MeTA studio: a cross platform, programmable IDE for computational chemist

The development of a cross-platform, programmable integrated development environment (IDE), MeTA Studio, specifically tailored but not restricted to computational chemists working in the area of quantum chemistry with an emphasis on handling large molecules is presented. The IDE consists of a number of modules which include a visualizer and a programming and collaborative framework. The inbuilt viewer assists in visualizing molecules, their scalar fields, manually fragmenting a molecule, and introduces some innovative but simple techniques for handling large molecules. These include a simple Find language and simultaneous multiple camera views of the molecule. Basic tools needed to handle collaborative computing effectively are also included opening up new vistas for sharing ideas and information among computational chemists working on similar problems. MeTA Studio is an integrated programming environment that provides a rich set of application programming interfaces (APIs) which can be used to easily extend its functionality or build new applications as needed by the users. (http://code.google.com/p/metastudio/).