VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Mon May 25 2009 - 23:28:34 CDT

Rob,
  Axel already gave a pretty good summary of the reasons for the
behavior of the various VMD file browsers and the molfile plugin
interface. They are all interrelated, and it would be quite difficult
to modify the behavior for just the molfile plugin API without consequences
in the different graphical interfaces. So far I've only run into one
other case like the one you're describing. If you like I'll look into
what would be involved in making changes to this behavior, but I'm
not willing to do this prior to releasing VMD 1.8.7 due to the existing
schedules I have to keep and the possibility of creating new bugs at
this late stage. You can always modify your own local VMD builds
for the time being to get your preferred behavior.

Cheers,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Sun, May 24, 2009 at 08:39:33PM -0700, Rob wrote:
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I'm using 1.8.7beta3 and the plugin stuff from CVS.
>
> I'm working on a new plugin and I encounter a problem with the settings
> for the filename extension. It's not as flexible as it appears to be....
>
> I need to load files like "foobar_GEO" created by ABINIT.
> Hence, I want the file selector to be able to show me the list of "*_GEO" files.
> However, this is not possible.
>
> If I use "_GEO" as an entry for the filename extension in the plugin,
> I get the list of "*._GEO" (notice the added asterisk and dot to the string).
> This is not what I want!
>
> Why are the "dot" and asterisk automagically added?
> Why not leave that up to the programmer of the plugin to add it to the
> filename extension settings, if necessary?
> It'll then even be possible to add the asterisk in the middle or end of the
> filename. This would make the filename extension field so much more useful.
>
> This is very annoying.
> Any possibilities to change this filename extension behavior before official release?
>
> ---------------
>
> A possible bug in the plugin filename extension is following:
>
> The documentation says:
> (http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/plugins/doxygen/structmolfile__plugin__t.html)
>
> "...list them in a comma separated list..."
>
> But when I use a comma-separated extension list, the result is that only the first one
> appears in the "Show" field of the file selector !
> I presume this is a bug, either in the plugin or in the documentation.
>
> Also:
> I discovered that I can replace the comma by a bar |,
> but this does yet do something else.....
>
>
> Rob.
>
>
> 

-- 
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