VMD-L Mailing List

From: Axel Kohlmeyer (akohlmey_at_cmm.chem.upenn.edu)
Date: Tue Jul 03 2007 - 09:25:33 CDT

On Tue, 3 Jul 2007, shourabh rawat wrote:

dear shourabh rawat,

SR> hi friends,
SR> I m new to VMD and not very familiar with it.I have been
SR> assigned to develop a plugin for VMD in python.I tried but failed to gather

can you please give us some hint as to what
this plugin is supposed to do?

SR> sufficient info as to how to achieve this. So will you please help me out as
SR> to the basic steps of how to make my python script act as a plugin.

i always found that the best way to learn how to write some code is
to come up with a useful project and then look at other implementations
that are similar to what i plan to do and learn from them or even use
them as a template.

without knowing what your plugin is supposed to do and how users are
supposed to interact with it, it is difficult to tell the best way
of how you'd get started the best.

for example you can look at the IED plugin at http://mccammon.ucsd.edu/ied/
this is about the only python plugin that i know to be in wide use.
the majority of VMD plugins to date are written in TCL/Tk.

python support in VMD is still about experimental.
perhaps justin gullingsrud (who seems to be the python
expert amongst the VMD developers) can help a little more.

since you are new to VMD, it may probably be best you go over
some of the available tutorials and get some impression of
what VMD can and cannot do.

cheers,
  axel. 

-- 
=======================================================================
Axel Kohlmeyer   akohlmey_at_cmm.chem.upenn.edu   http://www.cmm.upenn.edu
   Center for Molecular Modeling   --   University of Pennsylvania
Department of Chemistry, 231 S.34th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6323
tel: 1-215-898-1582,  fax: 1-215-573-6233,  office-tel: 1-215-898-5425
=======================================================================
If you make something idiot-proof, the universe creates a better idiot.