NAME

       chatwidget  - Provides a multi-paned view suitable for display of chat room or irc channel
       information

SYNOPSIS

       package require Tk  8.5

       package require chatwidget  ?1.0.0?

       ::chatwidget::chatwidget path ?options?

       $widget topic command args

       $widget name nick args

       $widget message text args

       $widget hook command args

       $widget names args

       $widget entry args

       $widget chat args

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DESCRIPTION

       This is a composite widget designed to simplify the construction of chat applications. The
       widget  contains  display areas for chat messages, user names and topic and an entry area.
       It automatically handles colourization of messages per nick and manages nick completion. A
       system  of  hooks  permit the application author to adjust display features. The main chat
       display area may be split for use displaying history or for searching.

       The widget is made up of a number of text widget and panedwindow widgets so that the  size
       of  each  part  of  the  display  may be adjusted by the user. All the text widgets may be
       accessed via widget passthrough commands if fine adjustment is  required.  The  topic  and
       names sections can also be hidden if desired.

COMMANDS

       ::chatwidget::chatwidget path ?options?
              Create  a  new  chatwidget  using  the  Tk window id path. Any options provided are
              currently passed directly to the main chat text widget.

WIDGET COMMANDS

       $widget topic command args
              The chat widget can display a topic string, for instance the topic or name given to
              a multi-user chatroom or irc channel.

              show   Enable display of the topic.

              hide   Disable display of the topic

              set topic
                     Set the topic text to topic.

       $widget name nick args
              Control the names and tags associated with names.

              list ?-full?
                     Returns  a  list  of  all  the user names from the names view. If ?-full? is
                     given then the list returned is a list of lists where each sublist  is  made
                     up  of  the  nick  followed  by  any options that have been set on this nick
                     entry. This may be used to examine any application specific options that may
                     be applied to a nick when using the add command.

              add nick ?options?

              delete nick

       $widget message text args
              Add messages to the display. options are -nick, -time, -type, -mark -tags

       $widget hook command args
              Manage hooks. add (message, post names_group, names_nick, chatstate), remove, run

       $widget names args
              Passthrough  to  the  name  display text widget. See the text widget manual for all
              available commands. The chatwidget provides two additional commands show  and  hide
              which are used to control the display of this element in the widget.

       $widget entry args
              Passthrough  to the entry text widget. See the text widget manual for all available
              commands.

       $widget chat args
              Passthrough to the chat text widget. See the text widget manual for  all  available
              commands.

EXAMPLE

              chatwidget::chatwidget .chat
              proc speak {w msg} {$w message $msg -nick user}
              .chat hook add post [list speak .chat]
              pack .chat -side top -fill both -expand 1
              .chat topic show
              .chat topic set "Chat widget demo"
              .chat name add "admin" -group admin
              .chat name add "user" -group users -color tomato
              .chat message "Chatwidget ready" -type system
              .chat message "Hello, user" -nick admin
              .chat message "Hello, admin" -nick user

       A more extensive example is available by examining the code for the picoirc program in the
       tclapps repository which ties the tcllib picoirc package to  this  chatwidget  package  to
       create a simple irc client.

SEE ALSO

       text(3tk)

KEYWORDS

       chat, chatwidget, composite widget, irc, mega-widget, widget