Mastering Perl/Tk

Steve Lidie has spent decades consulting, programming and administering systems from Apple, CDC, DEC, HP, IBM, Microsoft and SGI. Author of the Perl/Tk Pocket Reference , he currently manages Lehigh University's large scale scientific computing complex, and occasionally writes Tk aricles for The Perl Journal and PerlMonth. Nancy Walsh has been involved with Perl (and Perl/Tk) since 1996. She received a Computer Science degree from the University of Arizona in 1993, and currently works as a Principal Consultant for XOR, Inc. doing J2EE and Java work on various projects. Nancy has taught several Perl/Tk Tutorials at the O'Reilly Open Source Conference and is also the author of Learning Perl/Tk.

• Preface 1. Hello, Perl/Tk Perl/Tk Concepts Some Perl/Tk History Getting Started with Perl/Tk Hello World Example Unsolicited Advice Debugging and Prototyping Perl/Tk Programs 2. Geometry Management The pack Geometry Manager The grid Geometry Manager The place Geometry Manager The form Geometry Manager Geometry Management Summary 3. Fonts Experimenting with Fonts Dissecting a Font Using Fonts Using Fonts Dynamically Font Manipulation Methods 4. Button, Checkbutton, and Radiobutton Widgets Creating Button Widgets Standard Options for Each Button Type Table of Options for Button-Type Widgets Displaying Text on Buttons Displaying an Image or Bitmap Checkbutton and Radiobutton Indicator Status On and Off Values for a Checkbutton Radiobutton Values The -command Option Disabling a Button Text Manipulation Altering the Button's Style Changing the Size of a Button Adding a Keyboard Mapping Color Options Indicator Colors Hiding the Indicator Focus Options Altering the Highlight Rectangle Configuring a Button Flashing the Button Invoking the Button Turning a Checkbutton/Radiobutton On and Off 5. Label and Entry Widgets The Label Widget The Entry Widget The Perl/Tk LabEntry Mega-Widget 6. The Scrollbar Widget Defining Scrollbar Parts The Scrolled Method The Scrollbar Widget Examples 7. The Listbox Widget Creating and Filling a Listbox Listbox Options Selection Modes Colors Listbox Style Configuring a Listbox Inserting Items Deleting Items Retrieving Elements Selection Methods Moving to a Specific Index Translating Indexes Counting Items Active Versus Selected Bounding Box Finding an Index by y Coordinate Scrolling Methods Listbox Virtual Events Listbox Example 8.The Text, TextUndo, and ROText Widgets Creating and Using a Text Widget Text Widget Options A Short Break for a Simple Example Text Indexes Text Tags Inserting Text Deleting Text Retrieving Text Translating Index Values Comparing Index Values Showing an Index Getting the Size of a Character Getting Line Information Searching the Contents of a Text Widget Scrolling Marks Embedding Widgets Internal Debug Flag The Perl/Tk Text Widget Extended Methods The TextUndo Widget The ROText Widget 9. The Canvas Widget Creating a Canvas The Canvas Coordinate System The Scrollable Region Using bind with a Canvas Canvas Options Creating Items in a Canvas Configuring the Canvas Widget Configuring Items in the Canvas Widget Tags Retrieving Bounding Box Coordinates Translating Coordinates Moving Items Around Changing the Display List Deleting Items Deleting Tags Determining Item Type Setting Keyboard Focus Rendering the Canvas as PostScript Scaling the Canvas Scanning A Drawing Program Example 10. The Scale Widget Creating a Scale Assigning a Callback Orientation Minimum and Maximum Values Displayed Versus Stored Value Adding a Label Displaying Value Increments Changing the Size of the Scale Options You'll Probably Never Need Configuring a Scale Getting the Value of a Scale Setting the Value of a Scale Determining Coordinates Identifying Parts of a Scale 11. Frame, MainWindow, and Toplevel Widgets Creating a Frame Creating a Toplevel Widget Options Frame Methods Toplevel Methods Creating Multiple MainWindows Putting Two MainWindows to Work 12. The Menu System Menu System Components Menubars and Pulldown Menus The Win32 System Menu Item Classical Menubars Popup Menus Option Menus Menu Virtual Events Pie Menus 13. Miscellaneous Perl/Tk Methods Managing Widgets with configure and cget Building a Family Tree Widget's ID Color-Related Methods The Application's Name Widget Existence Is the Widget Mapped? Converting Screen Distances Size of Widget Widget Position Screen Information Atom Methods Ringing a Bell Clipboard and Selection Methods Destroying a Widget Focus Methods Grab Methods Marking a Widget Busy and Unbusy Widget Mapping and Layering Interapplication Communication Waiting for Events to Happen Time Delays Parsing Command-Line Options Really Miscellaneous Methods 14. Creating Custom Widgets in Pure Perl/Tk A Mega-Widget Quick-Start The Perl/Tk Class Hierarchy Mega-Widget Implementation Details Composite Mega-Widgets Derived Mega-Widgets Packaging a Mega-Widget for Public Distribution 15. Anatomy of the MainLoop Creating a Callback Binding to Events The bindtags Command Executing Nonblocking System Commands Tracing Perl/Tk Variables Nonblocking Wait Activities Splash Screens Synthesizing Virtual Events Coexisting with Other GUI Main Loops 16. User Customization Using the Command Line Using the Option Database 17. Images and Animations An Overview of Perl/Tk Image Types Methods Common to All Image Types Bitmap Primitives DefineBitmap The Bitmap Image Type The Pixmap Image Type The Photo Image Type The Compound Image Type Tk::Animation tkneko-Animating the Neko on a Canvas Tile and Transparent Images Miscellaneous Image Methods Simple Photo Rotations 18. A Tk Interface Extension Tour Display Items Item Styles The TList Widget The HList Family of Widgets Tix Images 19. Interprocess Communication with Pipes and Sockets Handling Unsolicited Media Changes IPADM Design Considerations The Perl/Tk IPADM Client, ipadm The IPADM Helper, ipadmh The IPADM Daemon, ipadmd Polling Win32 Sockets 20. IPC with send Security and Inter-Language Considerations Computing p with Parallel Message Passing TclRobots 21. C Widget Internals The Tk::Square Widget Interfacing tkSquare.c with Perl/Tk Building and Testing Tk::Square How Not to Port Tk::Square 22. Perl/Tk and the Web Library for WWW Access in Perl The PerlPlus Browser Plug-in 23. Plethora of pTk Potpourri pTk Special Variables and Exporter Symbols Manipulating the Cursor Dialog Boxes The Adjuster Widget The Balloon Widget The BrowseEntry Widget The LabFrame Widget The NoteBook Widget The Pane Widget The ProgressBar Widget Widgets Not in the Perl/Tk Distribution A. Installing Perl/Tk B. Options and Default Values for Each Widget C. Complete Program Listings Index