The Biomolecule ToolKit - version 0.8.1 - README:
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This is a development release of the Biomolecule ToolKit (BTK), an
Open Source library for use in modeling biological macromolecules.  The
toolkit will ultimately provide a C++ interface for common high level tasks
in computational structural biology, to facilitate and standardize the
development of molecular modeling, design and analysis tools.  This library
is released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (see
the COPYING file for more details).

Currently, the library interface and design of the BTK are under development. 
Features may be broken, unimplemented or missing.  Many interfaces are stable, 
but others are almost certain to change in the future.  A roadmap for BTK 
development is available at the project website:  http://btk.sourceforge.net

Obtaining Data Files
--------------------

The BTK reads and writes three-dimensional structures in the format used by
the Protein Data Bank (PDB), the canonical repository for biological
structures.  There are over 15,000 structures freely available for download
from the PDB:

http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/

Other Useful Tools
------------------

In order to view the molecular structures described by PDB files, you will
need a molecular visualization package.  There are several such programs
freely available:

RasMol is a widely-used 3D molecular visualization program, available for
download from: 

http://www.umass.edu/microbio/rasmol/ 

PyMol is another visualization package with some more advanced features
and better graphical rendering capabilities: 

http://pymol.sourceforge.net/


For More Information
--------------------

The most current information about the project is always available from the
project website:

http://btk.sourceforge.net

and the project's sourceforge development page:

http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/btk

There are several mailing lists that you may wish to subscribe to
to stay informed about the status of the project:

The btk-announce list is a moderated, low-traffic list which contains
announcements of releases and code updates.			

The btk-users list is an unmoderated list for everyone who uses or is
interested in the BTK.

The btk-developers list is a list restricted to the core developers of the
BTK project.  To be added to this list, you'll need to be approved by the 
list administrator.

To subscribe to any of these lists, go to:
http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=28435

We look forward to hearing from you!
