VMD-L Mailing List

From: Anssi Nurminen (anssi.nurminen_at_tut.fi)
Date: Tue Apr 12 2011 - 12:11:47 CDT

Yes, thank you.

Now simply typing "myplugin_tk" into the VMD console brings up the
updated version. =)

BR,
  Anssi Nurminen

On 12.4.2011 20:05, Axel Kohlmeyer wrote:
> On Tue, 2011-04-12 at 19:55 +0300, Anssi Nurminen wrote:
>> Thanks for the help, but it's still not getting updated.
>>
>> I'm thinking that the problem could be this piece of code that I have:
>>
>> # If already initialized, just turn on
>> if { [winfo exists .myplugin] } {
>> wm deiconify $w
>> return
>> }
>
> hehe! yes, that block of code defeats your development efforts.
>
>> But removing it did not help since now I get (when calling myplugin_tk):
>> "window name "myplugin" already exists in parent".
>
> you have to destroy it.
> if you put:
>
> catch {destroy $w}
>
> before creating the new toplevel window, it will always
> create a new one and it would produce an error message
> and fail if there isn't a toplevel window already.
>
> cheers,
> axel.
>
>>
>> So, how do I kill the existing old window?
>>
>> BR,
>> Anssi Nurminen
>>
>>
>> On 12.4.2011 19:38, Axel Kohlmeyer wrote:
>>> On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 12:21 PM, Anssi Nurminen<anssi.nurminen_at_tut.fi> wrote:
>>>> A good comparison for what I'm working on is the "Analysis/RMSD Trajectory
>>>> Tool" Plugin. I'm hoping to do some calculations across trajectories and
>>>> plot them possibly into a png-image file, if I cannot find a suitable
>>>> heatmap-plotter.
>>>>
>>>> Typing "myplugin_tk" into the vmd console just opens my plugin's unupdated
>>>> GUI.
>>>
>>> i don't know what you are doing, but i just tried it on my
>>> machine and that was working fine.
>>>
>>> the only explanation would be that your plugin script code
>>> doesn't close all open braces properly and is still "waiting"
>>> for one or more closing braces.
>>>
>>> in any case, you don't need VMD running to debug the GUI building.
>>> you can just do it with wish -f myplugin.tcl
>>> and for all the VMD commands that you need to build the GUI, you
>>> can just define dummy procs that provide the same format output.
>>>
>>> axel.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> This is my first project with Tk/Tcl. Separating the plugin into a
>>>> commandline executable version and a separate GUI might not be a bad idea.
>>>> Right now I just want to get the GUI working and having a simple, fast way
>>>> to get the changes updated would be desirable.
>>>>
>>>> BR,
>>>> Anssi Nurminen
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 12.4.2011 18:56, Axel Kohlmeyer wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, 2011-04-12 at 18:49 +0300, Anssi Nurminen wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> anssi,
>>>>>
>>>>>> Just as "source", "play" has no effect; my plugin does not get updated.
>>>>>> I'm installing the plugin in vmd.rc using:
>>>>>> vmd_install_extension myplugin myplugin_tk "Analysis/MyPlugin"
>>>>>> if that makes any difference.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Is there any way to uninstall it first, before trying to re-source it?
>>>>>
>>>>> have you tried manually executing myplugin_tk ?
>>>>>
>>>>> can you please elaborate a bit on what your plugin does?
>>>>>
>>>>> are you writing a GUI for some existing commands in VMD,
>>>>> or are you writing a new script and want to have a GUI
>>>>> to go with it.
>>>>>
>>>>> in both cases, it is probably best to separate the GUI
>>>>> part and the compute part into blocks than can be run
>>>>> individually. this will not only make development easier,
>>>>> but also allows people to use the text mode version
>>>>> from their own scripts w/o having to go through the GUI,
>>>>> which can be very desirable in case of running remotely
>>>>> or when using bigdcd or something similar.
>>>>>
>>>>> cheers,
>>>>> axel.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> BR,
>>>>>> Anssi Nurminen
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 12.4.2011 18:38, Axel Kohlmeyer wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 10:33 AM, Anssi Nurminen<anssi.nurminen_at_tut.fi>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> John,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Thanks for the quick response!
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I have a single .tcl file that I'm using for my plugin located in:
>>>>>>>> VMD/plugins/noarch/tcl/myplugin1.0/myplugin.tcl (Windows)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> typing the command:
>>>>>>>> "source plugins/noarch/tcl/myplugin1.0/myplugin.tcl"
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> try "play plugins/noarch/tcl/myplugin1.0/myplugin.tcl"
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> into the vmd console or the Tk console doesn't seem to have any
>>>>>>>> effects. The
>>>>>>>> command yields no output, and my plugin does not get updated. How
>>>>>>>> should I
>>>>>>>> use the source command?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> don't use tkconsole for that. it does a lot of tcl trickery (indeed i
>>>>>>> learned a lot of
>>>>>>> tcl tricks from reading its code) and has its own copy of the command
>>>>>>> interpreter.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> you are better off with the regular console window.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> axel.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> BR,
>>>>>>>> Anssi Nurminen
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On 12.4.2011 17:04, John Stone wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 02:14:36PM +0300, Anssi Nurminen wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I'm new to VMD and I'm developing a Tcl plugin. I'd have a few
>>>>>>>>>> question
>>>>>>>>>> about best practises.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> -Is there a way to vmd_uninstall_extension or to
>>>>>>>>>> vmd_reload_extension?
>>>>>>>>>> Currently whenever I make changes I need to restart VMD to be able to
>>>>>>>>>> get my plugin reloaded (reinstalled).
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> No, but you can manually "source" the newly modified script file(s)
>>>>>>>>> and that will have the effect of updating the code on-the-fly.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> -What are the VMD-community pages and how do I access them?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> They are pages maintained as a subdirectory of the VMD Public project
>>>>>>>>> on BioCoRE. You can edit/create such pages, as well as various
>>>>>>>>> alpha/beta versions of VMD by following the instructions here:
>>>>>>>>> http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/alpha/
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> -How do I turn on VMD's debugging mode? should I use it?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> If you're not working on modifying the C/C++ code, then there's
>>>>>>>>> no need to run VMD within a debugger. If you're working on Tcl
>>>>>>>>> scripts,
>>>>>>>>> then you may find the "logfile" command useful.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> -Other helpful tips for debugging Tcl-plugins?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Try and test your procedures individually and be sure you've exercised
>>>>>>>>> entire range of input parameters. Since Tcl is interpreted at
>>>>>>>>> run-time,
>>>>>>>>> it is possible to have errors in a script and not realize it until
>>>>>>>>> a particular combination of parameters trigger a particular section of
>>>>>>>>> code to be run that isn't usually exercised.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>>>>> John Stone
>>>>>>>>> vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>