- chemweb - imperial.ac.uk

"Curly Arrows" on the Web
by Lucio Pellacani 09 Mar '99

09 Mar '99

I tried it with success (PC, Netscape 4.5). It seems to me very useful to help students. Best regards Lucio Pellacani *********************************** Prof. Lucio Pellacani Dipartimento di Chimica Universita' degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza P.le Aldo Moro 2 Box n. 34 I-00185 Roma 62, Italy tel. +39.06.49913673 fax +39.06.490631 e-mail pellacani(a)uniroma1.it URL http://www.chem.uniroma1.it/~pellacan/ ****************************** chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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Getting started with Java
by RAY, Nick 08 Mar '99

08 Mar '99

Dear Chemwebbers, I'm starting to (try and) teach myself the basics of Java programming with a view to seeing to what applications we can put it towards within our team. As a practising organic chemist with an interest in IT (and not the other way around), can anyone advise/direct me on suitable resources to get started? Or, to put it another way, how did you all learn? As this may be elementary for most of you, please reply privately to the address below, Thanks, Nick Ray ***************************************** Nick Ray, PhD, Leading Chemist - Lead Generation Rhone-Poulenc Agriculture nick.ray(a)ongar.rhone-poulenc.com ****************************************** chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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Silicon Graphics NT Workstations
by Dr. Wendy A. Warr 06 Mar '99

06 Mar '99

Some time ago I put a message on these lists (excuse duplicates) about the new Silicon Graphics NT workstations. This hardware will be mentioned in a virtual meeting with which I am involved on March 22. I would be very grateful for any suggestions for questions I can put to SGI (I wont broadcast your name!), especially questions from UNIX fans. Reply to wendy(a)warr.com, not to the whole list, if your answer is private. Wendy -- Dr Wendy A Warr Wendy Warr & Associates, 6 Berwick Court Holmes Chapel, Cheshire CW4 7HZ, England Tel/fax +44 (0)1477 533837 wendy(a)warr.com http://www.warr.com chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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"Curly Arrows" on the Web - request for feedback (fwd)
by Paul May 02 Mar '99

02 Mar '99

Hi, > I am hoping that some of you will be able to help us, please. > > We are in the process of developing a CAL application designed > to help students to develop the skill of writing "curly arrow" > reaction mechanisms, by giving a large number of examples to be > used for practice, with feedback on incorrect attempts. I tried it using a PC, Netscape 4.5 and Java 1.1 and it seemed to work very nicely indeed. One suggestion might be to include hints or help for students that get stuck. Regards, ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Paul May, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, UK tel: +44 (0)117 928-9927, fax: +44 (0)117 925-1295 <mailto:paul.may@bris.ac.uk> <http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Chemistry/staff/pwm.htm> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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Fwd: "Curly Arrows" on the Web - request for feedback
by Rzepa, Henry 02 Mar '99

02 Mar '99

I have successfully tried it, noting that it does seem to require JDK 1.1.6 compliant systems (Netscape 4.5 on a Mac for example is only 1.1.5). If anyone has seen similar examples of curly arrow pushing, please let the list know. I also note Mark Winter's statistics, which indicate that >80% of users have Java switched on, but only <40% have specific plugs such as Shockwave, often used in the past for such demos. I increasingly see pages which run Java in the background, so perhaps its a method whose time has come? I hope the confusion about which version of JDK any specific applet requires does not slow/stop this momentum! > The application has been written in Java, and is run from a web > browser. At the moment, it is freely available to all; the > title page is at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/chemistry/org/intro.hti. > To the student, it is fully functional, and some introductory > notes are provided (although teachers could provide their own > notes, linked in to our Java applet). Dr Henry Rzepa, Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, LONDON SW7 2AY; mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk; Tel (44) 171 594 5774; Fax: (44) 171 594 5804. URL: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ If my digital email signature is invalid, download a new root at http://www.belsign.be/en/services/receive/install-ca.html chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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"Curly Arrows" on the Web - request for feedback
by Dr Mary Masson 02 Mar '99

02 Mar '99

Dear chemweb list members, I am hoping that some of you will be able to help us, please. We are in the process of developing a CAL application designed to help students to develop the skill of writing "curly arrow" reaction mechanisms, by giving a large number of examples to be used for practice, with feedback on incorrect attempts. The application has been written in Java, and is run from a web browser. At the moment, it is freely available to all; the title page is at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/chemistry/org/intro.hti. To the student, it is fully functional, and some introductory notes are provided (although teachers could provide their own notes, linked in to our Java applet). At present, we are in the process of conducting a fairly rigorous evaluation with our own students, with the help of our Learning Technology Unit; but we would like to have input from staff at other institutions, because we are keen that the application should be as useful as possible to the whole chemical community. We would very much welcome feedback from as many people as possible, and in particular, we would be interested in hearing from teachers who have been able to use it with their students. We hope to continue development in order that we can get information about how students use the application. We want to be able to log the errors they make, and eventually to be able to derive a continuous assessment mark from their use of the application. The Java was developed with the JDK development kit. On a PC, this means that Windows 95/98 or NT is required, and Netscape 4.06 minimum, 4.5 preferred. The application also will run on Internet Explorer 4, both on PC and Mac, although there are a few problems with this. At the last attempt (a few months ago) is would not run on Netscape for Mac - we�d welcome comments from any "Mac people" on this. Aberdeen is not a Mac site, so we don't have much opportunity for testing on that platform - we would greatly appreciate any comments about the reasons for the problems. Do any of you have experience of the JDK development kit? We have an evaluation questionnaire almost ready. I will mail a short version to this list when it is complete; I can mail a longer version to anyone who is willing to help us further. Regards Mary Masson ---------------------- Dr Mary Masson Academic Co-ordinator (and Webmaster) Department of Chemistry University of Aberdeen Meston Walk, Aberdeen AB24 3UE Tel. 01224 272931 m.masson(a)abdn.ac.uk chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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LISTADMIN: Dupicate messages
by Rzepa, Henry 22 Feb '99

22 Feb '99

At the risk of causing some people a further rash of duplicate message, I want to alert people that two members of the chemweb list have reported to me that they got multiple (30 or so) copies of Mark Winter's message about Browser statistics. The culprit or suspect at the moment appears to be a badly damaged trans Atlantic link which in the parlance is "bouncing" up and down. This could cause email messages to get confused about whether they have been truly delivered or not, and might explain why other recipients appear not to have received multiple messages. When the Atlantic link has been fixed, my gurus here tell me they will be able to take a closer look at the problem. Meanwhile, please bear with us whilst we track the problem down. Dr Henry Rzepa, Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, LONDON SW7 2AY; mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk; Tel (44) 171 594 5774; Fax: (44) 171 594 5804. URL: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ If my digital email signature is invalid, download a new root at http://www.belsign.be/en/services/receive/install-ca.html chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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Re: Browser stats on a chemistry site
by Rzepa, Henry 19 Feb '99

19 Feb '99

> Dear colleagues > > You may or may not find this helpful when considering designing your > chemistry site. The following are results from 100000 accesses on 1 page of > WebElements over the last 20 days or so. They were achieved using the free > www.hitbox.com service. No doubt there all sorts of systematic errors so > don't take the numbers too literally. > ... > Chime 2% > [plenty of others, mostly 0-3%] I also now tried this service. To use it, you have to install about 100 lines of JavaScript into the page you wish monitored. In my hands at least (MacOS 8.5.1, Netscape 4.08) this caused my browser to lock up, requiring a reboot of the computer. If the problem occurs with others, then that would be a concern. If anyone sees crashes on http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/ please let me know and I will rapidly remove the code The "chime" statistics are also interesting, since I would have been pretty convinced that the rate amongst chemists was higher than 2% (I wonder if it detects both versions 1 and 2?). Finally, I wonder how one should handle the recording of such statistics. Normally, they go into your server logs. But in this case, they are all sent back (in real time) to hitbox.com, ie a 3rd party. Is it ethical to set up such a feature without giving users the right to "opt out" of the statistics gathering? Dr Henry Rzepa, Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, LONDON SW7 2AY; mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk; Tel (44) 171 594 5774; Fax: (44) 171 594 5804. URL: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/ If my digital email signature is invalid, download a new root at http://www.belsign.be/en/services/receive/install-ca.html chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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RE: Browser stats on a chemistry site
by Gary Marquart 19 Feb '99

19 Feb '99

I've gotten this exact same message 8 times now. With the same date and time. What the h*** is going on? > -----Original Message----- > From: Mark Winter [SMTP:M.Winter@Sheffield.ac.uk] > Sent: Thursday, February 18, 1999 7:46 AM > To: chemweb(a)ic.ac.uk > Subject: Browser stats on a chemistry site > > Dear colleagues > > You may or may not find this helpful when considering designing your > chemistry site. The following are results from 100000 accesses on 1 page > of > WebElements over the last 20 days or so. They were achieved using the free > www.hitbox.com service. No doubt there all sorts of systematic errors so > don't take the numbers too literally. > > Browsers > Netscape 52% > Internet Explorer 47% > Others 1% (mainly WebTV) > > Versions > 5.x 1% > 4.x 70% > 3.x 27% > > JavaScript enabled: 96% > > Java enabled: > Yes 80% > No 6% > Unknown 15% > > OS > Windows 83% (95 53%; 98 18%; NT 9%; 3.x 4%) > MacOS 14% > Unix 1% > WebTV 1% > Other 1 % > > Screens > 800 x 600 45% > 640 x 480 29% > bigger 25% > > Plug-ins (as % of accesses) > QuickTime 39% > LiveAudio 38% > ShockWave graphics player 38% > NPAVI32DynamicLinkLibrary 27% (what is this?) > ShockwaveFlash 23% > Real (various) 15% > AdobeAcrobat 12% > CosmoPlayer 10% > Live3D 5% > PDF viewer 3% > Chime 2% > [plenty of others, mostly 0-3%] > > I'm curious about what the plug-in figures, in particular, really mean, > bearing in mind this is a chemistry specific page that is being monitored. > They do seem to suggest that if you have a controlled audience (that is, a > group of your students, say), then assuming specific plug-in availabilty > might be OK - but if your audience is general, then assume very little ! > > > Dr Mark J Winter (Director of Studies) > Department of Chemistry, The University, Sheffield S3 7HF, England > tel: +44 (0)114 222 9304 > fax: +44 (0)114 222 9303 > e-m: mark.winter(a)sheffield.ac.uk > http://www.shef.ac.uk/chemistry/staff/mjw/mark-winter.html > > WebElements is the periodic table on the world-wide web: > http://www.shef.ac.uk/chemistry/web-elements/ > > The Sheffield Chemdex is a listing of chemistry sites on the world-wide > web: > http://www.shef.ac.uk/chemistry/chemdex/ > > > > chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. > To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk > Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ > To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; > (un)subscribe chemweb > List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk) chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)

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Molecule Editor in Java
by Denis M. Bayada 18 Feb '99

18 Feb '99

Dear all, I have just finished writing a molecule editor in JAVA. If anyone is interested, it is available at : http://www.chem.leeds.ac.uk/ICAMS/people/denis/moledit.html You may freely download the Java source code and modify it. Any comments are indeed welcome. Thank you Denis --------------------------------------------------------------------- Denis M. Bayada e-mail: denis(a)mi.leeds.ac.uk ICAMS voice: (44) (0)113 233 65 95 School of Chemistry fax: (44) (0)113 233 65 63 University of Leeds http://www.chem.leeds.ac.uk/ICAMS/people/denis Leeds LS2 9JT ENGLAND ... but as I proceeded in my labour, it became every day more horrible and irksome to me. Sometimes I could not prevail on myself to enter my laboratory for several days, and at other times I toiled day and night in order to complete my work. It was, indeed, a filthy process in which I was engaged. Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) --------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. Archived as: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To unsubscribe, send to listserver(a)ic.ac.uk the following message; unsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (rzepa(a)ic.ac.uk)

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