[chimera-dev] [Chimera-users] Programmer's Guide feedback....

[Eric Pettersen]

Hi Tom,
	This is actually a separate instance of basically the same behavior.   
At Chimera startup the extension manager loads (and unloads) all the  
ChimeraExtension.py files.  I guess we could also discuss if this  
behavior is critical to the extension manager and whether it's  
desirable to change it.

--Eric

On Dec 15, 2009, at 11:10 AM, Tom Goddard wrote:

> Hi Eric,
>
>   The case I have been burned by many times is where all globals of  
> ChimeraExtension.py are deleted.  In both the ChimeraExtension.py  
> case and opening a *.py file with File / Open the trouble is that if  
> the Python code registers a callback and the callback function tries  
> to use a name in the global name space like calling another function  
> defined in the same file or a global import then it fails.  This is  
> extremely confusing when it happens.
>
>     Tom
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [chimera-dev] [Chimera-users] Programmer's Guide  
> feedback....
> From: Eric Pettersen
> To: chimera-dev
> Date: 12/15/09 10:55 AM
>> On Dec 15, 2009, at 9:36 AM, Tom Goddard wrote:
>>
>>>   4. The ToolbarButton.py doesn't work unless the "import re" and  
>>> "import chimera" are in the function body.  This is because  
>>> Chimera deletes all globals after loading a file.  This has often  
>>> been a headache for me and Chimera should not delete globals.
>>
>> This is a behavior of Python.  We load scripts into their own  
>> temporary module to avoid pollution of the Chimera main namespace  
>> (e.g. if the script defined globals named "id" or "sum" or "type"  
>> they would override built-in functions of the same name for all  
>> future script executions!).  When Chimera unloads the temporary  
>> module, Python nulls out it's global namespace (to give garbage  
>> collection a shot at working).
>>
>> Now perhaps Chimera shouldn't unload the module.  I think this  
>> would be a reasonable change.  Perhaps it could be discussed at our  
>> next internal Chimera developers' meeting to ensure that I'm not  
>> forgetting any other ramifications that the change might have.
>>
>> --Eric
>>
>>                         Eric Pettersen
>>                         UCSF Computer Graphics Lab
>>                         http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Chimera-dev mailing list
>> Chimera-dev at cgl.ucsf.edu
>> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-dev
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Chimera-dev mailing list
> Chimera-dev at cgl.ucsf.edu
> http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/mailman/listinfo/chimera-dev

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://plato.cgl.ucsf.edu/pipermail/chimera-dev/attachments/20091215/fec4db1a/attachment.html>