
This is the root of the plugin directory for VMD.  VMD plugins are designed
to add new functionality and support for new types of files or external
programs without compiling that functionality into the main body of VMD's
code.  Most plugins will take the form of a shared object library (.so file
or .dll) which can be detected by VMD and loaded at run time.  The plugin
and the application communicate through a well-defined API, which makes the
plugin more reusable by avoiding direct coupling to VMD's internal data 
structures.  


* Directory structure *

/_plugin: Directories that end in _plugin are plugin source repositories.  All 
plugins of a given type (i.e., which use the same API) should be placed in the
corresponding directory.  Each plugin directory contains the following 
subdirectories:
 - src: source code for all plugins of that type;
 - msvc: Microsoft Visual Studio project files for each plugin;
 - doc: documentation for each plugin.

The plugin directory also contains a Makefile for compiling all the plugins.
The Makefile currently is for a gcc target only.


/include: This directory contains the VMD plugin API header files, including
vmdplugin.h (the base-level plugin header) as well as headers for other plugin
types.  Alternatively, these files may be linked from the VMD source tree.

/msvc: Contains a Microsoft Visual Studio workspace file for compiling all
the plugins for the Win32 platform.




