Existing users, 
 Gene Construction Kit - 3.0b(GCK) DNA design, manipulation & drawing |
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Feedback Summary:
| Version 3.0b: | |||||
| Overall Rating: |   (1.0) |
Features: | (1.0) |
Support: | (1.0) |
| Ease of Use: | (1.0) |
Quality / Stability: | (1.0) |
Price: | (1.0) |
Key to Types of Feedback:
Reviews 
Troubleshooting 
Usage Tips 
Developer Notes 
Commentary 
Featured Reviews
3.0 beta STILL not Universal Binary. - Version: 3.0b, 2/19/2008 12:00AM PST
(1 of 1 users found this comment useful)
Happy_Pig
overpriced, slow development but still worthwhile - Version: 2.5.11, 2/21/2005 11:10AM PST
(2 of 2 users found this comment useful)
jas0921Let's start with the positive: its graphical user interface is relatively easy to use, if you compare with DNAstar, for example. It's representation of DNA, plasmids, etc. can be the sequence, which most biosoftwares do well, but also cartoon-like, which is GCK forte. DNAstar again is lacking a good plasmid view, although it might come in one of the next versions.
Now for the downside. There are a lot of basic features that are lacking (see missing feature list below) and the price is royal. DNAstar is no cheaper. But there's a lot of great freeware out there, PubMed/NCBI is getting bigger by the day, and if you are a little computer-wise there are huge number of Perl tools available.
Also, Texco, is slow in customer service and software improvement. The additions in the last version were disappointing. This is reminiscent of other established software makers for the scientific community. Compare, Endnote with Bookends for example. Endnote is sluggish, some long know bugs haven't been removed for years. Bookend on the other hand has great customer relations and are quick to release updates. So, if you want Texco's GCK don't expect swift actions and reactions.
It's important to warn future users that GCK is by no means stable. If have had plenty of crashes doing basic things, which have cost me unsaved data.
Now take a look at my personal list of missing features, get the trial version, and see whether GCK is for you:
- length of highlighted section (currently only start & end)
- open recent menu item
- create separate sequence tag for comments (currently identical to site)
- slight bug when changing from ds to ss view; current sequence position not kept on screen
- while in construct (not sequence view) it is not possible to select a position that is not at a boundary, i.e. you cannot put cursor into plain stretch of sequence
- mark enzyme more than entry becomes inlegible
- not possible to highlight separate stretches of DNA
- should be possible to save Display features in Chronography
My usage env't: OS X latest, GCK2.5.11 and previous verions, usage time: 2 years total, latest version half a year
Is definitely a… - Version: 2.5.8, 3/26/2003 06:57AM PST
(1 of 1 users found this comment useful)
Bosco8
Guess not.