[Kalzium] Redesign of Kalzium

[Jason Harris]

Hi Carsten,

Very impressive progress.

IMO, it makes sense to have the PTE as the mainwidget, to the extent  
that it is a visual interface to the rest of the tools.  What I mean  
is, the one thing all the tools have in common is displaying  
information related to the chemical elements, and the PTE is a good  
way to show all of the elements at once.  It is the logical place for  
users to start exploring what kalzium can do.

I'm imagining someone starting kalzium for the first time; I think  
seeing the PTE right away is more compelling than seeing a list box  
of the various tools.  Ideally, the PTE itself would be simple and  
clean in appearance, but would also be a discoverable interface that  
allows users to explore the various tools by interacting with the table.

For example, if I click on an element, it shows the basic data for  
that element, but maybe it could also highlight some other elements  
that the clicked element can form molecules with.  Then Ctrl-clicking  
on some of these other elements (so that they are all "selected")  
could lead to the 3-D molecule display.  This is just an idea, and I  
haven't totally worked through the issues (i.e., if the user selects  
C,H,O, there are a huge number of possible molecules).  I'm just  
trying to brainstorm ways to make the PTE a visual interface to the  
tools.

regards,
Jason