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Intro to EXPGUI

What is EXPGUI?

EXPGUI is a graphical user interface (GUI) editor for GSAS experiment (.EXP) files and shell which allows all the other GSAS programs to be executed with a GUI. EXPGUI is not a replacement for the GSAS program EXPEDT. EXPGUI can do at best 10% of what EXPEDT can do -- but that 10% covers most of the actions that I use frequently (and that I could code without a major effort).

Is there documentation?

Some. There is: Contributions of additional documents or improvements to existing documentation is greatly encouraged.

So what can EXPGUI do?

Phase parameters: EXPGUI can edit the cell and atomic parameters as well as the cell and atomic damping and refinement flags.
Histogram parameters: Scale factor, background, diffractometer constants, phase fractions, profile terms can all be changed.
Least-Squares options: control the number of cycles, the print options and Fobs extraction parameters.

Creating new .EXP files and adding phases, histograms and atoms (EXPGUI version 1.17 and later).
Editing and creating [hard] constraints on atomic and profile parameters.
Create and edit March-Dollase preferred orientation parameters.
Create and edit Generalized Spherical Harmonic (ODF) preferred orientation parameters.
Modify Phase flags for each histogram

So what can't EXPGUI do?

Much more than it can do. At this time, EXPGUI can't delete atoms or change their type. It cannot create or edit soft constraints or hard constraints, other than atomic and profile constraints. It cannot be used on magnetic scattering parameters or on single-crystal histograms. It can't even change the profile function number. It also can't change the excluded data regions.

I hope to add some of these capabilities in the future, but EXPEDT is a huge program and it is unlikely that anyone will replace it any time soon. I will consider adding more functionality if requested and the job is reasonably tractable.

What type of computers will EXPGUI run on?

EXPGUI requires Tcl/Tk. While that is somewhat restrictive, it still means that EXPGUI will run on many more platforms than GSAS does. Most of the development has been done in LINUX with some testing on SGI and Windows-95 systems. I expect that EXPGUI will run on all platforms where GSAS does (except perhaps VMS).

Who is to blame for EXPGUI?

The initial version of the GUI part of EXPGUI was created by Jonathan Wasserman (thanks Jon!) Brian Toby is irresponsible for the rest.

EXPGUI would be much more of use to me if....

Gee, you want to add some features... Great! You have all the EXPGUI sources and Tcl/Tk is free. Oh, you want me to do it. Well, I might get to it if you ask, particularly if you help. I am looking for good ideas on how to design GUI's for different aspects of experiment editing, with an attractive, intuitive and compact GUI.

Mailing List

If you would like to get news about EXPGUI, please send Brian.Toby@NIST.GOV e-mail and I will send you information about updates and bug fixes. Having lots of users might also help me justify this project to my employers.

A picture example picture of the EXPGUI interface

Neither the author nor the U.S. Government makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any liability or responsibility for the use of this information or the software described here. Brand names cited here are used for identification purposes and do not constitute an endorsement by NIST.

Brian Toby (Brian.Toby@NIST.GOV)
$Revision: 248 $ $Date: 2009-12-04 23:02:52 +0000 (Fri, 04 Dec 2009) $