The distribution consists of three separate modules, SPIDER, Spire, and
Web. The SPIDER module is written in Fortran and is used for
mathematical manipulation of images and their contents.
The optional Spire module is written in Python is a point-and click interface for some tasks using SPIDER.
The optional Web module is written in C++ or Java and is used for display and interaction with images created by SPIDER or to be used with SPIDER.
Platforms: In 2018 we run SPIDER/Web on Intel 64 bit Xeons running Linux and AMD 64 bit Opterons . Our last platform was a Multi-Core Intel based machine running SUSE Linux. Heavy computations are done in parallel on a cluster of such machines. SPIDER requires at least 512 Mb of memory.
On Linux machines: The current SPIDER and Web modules contain precompiled executables for use with Linux on: AMD and Intel platforms. The modules also contain all source code, and sample Makefiles for executable generation on various Linux architectures.
On Other systems: Historically SPIDER and Web also contained executables for Vax VMS, SunOS, Compaq (Dec) Unix, SGI Irix, SGI Linux (for Altrix), OSX, Apple OS, and Microsoft Windows. These architectures are no longer supported.
Compilation and linking:
One of the SPIDER/Web executables which we
supply will probably run on your machine. However the code may have to be
recompiled and linked for use on some machines. Such compilation will
require familiarity with your local operating system and compiler to set the
necessary compilation/linking flags and libraries. Compilation of
SPIDER requires a Fortran 2002 compiler. We currently use Gnu and
Intel compilers.
Compilation and linking of Xwindow Web requires a C compiler and
Motif/X-Window libraries. The standard gcc
compiler works well. You may be able to view
SPIDER format images without installing Web.
Recent releases: Download recent releases from Github github.com/spider-em/SPIDER/releases, github.com/spider-em/Web/releases, and github.com/spider-em/spire/releases. Some older releases of SPIDER/Web including historical releases from 1998 and 2008 are are available from Zenodo.
Documentation: SPIDER, Web, and Spire documentation is now hosted on Github at spider-em.github.io/SPIDER, spider-em.github.io/Web and spider-em.github.io/spire.
Copyright: Almost all of the source code in SPIDER and Web is released under the GPL License.
Source: spider_avail.html Last update: 31 Mar 2025