Feature Requests item #3485099, was opened at 2012-02-06 13:58
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by azh4
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Category: Interface Improvements
Group: None
Status: Open
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: Andriy Zhugayevych (azh4)
Assigned to: Bob Hanson (hansonr)
Summary: save settings on exit

Initial Comment:
Most of GUI-equipped programs save their settings on exit (e.g. color or 
rendering scheme). May we have such feature in Jmol application?

More specifically two commands need to be implemented: 1) enable/disable "Save 
settings on exit", 2) "Restore default settings".

Additionally it would be convenient to have the fast route to load the 
frequently used user scripts (for example to change program settings). This 
feature can be included into existing "Open" command by adding the link to some 
fixed user folder where the user can keep its scripts. However I would add 
additional button. This feature would mimic Style Manager in Mercury program.

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Comment By: Andriy Zhugayevych (azh4)
Date: 2012-02-07 10:23

Message:
Thank you, set_defaultloadscript and any other solutions based on loading a
script with starting Jmol application, together with the mentioned
previously macro/script possibilities do not provide the solution to the
posted problem: save current settings on exit. They just provide the way
around the problem.

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Comment By: Angel Herraez (aherraez)
Date: 2012-02-07 10:00

Message:
Hi Andriy

Another hint:
http://chemapps.stolaf.edu/jmol/docs/#set_defaultloadscript

If the macro is not working, we should wrk on it. I haven't used it lately
but it did work; maybe the instructions are not good. Could you please
follow this up and give details on the jmol-developers  or jmol-users email
lists? That is easier to discuss than thi bug tracking system.


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Comment By: Andriy Zhugayevych (azh4)
Date: 2012-02-07 09:31

Message:
Thank you for suggestions.

1) Macro solution looks fine, but the described on
http://wiki.jmol.org/index.php/Macro algorithm does not work for me: when I
press Macros menu nothing happens (I have Jmol 12.2 on Windows 7).

2) Script solution looks also fine, but to load a script from $HOME/.jmol
directory I need at least 5 clicks.

3) Save state solution is file-dependent.

Bottom line: in the view of "Interface Improvements" Category the above
solutions are unsatisfactory. I remind my main point: most of GUI-equipped
programs handle user settings in a multiuser environment in a user-friendly
way. And I don't see the reason why Jmol application must stand as an
exclusion. Jmol is not "as is" program but one of the leading (and
currently the most universal) tool for visualizing molecular structures.

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Comment By: Ted Cohen (buckyb)
Date: 2012-02-07 03:31

Message:
Please correct me if I have this wrong, but I thought that the output of
the various "show" commands could be saved by the user and then "played
back" unchanged to restore the state to what it was. Could one not issue a
"show state" command and write the contents to a file when unloading an
instance of Jmol and then restoring it on the next load. It seems that
there would be a lot of ambiquities for Jmol to try to resolve if Jmol
tried to do a "one size fits all" solution. For example, you may have
multiple apps that use Jmol on a machine and a user may want to keep a
seperate set of preferences for each app. Or there might be several users
that share a work station in a lab and each user may want his preferences
saved seperately from other users.  By writing the save/restore script
yourself as Bob suggested in the second comment, you can get exactly what
you want using existing features of Jmol.  For example you could save state
in a different file for each user or for each app if that is what you
needed.  A few questions that I have: When is the unload callback called? I
am hoping that it is the inverse of the onload callback. That is the the
onload callback is called last, after everything else is done and that the
unload callback would be first, before anything is torn down. Hopefully,
that would allow the user to issue a "show state" from the unload callback,
get the state and save it somewhere.  Secondly, is the unload callback
called at all in the standalone version or only in the applet version?  I
am suspecting that Andriy's request is for the standalone product rather
than the applet. Is there a way for a user script to get control on exit in
the standalone?  In the applet version, could the user store state in the
unload callback or is the state already lost by the time the callback is
invoked?

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Comment By: Angel Herraez (aherraez)
Date: 2012-02-07 00:53

Message:
I think this is arguable. DIfferent structures will need totally different
"styles", I don't see it clear that any preference will be applicable to
everything.
Anyway, there is the "macro" feature taht you can use to quickly set your
styles. Maybe that suits yor needs. And there is indeed a user fiolder
(precisely where thiose macros are put).
http://wiki.jmol.org/index.php/Macro



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Comment By: Bob Hanson (hansonr)
Date: 2012-02-06 17:18

Message:
That's a tough one. Clearly you can save whatever styles you want if you
know a bit of scripting, but you want it to be more accessible than that, I
think. The problem is that styles for atoms and bonds, labels, unit cells,
and axes are all reset after a model is loaded. They aren't program-session
specific. The only exception to that is when you color an element. That one
carries over between models. 

Edit...Preferences allows some of this -- you can set preferences for atoms
and bonds at least. 

So I suppose we could add a few more options to that. 


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Comment By: Andriy Zhugayevych (azh4)
Date: 2012-02-06 17:02

Message:
1) Style/Labels
2) Color/Labels
3) Color/Background
4) Style/Unit cell, Style/Axes
5) Style/Scheme

Also I would save "Style/Atoms/Show hydrogens" but this may puzzle
unexperienced users.

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Comment By: Jonathan Gutow (gutow)
Date: 2012-02-06 14:33

Message:
Please make a specific list of what you would like saved.  Jmol does save
many settings such as window position and such.

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You can respond by visiting: 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=379136&aid=3485099&group_id=23629

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