Hello Teresa, I need to disagree with Graeme over the idea that ccp4i 'hides' what is happening. If you care to you can see all the gorey details of command files, log files etc.. You can run the programs one step at a time and with various modes with ccp4i and iMosflm and learn something of what is going on at each stage but the gui layer at least gives you a much quicker user-friendly way to control them rather than going back to prehistoric scripts. On the other hand pipelines such as xia2 will usually do the job and save you much time.
Liz On 17 Feb 2012, at 12:09, Graeme Winter wrote: > Dear Theresa, > > My answer would be - it depends. > > If you are in the business of learning crystallography, then I would > absolutely suggest you start from doing everything by hand. Indeed, if > you really want to get "stuck in" I would suggest starting with the > programs you need (mosflm, scala, truncate etc) and scripts so you can > get a proper idea what the programs are doing. There is of course > CCP4i, but this can "hide" some of the details which may be > instructive to know about. > > If however you're in the business of getting on with biological > research, well I would say that automated tools (be they for data > reduction or phasing / model building) are exceedingly useful. > > If you can find the time, I would always encourage people to do things > with automation and by hand, to allow comparison of the results. If > nothing else this may give you confidence in the automation software. > > Best wishes, > > Graeme > > On 17 February 2012 11:31, Theresa H. Hsu <theresah...@live.com> wrote: >> Dear crystallographers >> >> I would like to get some opinion. For someone beginning to learn basic >> crystallography including indexing, scaling ..., should I start with >> automated tool like Xia2? Or is manual method for each step better for >> learning? >> >> Thank you. >> >> Theresa
