Tk (computing)
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Tk is an open source, cross-platform widget toolkit, that is, a library of basic elements for building a graphical user interface (GUI).
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[edit] History
Tk was developed by John Ousterhout as an extension for the Tcl scripting language. Bindings exist for several other languages, including Perl, Python, Ruby, and Common Lisp. There are two ways to use Tk from Perl: the Tcl::Tk Perl module, which uses Tcl as a bridge (this approach provides more flexibility), and Perl/Tk, which has Tcl stripped away (only adopted Tcl/Tk extensions are available). The Python and Ruby bindings also use Tcl as a bridge for Tk.
Tk has been ported to run on most flavors of Linux, Apple Macintosh, Unix, and Windows. Since Tcl/Tk 8, it offers "native look and feel" (for instance, menus and buttons are displayed in the manner of "native" software for any given platform). Also, there are several extensions to provide external drag-and-drop, non-rectangular windows, and native widgets.
Like Tcl, Tk supports Unicode within the Basic Multilingual Plane but it has not yet been extended to handle 32-bit Unicode.
[edit] Features
Tk provides the following widgets:
- button
- canvas
- checkbutton
- entry
- frame
- label
- labelframe
- listbox
- menu
- menubutton
- message
- tk_optionMenu
- panedwindow
- radiobutton
- scale
- scrollbar
- spinbox
- text
as well as the following top-level windows:
- tk_chooseColor - pops up a dialog box for the user to select a color.
- tk_chooseDirectory - pops up a dialog box for the user to select a directory.
- tk_dialog - Create modal dialog and wait for response
- tk_getOpenFile - pop up a dialog box for the user to select a file to open or save.
- tk_messageBox - pops up a message window and waits for user response.
- tk_popup - Post a popup menu
- toplevel - Create and manipulate toplevel widgets
Tk also provides three geometry managers:
- place - which positions widgets at absolute locations
- grid - which arranges widgets in a grid
- pack - which packs widgets into a cavity
The most unusual features of Tk are its canvas and text widgets, which provide capabilities found in few if any other widget toolkits.
[edit] Some Examples
Button
button .b -text "Button" -command "exit"
Label
label .l -text "Label" -foreground Yellow -background Blue -font {-family times -size 24}
Check Buttons
checkbutton .c1 -text Bold -variable bold -anchor w
Radio Buttons
radiobutton .r1 -text Helvetica -variable font -value helvetica
Entry
entry .e -width 40 -relief sunken -bd 2 -textvariable name
Canvas
canvas .c -width 250 -height 100
List Box
listbox .l -yscroll ".s set"
Scale
scale .scale -orient vertical -length 284 -from 0 -to 250 -tickinterval 50 -command "setHeight .canvas"
tk_messageBox
tk_messageBox -icon question -type yesno -title Message -parent . -message "Do you like me so far?"
tk_getOpenFile
tk_getOpenFile -filetypes $types -parent .
tk_chooseColor
tk_chooseColor -title "Choose a background color" -parent .
Text
text .t -yscrollcommand ".scroll set" -setgrid true -width 40 -height 10 -wrap word
Menu
menu ???
menubutton
menubutton ???
cursor
cursor ???
image
image ???
bitmaps
bitmaps ???
[edit] See also
- Widget toolkit
- Tkinter - a Tk binding for Python
- Qt
- wxWidgets
[edit] External links
[edit] Generic Tk and Tcl/Tk
- Tcl and Tk website
- Tk 8.4 manual
- Tcl/Tk cookbook
- [1] Collaborative community website for all aspects of Tcl and Tk
- [2] Free binary distribution of Tcl, Tk, and add-on extensions
- [3] Screenshots of a GUI made with Tk running on various platforms
- [4] More screenshots of a Tk GUI
[edit] Perl/Tk
- Perl/Tk manual, hosted by Activestate
- Abridged Perl/Tk Tutorial
[edit] Ruby/Tk
- Ruby/Tk, a chapter in The Ruby book
- MacDevCenter.com tutorial
- Learn Tk, another Ruby/Tk Tutorial
[edit] Common Lisp/Tk
- LTK LTK, the Lisp ToolKit. Tk interface (through tcl) for Common Lisp
