be turned off when efficiency or ot...

I think this list is a good starting point and have nothing to add or subtract from it.

I think it would be productive to identify a core set of features to start with, and once that is decided to tackle the less widely used features. My list of core features in terms of actions would be: (1) Open, read, write, close a CIF file (2) Read, write a key-value pair (3) Open/Create a loop st...

At the Madrid IUCr meeting, COMCIFS decided to develop an official CIF API. This forum is devoted to discussion and development of this API, with the ultimate goal of producing a clear specification. John Bollinger has kindly agreed to take the on the role of discussion facilitator and moderator.