Examples of Tk Widgets

Try cutting and pasting the examples below into your wish interpretter.


Labels

wish label.tcl

Labels are widgets that contain text or images. You can specifiy the text, its font, how its justified, color, etc.

#Create three different labels
label .l1 -text "This is what the default label looks like"
label .l2 -text "This is a yellow label on a blue background" \
    -foreground Yellow \
    -background Blue
label .l3 -text "This is a label in Times 24 font" \
    -font {-family times -size 24}
# Put them in the window in row order
grid .l1 -row 0
grid .l2 -row 1
grid .l3 -row 2


Buttons

wish button.tcl

Buttons are like labels, except they react to mouse presses. You can attach a command or callback that gets executed when the button is pressed.

#The first button calls a procedure (a callback) that switches the 
#buttons name between Hello and Goodbye. The second button
#executes a command that destroys the window.
set text Hello
proc doIt {widget} {
    global text
    if {$text == "Hello"} {
        set text "Goodbye"
    } else {
        set text "Hello"
    }
    $widget configure -text $text
}
button .b1 -text "Hello" \
        -command "doIt .b1"
button .b2 -text "Quit" \
    -command "destroy ."
# Put them in the window in row order
grid .b1 -row 0 -column 0
grid .b2 -row 0 -column 1


Checkbuttons and RadioButtons

wish checkbutton.tcl

Checkbuttons allow state selection, while radiobuttons can be tied together by a variable name. This example shows how both can be used to create a little font demo. Press the Apply button when its done..."

set font helvetica
proc applyIt { } {
    global bold italics font
    if {$bold} {set weight bold} {set weight normal}
    if {$italics} {set slant italic} {set slant roman}
    .b configure -font "-family $font -weight $weight -slant $slant"
}
checkbutton .c1 -text Bold -variable bold   -anchor w
checkbutton .c2 -text Italics -variable italics  -anchor w
radiobutton .r1 -text Helvetica -variable font -value helvetica
radiobutton .r2 -text Courier   -variable font -value courier   
button .b -text Apply \
    -command "applyIt"
applyIt
#The "sticky" option aligns items to the left (west) side
grid .c1 -row 0 -column 1 -sticky w
grid .c2 -row 1 -column 1 -sticky w
grid .r1 -row 0 -column 0 -sticky w
grid .r2 -row 1 -column 0 -sticky w
grid .b -row 2 -column 0 -columnspan 2


Entry

wish entry.tcl

An entry is a text field that you can type into. This example combines a label and a text entry to look like a standard form fill in component.

# Creates an entry that you can type in. 
# focus puts the cursor in the entry, and he button clears it
label .l -text "Enter:"
entry .e -width 40 -relief sunken -bd 2 -textvariable name
focus .e
button .b -text Clear -command {set name ""}
grid .l -row 0 -column 0 -sticky e
grid .e -row 0 -column 1 -sticky w
grid .b -row 1 -column 0 -columnspan 2


Canvas

wish canvas.tcl

Canvases are very powerful drawing areas. Not only can you draw things in them, (such as lines, circles etc), but you can also put standard widgets in them (such as buttons, etc). You can also bind mouse actions to objects within a canvas, which means that you can move them around, have them respond to mouse clicks, and so on.

# An example of canvases, items, and dragging things around
proc moveit {object x y} {
  .c coords $object [expr $x-25] [expr $y-25] [expr $x+25] [expr $y+25]
}
canvas .c -width 250 -height 100
set myoval [.c create oval 0 0 50 50 -fill orange]
set myline [.c create line 50 50 100 100 -fill blue -width 4]
.c bind $myoval <B1-Motion>  {moveit $myoval %x %y}
.c bind $myline <B1-Motion>  {moveit $myline %x %y}
grid .c -row 0 -column 0


Listbox

wish listbox.tcl

Listboxes are scrollable lists of text lines that can be selected.

#Create a scrollable listbox containing color names. When a color is
# double-clicked, the label on the bottom will change to show the
# selected color name and will also change the background color
proc setLabel {color} {
    .label configure -text $color -background $color
}
scrollbar .s -command ".l yview"
listbox .l -yscroll ".s set"
label .label -text "Nothing Selected"
bind .l <Double-B1-ButtonRelease> {setLabel [.l get active]}
grid .l -row 0 -column 0 -sticky news
grid .s -row 0 -column 1 -sticky news
grid .label -row 1 -column 0 -columnspan 2
.l insert 0 gray60 gray70 gray80 gray85 gray90 gray95 \
    snow1 snow2 snow3 snow4 seashell1 seashell2 \
    seashell3 seashell4 AntiqueWhite1 AntiqueWhite2 AntiqueWhite3 \
    DarkSlateGray1 DarkSlateGray2 DarkSlateGray3 \
    aquamarine4 DarkSeaGreen1 DarkSeaGreen2 DarkSeaGreen3 \
    PaleGreen1 PaleGreen2 PaleGreen3 PaleGreen4 SpringGreen1 \
    green3 green4 chartreuse1 chartreuse2 chartreuse3 \
    chartreuse4 OliveDrab1 OliveDrab2 OliveDrab3 OliveDrab4 \
    coral2 coral3 coral4 tomato1 tomato2 tomato3 tomato4 \
    red4 DeepPink1 DeepPink2 DeepPink3 DeepPink4 HotPink1 \
    HotPink2 HotPink3 HotPink4 pink1 pink2 pink3 pink4 \
    PaleVioletRed2 PaleVioletRed3 PaleVioletRed4 maroon1 \
    VioletRed4 magenta1 magenta2 magenta3 magenta4 orchid1 \
    orchid2 orchid3 orchid4 plum1 plum2 plum3 plum4 \
    DarkOrchid1 DarkOrchid2 DarkOrchid3 DarkOrchid4 purple1 \
    MediumPurple3 MediumPurple4 thistle1 thistle2 thistle3 \


Scale

wish scale.tcl

Scales are controls that allow you to set linear values

# Use a scale to set the height of an arrow drawn on a canvas
#(Modified from the example supplied in the wish widget demo)
proc setHeight {w height} {
    incr height 21
    set y2 [expr $height - 30]
    if {$y2 <21} { 
        set y2 21 
    } 
    $w coords poly 15 20 35 20 35 $y2 45 $y2 25 $height 5 $y2 15 $y2 15 20 
    $w coords line 15 20 35 20 35 $y2 45 $y2 25 $height 5 $y2 15 $y2 15 20 
} 
scale .scale -orient vertical -length 284 -from 0 -to 250 \
    -tickinterval 50 \
    -command "setHeight .canvas" 
canvas .canvas -width 50 -height 50 -bd 0 -highlightthickness 0 
.canvas create polygon 0 0 1 1 2 2 -fill SeaGreen3 -tags poly 
.canvas create line 0 0 1 1 2 2 0 0 -fill black -tags line 
grid .scale -row 0 -column 0 -sticky ne 
grid .canvas -row 0 -column 1 -sticky nwse 
.scale set 75


tk_messageBox

wish messageBox.tcl


A tk_messageBox is a pop-up window that ask a question and waits for a response.

proc doIt {label} {
    set button \
        [tk_messageBox \
               -icon question \
               -type yesno \
               -title Message \
               -parent . \
               -message "Do you like me so far?"]
    $label configure -text $button
}
label .l -text "I'm not sure yet"
button .b -text "Do you like me?" \
        -command "doIt .l"
grid .b -row 0 -column 0
grid .l -row 0 -column 1


tk_getOpenFile

wish openFile.tcl


A tk_getOpenFile is a pop-up widget that asks you to select a file. There is also a similar dialog called tk_getSaveFile

set types {
        {"All Source Files"     {.tcl .c .h}    }
        {"Image Files"          {.gif}          }
        {"All files"            *}
}
proc doIt {label} {
    global types   
    set file [tk_getOpenFile -filetypes $types -parent .]
    $label configure -text $file
}
label .l -text "No File"
button .b -text "Select a file?" \
        -command "doIt .l"
grid .b -row 0 -column 0
grid .l -row 0 -column 1


tk_chooseColor

wish color.tcl


A tk_chooseColor is a pop-up widget that asks you to choose a color.

proc doIt {widget} {
    set current_color \
        [tk_chooseColor -title "Choose a background color" -parent .]
    $widget configure -background $current_color
}
label .l
button .b -text "Choose a color..." \
        -command "doIt .b" 
grid .b -row 0 -column 0


text

wish text.tcl


A text widget is a text editor kind of thing. You can change the look of the text, can make regions of text react to button presses, and can even insert other widgets into the text editor!

# This demonstration script creates a text widget that illustrates the
# various display styles that may be set for tags. 
# Modified from the demo widget example provided in the Tcl release
text .t -yscrollcommand ".scroll set" -setgrid true \
        -width 40 -height 10 -wrap word
scrollbar .scroll -command ".t yview"
pack .scroll -side right -fill y
pack .t -expand yes -fill both
# Set up the tags 
.t tag configure bold_italics -font \
    {-family courier -size 12 -weight bold -slant italic}
.t tag configure big -font {-family helvetica -size 24 -weight bold}
.t tag configure color1 -foreground red
.t tag configure sunken -relief sunken -borderwidth 1
.t tag bind Ouch <1> {.t insert end "Ouch! "}
# Now insert text that has the property of the tags
.t insert end "Here are a few text styles.\n"
.t insert end "1. Bold italic text.\n" bold_italics
.t insert end "2. Larger Helvetica  text.\n" big
.t insert end "3. Red text.\n" color1
.t insert end "4. Sunken text.\n" sunken
button .b -text "5. An embedded Hello Button" \
    -command {.t insert end "Hello "}
.t window create end -window .b
.t insert end "\n"
.t insert end "6. Text with a binding (try clicking me)" Ouch
.t insert end "\nAnd all this is editable!"


What's Missing

Use the Tcl/Tk books, man pages and the widget demo to look up:


I'm sure I've left out some... Have fun!