Provided by: tk8.6-doc_8.6.8-4_all bug

NAME

       pack-old - Obsolete syntax for packer geometry manager

SYNOPSIS

       pack after sibling window options ?window options ...?

       pack append parent window options ?window options ...?

       pack before sibling window options ?window options ...?

       pack unpack window
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DESCRIPTION

       Note:  this manual entry describes the syntax for the pack command as it existed before Tk
       version 3.3.  Although this syntax continues to be supported for  backward  compatibility,
       it  is  obsolete and should not be used anymore.  At some point in the future it may cease
       to be supported.

       The packer is a geometry manager that arranges the children of a parent by packing them in
       order  around  the edges of the parent.  The first child is placed against one side of the
       window, occupying the entire span of the window along that side.  This reduces  the  space
       remaining  for  other  children  as if the side had been moved in by the size of the first
       child.  Then the next child is placed against one side of the remaining cavity, and so  on
       until all children have been placed or there is no space left in the cavity.

       The  before,  after,  and  append forms of the pack command are used to insert one or more
       children into the packing order for their parent.  The before form  inserts  the  children
       before window sibling in the order;  all of the other windows must be siblings of sibling.
       The after form inserts the windows after sibling, and the append form appends one or  more
       windows  to  the  end  of the packing order for parent.  If a window named in any of these
       commands is already packed in its parent, it is removed from its current position  in  the
       packing  order and repositioned as indicated by the command.  All of these commands return
       an empty string as result.

       The unpack form of the pack command removes window from the packing order  of  its  parent
       and  unmaps  it.   After  the  execution  of this command the packer will no longer manage
       window's geometry.

       The placement of each  child  is  actually  a  four-step  process;  the  options  argument
       following  each  window consists of a list of one or more fields that govern the placement
       of that window.  In the discussion below, the term cavity refers to the space  left  in  a
       parent  when  a  particular  child  is  placed (i.e. all the space that was not claimed by
       earlier children in the packing order).  The term parcel refers to the space allocated  to
       a  particular  child;   this  is  not  necessarily  the  same  as the child window's final
       geometry.

       The first step in placing a child is to determine which side of the  cavity  it  will  lie
       against.  Any one of the following options may be used to specify a side:

       top    Position the child's parcel against the top of the cavity, occupying the full width
              of the cavity.

       bottom Position the child's parcel against the bottom of the cavity,  occupying  the  full
              width of the cavity.

       left   Position the child's parcel against the left side of the cavity, occupying the full
              height of the cavity.

       right  Position the child's parcel against the right side of  the  cavity,  occupying  the
              full height of the cavity.

       At  most  one  of  these  options should be specified for any given window.  If no side is
       specified, then the default is top.

       The second step is to decide on a parcel for the child.  For top and bottom  windows,  the
       desired  parcel  width  is  normally the cavity width and the desired parcel height is the
       window's requested height, as passed to Tk_GeometryRequest. For left  and  right  windows,
       the  desired  parcel  height  is  normally  the cavity height and the desired width is the
       window's requested width.  However, extra space may be requested for the window using  any
       of the following options:

       padx num    Add  num  pixels  to  the window's requested width before computing the parcel
                   size as described above.

       pady num    Add num pixels to the window's requested height before  computing  the  parcel
                   size as described above.

       expand      This option requests that the window's parcel absorb any extra space left over
                   in the parent's cavity after packing all the children.  The  amount  of  space
                   left  over  depends  on  the sizes requested by the other children, and may be
                   zero.  If several windows have all specified expand then the extra width  will
                   be  divided equally among all the left and right windows that specified expand
                   and the extra height will be divided equally among  all  the  top  and  bottom
                   windows that specified expand.

       If  the desired width or height for a parcel is larger than the corresponding dimension of
       the cavity, then the cavity's dimension is used instead.

       The third step in placing the window is to decide on the window's width and  height.   The
       default is for the window to receive either its requested width and height or the those of
       the parcel, whichever is smaller.  If the parcel is larger  than  the  window's  requested
       size,  then  the  following  options  may  be  used  to  expand the window to partially or
       completely fill the parcel:

       fill   Set the window's size to equal the parcel size.

       fillx  Increase the window's width to equal the parcel's width, but  retain  the  window's
              requested height.

       filly  Increase  the window's height to equal the parcel's height, but retain the window's
              requested width.

       The last step is to decide the window's location within its parcel.  If the window's  size
       equals  the  parcel's size, then the window simply fills the entire parcel.  If the parcel
       is larger than the window, then one of the following options may be used to specify  where
       the window should be positioned within its parcel:

       frame center   Center  the window in its parcel.  This is the default if no framing option
                      is specified.

       frame n        Position the window with its top edge centered  on  the  top  edge  of  the
                      parcel.

       frame ne       Position  the  window with its upper-right corner at the upper-right corner
                      of the parcel.

       frame e        Position the window with its right edge centered on the right edge  of  the
                      parcel.

       frame se       Position  the  window with its lower-right corner at the lower-right corner
                      of the parcel.

       frame s        Position the window with its bottom edge centered on the bottom edge of the
                      parcel.

       frame sw       Position  the window with its lower-left corner at the lower-left corner of
                      the parcel.

       frame w        Position the window with its left edge centered on the  left  edge  of  the
                      parcel.

       frame nw       Position  the window with its upper-left corner at the upper-left corner of
                      the parcel.

       The packer manages the mapped/unmapped state of  all  the  packed  children  windows.   It
       automatically  maps  the  windows  when it packs them, and it unmaps any windows for which
       there was no space left in the cavity.

       The packer makes geometry requests on behalf of the parent windows it manages.   For  each
       parent  window it requests a size large enough to accommodate all the options specified by
       all the packed children, such that zero space would be leftover for expand options.

KEYWORDS

       geometry manager, location, packer, parcel, size