VMD-L Mailing List

From: Gianluca Interlandi (gianluca_at_u.washington.edu)
Date: Thu Dec 08 2011 - 16:06:27 CST

Hi,

Starting with, I think, version 1.8.7 VMD would not open any more with an
external console (because of some problems with passing variables).

I wrote a little script to restore the old behavior. It starts VMD with an
external console (like previous versions) instead of blocking the terminal
from which it was started.

I did the following:

1) cd to where the vmd executable is, for example in my home directory:

cd ~/VMD/vmd/bin/

2) mv vmd vmd_exec

3) open your favorite text editor and copy paste:

#!/bin/csh -f

if ("$1" == "-dispdev" && ("$2" == "none" || "$2" == "text")) then
     ~/VMD/vmd/bin/vmd_exec $*
else
     xterm -geometry 80x11-0-0 -T "vmd" -e ~/VMD/vmd/bin/vmd_exec $* &
endif

Save the file as "vmd" and close the editor. Make it executable:

chmod a+x vmd

That's it! Now you can just type `vmd` with whatever flags and options.
The script will recognize whether you want to run it in text mode or not.
If not in text mode it will open an external xterm without even the need
to type `&`, like in the old days :)

Please, let me know any feedback on this. Is there any way to improve it
or anything dangerous I need to be aware of?

Thanks,

      Gianluca

-----------------------------------------------------
Gianluca Interlandi, PhD gianluca_at_u.washington.edu
                     +1 (206) 685 4435
                     http://artemide.bioeng.washington.edu/

Postdoc at the Department of Bioengineering
at the University of Washington, Seattle WA U.S.A.
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