PXGEN: A general-purpose graphical user interface for protein crystallography experimental control and data acquisition

PXGEN is a general-purpose graphical user interface for experimental set-up and control of protein crystallography data collection. PXGEN is not linked intrinsically to any software package or proprietary hardware and should be transportable to other experimental facilities. The experimental techniques supported are single-wavelength data collection and multiwavelength anomalous dispersion. The graphical user interface runs on a UNIX-based workstation exploiting the host's power to manage multiple programs. PXGEN provides a mechanism for making data collection much easier and less error-prone. The design and implementation of PXGEN are described, which is now installed on protein crystallography beamlines 9.5 and 7.2 of the Synchrotron Radiation Source at Daresbury Laboratory.