From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 25 2002 - 09:07:14 CST

Hi Margaret,
  Since the VMD command console is actually a Tcl
shell (or Python, depending on which mode is active)
it can sometimes interpret escape and control characters
in an unfortunate way, where you need to add ] characters
to get it to give your prompt back. This problem is caused
by the default interpretation of these control characters by
the xterm and/or windows command console. We hope to rid
VMD of this behavior when we replace these with our own
window for this purpose, written by us. Until then, try
pressing the "]" key and pressing enter, and repeat a few
times if the problem persists. If I think of any better
suggestions, I'll let you know.

Thanks,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Mon, Mar 25, 2002 at 04:28:09AM -0800, Margaret Cheung wrote:
>
> Dear vmd users and developers,
>
> I suffered from the key setting of the vmd console.
> Whenever I accidently hit "delete" or "backspace", vmd prompt
> disappeared and a question mark appeared. Once the question mark appeared,
> the shell just died and can not accept commands. I had to re-start vmd and
> reload tons of coordinates again to make movies. How can I get rid of
> this "?" mark. Please help. Thank you very much.
>
> Sincerely,
> Margaret S. Cheung
> Biophysics Program
> Physics Department 0319
> University of California, San Diego
> 9500 Gilman Drive,
> La Jolla, CA 92093-0319
> http://www-physics.ucsd.edu/~cheung
>

-- 
NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu                 Phone: 217-244-3349              
  WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/      Fax: 217-244-6078