Sorry for the terse message, Matt. The link is to how Chimera dialogs are initialized in extensions and the example only uses Tkinter widgets. For a new extension, I would follow the example template but use Pmw widgets in place of the Tkinter ones. Tkinter widgets tend to be very basic and you have to do a lot of work to get even simple layouts. Pmw widgets (built on top of Tkinter) have more options and require less coding. I really like their documentation (http://pmw.sourceforge.net/doc/index.html) and generally just use the reference manual pages which contain working example code at the bottom. Conrad On 12/9/2013 3:10 PM, Dougherty, Matthew T wrote:
Hi Conrad,
Thanks for the link. Not clear on what is going here. You suggest PMW, but the link involves tkinter. Not that familiar with pmw or tkinter, their overlap or integration. Make sure I am correct on this, the link is non pmw? My inclination is to go pmw, at the same want to go with the overall programming methods.
Matthew Dougherty National Center for Macromolecular Imaging Baylor College of Medicine ________________________________________ From: Conrad Huang [conrad@cgl.ucsf.edu] Sent: Monday, December 09, 2013 12:45 PM To: Dougherty, Matthew T; chimera-dev@cgl.ucsf.edu Subject: Re: [chimera-dev] creating an extension
Personally, I would just stick with a standard Python GUI like Pmw. There's example code that work and it's well documented. Perhaps http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/ProgrammersGuide/Examples/Main_Extensio...
might help.
Conrad
On 12/7/2013 3:03 PM, Dougherty, Matthew T wrote:
Hi,
I am trying to create a simple extension that has a column of buttons (qty 10-20) having a corresponding column of user defined text blocks. When I push a button, the corresponding text string will be read and processed as a command string (eg, "reset default", "rock X 3", "move Z 2000")
I started with VolumePlanes and whittled it down to the nub to figure out what it was doing relative to what I want; below. I am realizing the buttons defined by this example extension uses some specific chimera GUI strategies. My going with a row of buttons would work as in this volumeplanes example, but is second preference on layout. More visually intuitive to have it side by side. Not sure this is possible with another dozen lines of code, or if I would need to go about it another route using different CGLTk api's and scrap using this volumeplane extension as a boiler plate.
So I am realizing that this is putting me into the intricacies of CGLtk. An alternate would be to go with std python gui code. I also know you are reinventing chimera, one reason being the tk libraries, which opens up a third approach. So I am at a crossroad as to how to proceed. Because the code is relatively small, a rewrite for chimera2 does not seem an issue. Also there are some issues with parenting I am unfamiliar with (eg, t.withdraw(), columnconfigure).
I am thinking this might be a good example of an extension for a beginner, so writing it as such might be useful for others. Particularly for new developers trying to sort out the boundaries between python, chimera, tk, and the extension linkages.
Need some direction as to which way to go for the least amount of work of coding.
thanks,
Matthew Dougherty National Center for Macromolecular Imaging Baylor College of Medicine
===========
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
import chimera
from chimera.baseDialog import ModelessDialog import ButtonCommands
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
class Button_Commands_Dialog(ModelessDialog):
title = 'Button Commands' name = 'button commands' buttons = ('C1', 'C2', 'C3','Close',)
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
def fillInUI(self, parent): t = parent.winfo_toplevel()
self.toplevel_widget = t t.withdraw()
parent.columnconfigure(2, weight = 2)
from CGLtk import Hybrid
ps = Hybrid.Scale(parent, 'Cmd1', 0, 10, 1, 0) ps.frame.grid(row = 2, column = 0, sticky = 'ew')
ps.callback(self.change_plane_cb) ps.entry.bind('<KeyPress-Return>', self.change_plane_cb) self.plane = ps
def change_plane_cb(self, full_size = False): return
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
def C1(self): c_1='echo c1' chimera.runCommand(c_1)
def C2(self): c_2='echo c2' chimera.runCommand(c_2)
def C3(self): c_3='echo c3' chimera.runCommand(c_3)
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
def Button_Commands_dialog(create = False):
from chimera import dialogs return dialogs.find(Button_Commands_Dialog.name, create=create)
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
def show_button_commands_dialog():
from chimera import dialogs return dialogs.display(Button_Commands_Dialog.name)
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
from chimera import dialogs
dialogs.register(Button_Commands_Dialog.name, Button_Commands_Dialog, replace = True)
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