Probe software under Wine (linux)

[sem-geologist]

Hello,

The main stopper for me for starting lobbying to buy this software is that I can't get to run even free parts to run on Wine (Wine Is Not Emulator - the wrapper for windows executable to unix calls) on linux. I don't care so much about windows computers at work (but if there would be a choice for work computers I would chose linux or BSD's without a blink of eye as it is so much more stable and easier to maintain compared to MS OS'es) as they are isolated for safety from internet. However I see no benefit reverting myself to windows on my personal computers or doing dual boot or VM'img windows on linux - those integrates poorly with unix environment. I would like to be able to work with acquired data from my linux/BSD machines PC's/laptops while laying on a coach (or anywhere). I think the main problem why it does not work well with WINE is that it is visual basic.

So have anyone positive/successful experience of running CalcZAF or SnapApp on Wine?

[sem-geologist]

as I had updated my unix system and thus updated Wine to version 5.0 (and I still want to find a reason to lobby for money to get this software for our lab). I attempted to install those free demo software again.
PictureSnapApp seems finally to work, and is able to open the demo bmp images. Yahoo! Finally I can test it... lets see - It supports Bmp, jpg and ... gif. What?  . There is no support for de facto standard for scientific imagery - tiff? no support for transparency-native png's? So before loading my normal images I will need to transform them into weird formats... Tiffs (especially those from microscopy) often contain calibration and position tags (bmp, jpg... and  gif have no means for that), so instead of automatic placement in correct position I will need to convert it into dumb format and "Snap" it by hand? Interface - is not intuitive and not familiar to any other tools. Does Full-licensed PfS use this SnapApp a lot? or mappings images are saved independently from it in normal formats?

Ok lets try CalcZAF.
Nope – unfortunately still can't get it working. (The program starts, but has problem with reading standard database, I am attaching the screenshot). Maybe the problem is in that it is searching for file in case insensitive way, but my OS is case sensitive... or maybe I need special dll driver override for mdb reading...

Generally there is a progress and hope, as previously (with Wine 3.x ) I could not get SnapApp to respond to anything, and now not a single error. CalcZAF, maybe I can find a way to make it work.

[sem-geologist]

I am leaving this for a record, if someone else would try to use CalcZAF under wine (linux or OS X). It looks it is possible! Yeah!
So to make mdb files readable by CalcZAF we need special software jet40.
To install that we need winetricks.
So command
>winetricks jet40
will install jet engine (as mdb is jet database files).
BTW, to install CalcZAF.msi under wine, it can't be executed directly by wine, but using msiexec flag like this:
>wine msiexec /i CalcZAF.msi

time to test CalcZAF...

[John Donovan]

PictureSnapApp seems finally to work, and is able to open the demo bmp images. Yahoo! Finally I can test it... lets see - It supports Bmp, jpg and ... gif. What?  . There is no support for de facto standard for scientific imagery - tiff? no support for transparency-native png's? So before loading my normal images I will need to transform them into weird formats... Tiffs (especially those from microscopy) often contain calibration and position tags (bmp, jpg... and  gif have no means for that), so instead of automatic placement in correct position I will need to convert it into dumb format and "Snap" it by hand?

We used to support TIFF files that contained position tags, but we stopped after users kept modifying the TIFF image files in other apps (photoshop, etc.) which did not respect those non-standard TIFF tags and therefore would overwrite that information.  Having the stage position information in a separate INI style text file with the same name as the image file is a much better solution in our opinion.

[sem-geologist]

SSo the question is how much PictureSnapApp is integrated in Full-licensed ProbeSoftware? is it only for navigation, or documentation of analysed areas and points needs to go through that SnapApp?

[JonF]

Ben Buse put a post up a while ago detailing the required files to get PfE working under WINE: https://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=619.msg3594#msg3594

[John Donovan]

SSo the question is how much PictureSnapApp is integrated in Full-licensed ProbeSoftware? is it only for navigation, or documentation of analysed areas and points needs to go through that SnapApp?

PictureSnapApp is a standalone sample navigation, sample annotation and image embedding application for EPMA, SEM and any other instrument with an XY stage. Many users run it on multiple instruments (with different coordinate systems) to allow them to move samples from one instrument to another and easily re-locate their previous areas of interest.

Probe for EPMA contains PictureSnap which includes the sample navigation and annotation features of PictureSnapApp.  Please note that Probe for EPMA and PictureSnapApp can exchange image files with annotations and operate at the same time on the same computer for sample navigation and annotation of points and FOVs.

[sem-geologist]

Ben Buse put a post up a while ago detailing...

I see, next time I should better search forum before posting.