Immediate feedback while developing plugins in Python

[twk]

Hello again

Quick question, how do you get immediate feedback while developing plugins in Python.

eg

I have a plugin object which I'm writing in Aptana.

This is the code in the PIO's main script window.

from TestPlugin import MainGuy #these are setup in the env paths

MainGuy()

the MainGuy.py has this code

global LineLength
   objectName, objectHand, recordHand, wallHand = 0, 0, 0, 0
   LineLength = vs.PLineLength

   ok, objectName, objectHand, recordHand, wallHand = vs.GetCustomObjectInfo( objectName, objectHand, recordHand, wallHand )
   if ok:
       vs.Locus(0,0)
       vs.Locus(LineLength,0)
       vs.Rect(0, 0, LineLength, 50)

if __name__=='__main__':
   mainguy()
   pass

if I change say a value for the vs.rect call from 50 to 100

vs.Rect(0,0,LineLength, 100)

from Aptana, this doesnt get reflected in vectorworks until I restart VW.

I have the Session in Developer Mode set in the vectorworks preferences and still I need to restart.

This wasn't the case in Vectorscript and includes. Is this normal behaviour for Python/Aptana or am I doing something wrong?

[twk]

..aaaand its not called 'immediate feedback' its called python caching.

Found this thread here started by Dieter @ DWorks.

Can we disable Python caching?

Interesting read.

The last post though solved my problem.

I use a different approach to solve this issue.

I created a command that clears all the modules in a designated folder. (In the example : myLibrary)

It actually removes the modules from sys.modules. Python will therefor import them again at the next import statement. I find this much easier than placing "reload(module)" statements everywhere in my code. (especially since they need to be removed for deployment)

import sys
modulesToDelete = []
for m in sys.modules:
   moduleName = str(m)
   if "myLibrary."  in moduleName:
       modulesToDelete.append(moduleName)
currentModule = __name__
for mod in modulesToDelete:
   if mod != currentModule: # Python cannot delete the current module
       del sys.modules[mod]

Thanks Musisback!

[Dieter @ DWorks]

Hello again

Quick question, how do you get immediate feedback while developing plugins in Python.

eg

I have a plugin object which I'm writing in Aptana.

This is the code in the PIO's main script window.

from TestPlugin import MainGuy #these are setup in the env paths

MainGuy()

If you do this instead, you won't need to restart VW:

import TestPlugin
TestPlugin.MainGuy()

Only other python files that you reference in that file will acquire a restart if they are changed, but not that main file if you reference it like this.