International
Tables for
Crystallography
Volume G
Definition and exchange of crystallographic data
Edited by S. R. Hall and B. McMahon

International Tables for Crystallography (2006). Vol. G. ch. 5.3, p. 506

Section 5.3.3.4.1.  beCIF

B. McMahona*

a International Union of Crystallography, 5 Abbey Square, Chester CH1 2HU, England
Correspondence e-mail: bm@iucr.org

5.3.3.4.1. beCIF

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The Windows program beCIF (Brown et al., 2004[link]) is still in prototype. It is a DDL1-dictionary-driven CIF manipulation tool that does not require detailed knowledge of CIF or dictionary structures. It provides a rather different view of the contents of a CIF from the applications discussed above through an interface that will be familiar to users of Microsoft Windows applications. When the application is opened, the user is prompted to provide the location of a CIF dictionary (at any one time, only a single dictionary file may be loaded). This dictionary is loaded into memory and used to validate CIFs upon input. As a data file is read, discrepancies from the types and value ranges permitted by the dictionary are listed in an information window.

The file contents are presented in a number of panels, one per dictionary category, between which the user may navigate by selecting the tab with the desired category name (Fig. 5.3.3.11[link]).

[Figure 5.3.3.11]

Figure 5.3.3.11 | top | pdf |

A category view in the beCIF editor of a CIF with navigation by tabs.

At the highest level, tabs allow the user to choose the data block of interest. Buttons are provided to delete a data block entirely, to rename it or to create a new data block.

Within each data block, the user may add new categories. Again, to help the novice user, when the button `New Category' is selected, a list of only those categories described in the current dictionary but absent from the current data block is presented to the user. Each category present in the data file is accessed through its own tabbed display panel.

Where the category contains non-looped data items, values may be edited within individual text widgets; data items may be removed by selecting the adjacent check box; or new data items may be added by selecting the `New Data Item' button to create a dialogue box offering a choice of the remaining data items in the dictionary category. Against each data item a button provides access to a pop-up window containing the relevant dictionary definition.

For a category with looped data, the contents are displayed in a spreadsheet-style representation, with columns headed by the matching data name and rows numbered for convenience (Fig. 5.3.3.12[link]).

[Figure 5.3.3.12]

Figure 5.3.3.12 | top | pdf |

Representation by the beCIF editor of looped data within a category (here ATOM_SITE) in spreadsheet style.

The changes requested to the CIF are only effected when the user selects the `Save CIF' button. Unlike many other of the CIF editors previously discussed, this program does not make any effort to retain the initial ordering of the input data, nor does it preserve comments. The edited CIF may therefore be superficially very different from the input file; however, the only significant differences in content will be those introduced through use of the editing functions within the application.

References

First citation Brown, I. D., Zabobonin, A. & Holt, B. (2004). beCIF. Browser and editor for CIF. Private communication.Google Scholar








































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