---
layout: post
title:  "Coot Speedrun"
date: Sat 2 Jan 14:14:55 GMT 2021
---

Here's a bit of holiday fun: A _Coot_ Speedrun!  Pit your _Coot_ skills
against the rest of the world!

I believe that many _Coot_ users are unfamiliar with the ways in which
one can get stuff done fast in _Coot_. So how about a friendly
competition to stimulate discussion? _Coot_ users are invited to fix-up a
structure using _Coot_, so that the R-factor from Refmac reaches
particular value.

In this first _Coot_ Speedrun Challenge, the structure is the tutorial
model and data, the target R-factor is 0.17 and R-free 0.20.

You are allowed to use your own general-purpose scripts, Curlew
scripts, custom toolbar buttons and key-bindings, but scripts to solve
building problems particular to this structure are not allowed.

You are allowed to pre-open the "Other Modelling Tools" dialog.

So that we can have a "winner" the competition will end shortly
after the "2021 CCP4 Study Weekend" - but of course we would be
interested in fast times for a while after that.

Post your timings to the "Coot Speedrun Map 1" thread on the mailing
list.  Or Twitter: #cootspeedrun

You will need to run Refmac from _Coot_ (otherwise the timer script
won't know where to find the refmac log file).

You are allowed to copy the `rnasa-1.8-all_refmac1.mtz` file into the
current directory for easy access - the mtz file can be found in the
`share/coot/data` directory of your _Coot_ binary distribution.

Click on the *SpeedRun* menu item in the main menubar to open the
Speedrun dialog. Keep an eye on the dialog, it will let you know when
you have finished.

If has some takers, then I will make another "Map" from different
problematic structure and other assessment criteria will be
introduced. 

The Speedrun script can be found in Curlew or here:

[https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/personal/pemsley/coot/files/speed-run-timer.py](https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/personal/pemsley/coot/files/speed-run-timer.py)

