Better together: Elements of successful scientific software development in a distributed collaborative community.

ABSTRACT: Many scientific disciplines rely on computational methods for data analysis, model generation, and prediction. Implementing these methods is often accomplished by researchers with domain expertise but without formal training in software engineering or computer science. This arrangement has led to underappreciation of sustainability and maintainability of scientific software tools developed in academic environments. Some software tools have avoided this fate, including the scientific library Rosetta. We use this software and its community as a case study to show how modern software development can be accomplished successfully, irrespective of subject area. Rosetta is one of the largest software suites for macromolecular modeling, with 3.1 million lines of code and many state-of-the-art appl

SUBMITTER: Koehler Leman J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7197760 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature