From: Ahmet Bakan (lordnapi_at_gmail.com)
Date: Tue Apr 12 2011 - 11:38:57 CDT

Anssi,

The following commands help me update my plugin/gui without leaving VMD:

vmd > package forget myplugin
vmd > package ifneeded myplugin 0.7 "source /path/to/my/plugin/myplugin.tcl"
vmd > package require myplugin 0.7
0.7
vmd > myplugin_tk

Replace 0.7 with version of yours. Here is the information on package
command: http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.5/TclCmd/package.htm

Ahmet

On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 11:49 AM, Anssi Nurminen <anssi.nurminen_at_tut.fi>wrote:

> 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?
>
> 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
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>