LAMMPS-GUI - The LAMMPS feature that was not supposed to be

The LAMMPS homepage stated for many years that LAMMPS does not have a GUI. When preparing a LAMMPS tutorial and looking for a set of tools that is consistent across major platforms for editing input files, visualizing the simulated system, and plotting thermodynamic data that the results were somewhat lacking. Thus, the idea was born to write a cross-platform graphical user interface that would include basic versions of such tools and LAMMPS in a single executable. It would use LAMMPS through the library interface and benefit from several of its recent improvements.

This talk will provide a look under the hood and discuss how LAMMPS-GUI and LAMMPS interact, how LAMMPS-GUI tries to be beginner friendly, how it integrates with LAMMPS tutorials, and how added functionality in LAMMPS-GUI inspired improvements in LAMMPS. The talk will close with observations about building binary packages for all supported platforms that will work for most users.