VMD-L Mailing List

From: hinsen_at_llb.saclay.cea.fr
Date: Tue Oct 26 2004 - 11:07:07 CDT

On Oct 25, 2004, at 20:37, John Stone wrote:

> Another option that appeals to me is to just include the python library
> that VMD is compiled against in the binary distribution. This would
> eliminate the necessity for the average user to have to mess with

The question is: why do people use Python within VMD? If most users
just want to script VMD and happen to prefer Python to Tcl, that
approach would help. If, on the other hand, most users are Python
programmers who see VMD as "yet another Python module", then they
wouldn't be interested: they would most certainly want to use the copy
of Python they already have fine-tuned for their needs with added
modules.

I am not going to hide the fact that I am in the second category.

> problem at present. As far as I know, Python does not provide an
> equivalent
> of Tcl's "tcl stubs" functionality, so there's basically no way to
> strongly
> insulate VMD against Python version changes and incompatbilities.

No. Compatibility is pretty good over many generations of Python, but
at the source code level. C modules need to be recompiled with every
change in the second digit of the version number.

I see Python as an integral part of a computer system. It is there, and
everything that needs it builds on the existing interpreter. That way
all modules can be freely used together, which is what makes Python so
powerful. Linux and MacOS (since 10.3) follow that approach: they come
with Python preinstalled and nobody other then Python developers and
testers would ever install another copy.

> What would be ideal would be to implement text interpreters in VMD as
> plugins that are completely dynamically linked. There are numerous

Either that, or have interpreters in separate processes that
communicate over sockets.

Konrad. 

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Konrad Hinsen
Laboratoire Léon Brillouin, CEA Saclay,
91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
Tel.: +33-1 69 08 79 25
Fax: +33-1 69 08 82 61
E-Mail: hinsen_at_llb.saclay.cea.fr
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