VMD-L Mailing List

From: Goldsmith, Jacob (jgoldsmith_at_uky.edu)
Date: Tue Apr 12 2011 - 11:57:28 CDT

If the plugin is a tcl 'proc' you'll have to call the proc. A copy of the tcl script/plugin would help.

-Jacob
________________________________________
From: owner-vmd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu [owner-vmd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu] On Behalf Of Anssi Nurminen [anssi.nurminen_at_tut.fi]
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 10:33 AM
To: John Stone
Cc: vmd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu
Subject: Re: vmd-l: Tcl plugin development and debugging

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"

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?

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
>