Thank you very much for writing this story.1 I used a first version of a molecular biology software system in 1978. It came on a tape and I used it on a remote Cyber70 mainframe computer through a teletype. Over the years, this package got more complicated. The user interface was maybe OK for computer gurus, but not for my lab technicians or my summer students.
Software developers at universities and research institutes create brilliant alpha versions and algorithms, but never move beyond this stage. Moreover, they are most probably the only people who test the software and do not care about making the software simple for average students and technicians.
Most commercial molecular biology programs are fun to use, and a summer student can master these programs in no time. Moreover, they run on Windows or Mac and thus do not require training the student on how...
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