Garlic

The Most Portable Molecular Visualization Program in Unix World


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The statement that garlic is the most portable molecular visualization program in unix world might look quite bold at the first sight, but it is based on serious arguments. Garlic requires only three libraries to run: the standard C library (libc), the standard math library (libm), and the standard X11 library (libX11). These libraries are available on every serious unix or unix compatible system. All other programs, (except one: mdxv ) require some additional binary libraries.

Compiling and/or installing a program which requires numerous libraries may turn into nightmare. Not only that all these libraries must be present on your system: a version number is important too! And if you manage to compile and/or install the program, it may behave strange when you try to use it: there is a chance that one or more libraries were not tested enough before shipping, causing core dumps and other runtime problems.

Check the list of freely available molecular visualization programs for unix and unix clones. This page lists also the libraries required to run each of these programs.