Provided by: perl-tk_804.036-1build1_amd64 
NAME
Tk::UserGuide - Writing Tk applications in Perl 5
DESCRIPTION
This document is for beginners. It assumes you know some Perl, and have it and Tk
running. If you are not currently reading this document courtesy of the widget
demonstration program, please be sure to run widget, as it will show you the various
widget types supported by Tk and how to use them. widget should be installed in your
default path, so type widget at a command prompt.
Here are links to other novice tutorials:
<http://www.lehigh.edu/~sol0/ptk/tpj1.html>
<http://www.lehigh.edu/~sol0/ptk/perlmonth01/pm1.html>
Mastering Perl/Tk is the definitive book on Perl/Tk:
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mastperltk>
Some Background
Tk GUI programming is event-driven. (This may already be familiar to you.) In event-
driven programs, the main GUI loop is outside of the user program and inside the GUI
library. This loop - initiated by calling MainLoop - watches all events of interest and
activates the correct handler procedures to handle these events. Some of these handler
procedures may be user-supplied; others will be part of the library.
For a programmer, this means that you're not watching what is happening; instead, you are
requested by the toolkit to perform actions whenever necessary. So, you're not watching
for 'raise window / close window / redraw window' requests, but you tell the toolkit which
routine will handle such cases, and the toolkit will call the procedures when required.
These procedures are known as callbacks, and some of them you write yourself.
First Requirements
Perl programs that use Tk need to include "use Tk". A program should also use "use
strict" and the -w switch to ensure the program is working without common errors.
Any Perl/Tk application starts by creating the Tk MainWindow. You then create items
inside the MainWindow, and/or create new windows called Toplevels that also contain child
items, before starting the MainLoop, which is the last logical statment in your program.
You can also create more items and windows while you're running, using callbacks. Items
are only shown on the display after they have been arranged by a geometry manager like
pack; more information on this later. MainLoop starts the GUI and handle all events.
That's all there is to it! A trivial one-window example is shown below:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use Tk;
use strict;
my $mw = MainWindow->new;
$mw->Label(-text => 'Hello, world!')->pack;
$mw->Button(
-text => 'Quit',
-command => sub { exit },
)->pack;
MainLoop;
Please run this example. It shows you two widget types, a Label and a Button, and how
they are packed. When clicked, the Button widget invokes the callback specified by the
"-command" option. Finally, note the typical Tk style using "-option" => "value" pairs.
Widget creation
Tk windows and widgets are hierarchical, i.e. one window includes one or more other
windows. You create the first Tk window using "MainWindow->new". This returns a window
handle, assigned to $mw in the example above. Keep track of the main handle, commonly
called a widget reference.
You can use any Tk handle to create child widgets within the window (or widget). This is
done by calling the Tk constructor method on the variable. In the example above, the
"Label" method called from $mw creates a Label widget inside the MainWindow. In the
constructor call, you can specify various options; you can later add or change options for
any widget using the configure method, which takes the same parameters as the constructor.
The one exception to the hierarchical structure is the Toplevel constructor, which creates
a new outermost window.
After you create any widget (other than the MainWindow or Toplevels, you must render it by
calling pack. (This is not entirely true; more later)). If you do not need to refer to
the widget after construction and packing, call pack off the constructor results, as shown
for the Label and Button in the example above. Note that the result of the compound call
is the result of pack, which is a valid Tk handle.
Windows and widgets are deleted by calling destroy on them; this will delete and un-draw
the widget and all its children.
Standard Tk widgets
Here is an itemize of the standard Tk widget set.
Button
Canvas
Checkbutton
Entry
Frame
Label
Labelframe
Listbox
Menu
Menubutton
Message
Panedwindow
Radiobutton
Scale
Scrollbar
Spinbox
Text
Toplevel
Perl/Tk provides an equal number of new widgets, above and beyond this core set.
Adjuster
Balloon
BrowseEntry
ColorEditor
Dialog
DialogBox
DirTree
ErrorDialog
FBox
FileSelect
HList
LabEntry
LabFrame
NoteBook
Optionmenu
Pane
ProgressBar
ROText
Table
TextUndo
Tiler
TList
Tree
Variables and callback routines
Most graphical interfaces are used to set up a set of values and conditions, and then
perform the appropriate action. The Tk toolkit is different from your average text-based
prompting or menu driven system in that you do not collect settings yourself, and decide
on an action based on an input code; instead, you leave these values to your toolkit and
only get them when the action is performed.
So, where a traditional text-based system would look like this:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
print "Please type a font name\n";
my $font = <>; chomp $font;
# Validate font
print "Please type a file name\n";
my $filename = <>; chomp $filename;
# Validate filename
print "Type <1> to fax, <2> to print\n";
my $option = <>; chomp $option;
if ($option eq 1) {
print "Faxing $filename in font $font\n";
} elsif ($option eq 2) {
print "Now sending $filename to printer in font $font\n";
}
The slightly larger example below shows how to do this in Tk. Note the use of callbacks.
Note, also, that Tk handles the values, and the subroutine uses the method get to get at
the values. If a user changes his mind and wants to change the font again, the
application never notices; it's all handled by Tk.
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use Tk;
use strict;
my $mw = MainWindow->new;
$mw->Label(-text => 'File Name')->pack;
my $filename = $mw->Entry(-width => 20);
$filename->pack;
$mw->Label(-text => 'Font Name')->pack;
my $font = $mw->Entry(-width => 10);
$font->pack;
$mw->Button(
-text => 'Fax',
-command => sub{do_fax($filename, $font)}
)->pack;
$mw->Button(
-text => 'Print',
-command => sub{do_print($filename, $font)}
)->pack;
MainLoop;
sub do_fax {
my ($file, $font) = @_;
my $file_val = $file->get;
my $font_val = $font->get;
print "Now faxing $file_val in font $font_val\n";
}
sub do_print {
my ($file, $font) = @_;
my $file_val = $file->get;
my $font_val = $font->get;
print "Sending file $file_val to printer in font $font_val\n";
}
The packer - grouping with Frame widgets
In the examples above, you must have noticed the pack calls. This is one of the more
complicated parts of Tk. The basic idea is that any window or widget should be subject to
a Tk geometry manager; the packer is one of the placement managers, and grid is another.
The actions of the packer are rather simple: when applied to a widget, the packer
positions that widget on the indicated position within the remaining space in its parent.
By default, the position is on top; this means the next items will be put below. You can
also specify the left, right, or bottom positions. Specify position using -side =>
'right'.
Additional packing parameters specify the behavior of the widget when there is some space
left in the Frame or when the window size is increased. If widgets should maintain a
fixed size, specify nothing; this is the default. For widgets that you want to fill up
the current horizontal and/or vertical space, specify -fill => 'x', 'y', or 'both'; for
widgets that should grow, specify -expand => 1. These parameters are not shown in the
example below; see the widget demonstration.
If you want to group some items within a window that have a different packing order than
others, you can include them in a Frame. This is a do-nothing window type that is meant
for packing or filling (and to play games with borders and colors).
The example below shows the use of pack and Frames:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use Tk;
use strict;
# Take top and the bottom - now implicit top is in the middle
my $mw = MainWindow->new;
$mw->title( 'The MainWindow' );
$mw->Label(-text => 'At the top (default)')->pack;
$mw->Label(-text => 'At the bottom')->pack(-side => 'bottom');
$mw->Label(-text => 'The middle remains')->pack;
# Since left and right are taken, bottom will not work...
my $top1 = $mw->Toplevel;
$top1->title( 'Toplevel 1' );
$top1->Label(-text => 'Left')->pack(-side => 'left');
$top1->Label(-text => 'Right')->pack(-side => 'right');
$top1->Label(-text => '?Bottom?')->pack(-side => 'bottom');
# But when you use Frames, things work quite alright
my $top2 = $mw->Toplevel;
$top2->title( 'Toplevel 2' );
my $frame = $top2->Frame;
$frame->pack;
$frame->Label(-text => 'Left2')->pack(-side => 'left');
$frame->Label(-text => 'Right2')->pack(-side => 'right');
$top2->Label(-text => 'Bottom2')->pack(-side => 'bottom');
MainLoop;
More than one window
Most real applications require more than one window. As you just saw, you can create more
outermost windows by using a Toplevel widget. Each window is independent; destroying a
Toplevel window does not affect the others as long as they are not a child of the closed
Toplevel. However, exiting the MainWindow will destroy all remaining Toplevel widgets and
end the application. The example below shows a trivial three-window application:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use Tk;
use strict;
my $mw = MainWindow->new;
fill_window($mw, 'Main');
my $top1 = $mw->Toplevel;
fill_window($top1, 'First top-level');
my $top2 = $mw->Toplevel;
fill_window($top2, 'Second top-level');
MainLoop;
sub fill_window {
my ($window, $header) = @_;
$window->Label(-text => $header)->pack;
$window->Button(
-text => 'close',
-command => [$window => 'destroy']
)->pack(-side => 'left');
$window->Button(
-text => 'exit',
-command => [$mw => 'destroy']
)->pack(-side => 'right');
}
More callbacks
So far, all callback routines shown called a user procedure. You can also have a callback
routine call another Tk routine. This is the way that scroll bars are implemented:
scroll-bars can call a Tk item or a user procedure, whenever their position has changed.
The Tk item that has a scrollbar attached calls the scrollbar when its size or offset has
changed. In this way, the items are linked. You can still ask a scrollbar's position, or
set it by hand - but the defaults will be taken care of.
The example below shows a Listbox with a scroll bar. Moving the scrollbar moves the
Listbox. Scanning a Listbox (dragging an item with the left mouse button) moves the
scrollbar.
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use Tk;
use strict;
my $mw = MainWindow->new;
my $box = $mw->Listbox(
-relief => 'sunken',
-height => 5,
-setgrid => 1,
);
my @items = qw(One Two Three Four Five Six Seven
Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve);
foreach (@items) {
$box->insert('end', $_);
}
my $scroll = $mw->Scrollbar(-command => ['yview', $box]);
$box->configure(-yscrollcommand => ['set', $scroll]);
$box->pack(-side => 'left', -fill => 'both', -expand => 1);
$scroll->pack(-side => 'right', -fill => 'y');
MainLoop;
Note that there's a convenience method Scrolled which helps constructing widgets with
automatically managed scrollbars.
Canvases and tags
One of the most powerful widgets in Tk is the Canvas window. In a Canvas window, you can
draw simple graphics and include other widgets. The Canvas area may be larger than the
visible window, and may then be scrolled. Any item you draw on the canvas has its own id,
and may optionally have one or more tags. You may refer to any item by its id, and may
refer to any group of items by a common tag; you can move, delete, or change groups of
items using these tags, and you can bind actions to tags. For a properly designed (often
structured) Canvas, you can specify powerful actions quite simply.
In the example below, actions are bound to circles (single click) and blue items (double-
click); obviously, this can be extended to any tag or group of tags.
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use Tk;
use strict;
# Create B<MainWindow> and canvas
my $mw = MainWindow->new;
my $canvas = $mw->Canvas;
$canvas->pack(-expand => 1, -fill => 'both');
# Create various items
create_item($canvas, 1, 1, 'circle', 'blue', 'Jane');
create_item($canvas, 4, 4, 'circle', 'red', 'Peter');
create_item($canvas, 4, 1, 'square', 'blue', 'James');
create_item($canvas, 1, 4, 'square', 'red', 'Patricia');
# Single-clicking with left on a 'circle' item invokes a procedure
$canvas->bind('circle', '<1>' => sub {handle_circle($canvas)});
# Double-clicking with left on a 'blue' item invokes a procedure
$canvas->bind('blue', '<Double-1>' => sub {handle_blue($canvas)});
MainLoop;
# Create an item; use parameters as tags (this is not a default!)
sub create_item {
my ($can, $x, $y, $form, $color, $name) = @_;
my $x2 = $x + 1;
my $y2 = $y + 1;
my $kind;
$kind = 'oval' if ($form eq 'circle');
$kind = 'rectangle' if ($form eq 'square');
$can->create(
($kind, "$x" . 'c', "$y" . 'c',
"$x2" . 'c', "$y2" . 'c'),
-tags => [$form, $color, $name],
-fill => $color);
}
# This gets the real name (not current, blue/red, square/circle)
# Note: you'll want to return a list in realistic situations...
sub get_name {
my ($can) = @_;
my $item = $can->find('withtag', 'current');
my @taglist = $can->gettags($item);
my $name;
foreach (@taglist) {
next if ($_ eq 'current');
next if ($_ eq 'red' or $_ eq 'blue');
next if ($_ eq 'square' or $_ eq 'circle');
$name = $_;
last;
}
return $name;
}
sub handle_circle {
my ($can) = @_;
my $name = get_name($can);
print "Action on circle $name...\n";
}
sub handle_blue {
my ($can) = @_;
my $name = get_name($can);
print "Action on blue item $name...\n";
}
Perl/Tk and Unicode
Perl/Tk follows Perl's model of handling Unicode. That is, if a string is correctly
flagged as a "character" string in the sense like described in "TERMINOLOGY" in Encode,
then Perl/Tk will very probably display and handle this string correctly.
Note that every variable which is passed somehow into a Perl/Tk method will be implicitely
changed into an internally utf8-flagged variable. Semantically nothing changes, as the
series of codepoints stays the same, but things will change when variables with high-bit
iso-8859-1 characters will be passed to the "outer" world. In this case you have to
explicitly mark the encoding of your output stream if using IO, or encode the variables
using Encode for other style of communication.
This is the theory, now some examples.
If you use non-iso-8859-1 characters in the source code, then use either the "use utf8;"
or "use encoding 'encodingname'" pragma:
use utf8;
use Tk;
my $x = "some characters using utf8 encoding";
tkinit->Label(-text => $x)->pack;
MainLoop;
For data that comes from a file you have to specify the encoding unless it's encoded as
ascii or iso-8559-1:
use Tk;
open my $FH, "<:encoding(utf-8)", "filename" or die $!;
# or for utf-16 data: open my $FH, "<:encoding(utf-16)", "filename" or die $!;
my $data = <$FH>;
tkinit->Label(-text => $data)->pack;
MainLoop;
Likewise, the encoding must be specified for all data which is read from Tk widgets and
that shall be output into a file. For the output, the encoding should be always specified,
even if it is iso-8859-1:
use Tk;
$mw = tkinit;
$mw->Entry(-textvariable => \$input)->pack;
$mw->Button(
-text => "Write to file",
-command => sub {
open my $FH, ">:encoding(iso-8859-1)", "filename" or die $!;
print $FH $input;
},
)->pack;
MainLoop;
Note that Tk is Unicode-capable. So you need to be prepared that the user has the
appropriate input methods activated to enter non-ascii characters. If an output encoding
is used which does not cover the whole of Unicode codepoints then a warning will be issued
when writing the file, like this:
"\x{20ac}" does not map to iso-8859-1 at /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/mach/Tk.pm line 250.
Also, the same hexadecimal notation will be used as replacements for the unhandled
characters.
Handling encoding in I/O is pretty simple using the "encoding" PerlIO layer, as described
above. In other cases, such as when dealing with databases, encoding the data usually has
to be done manually, unless the database driver has some means for automatically do this
for you. So when working with a MySQL database, one could use:
use Tk;
use DBI;
use Encode qw(encode);
$mw = tkinit;
$mw->Entry(-textvariable => \$input)->pack;
$mw->Button(
-text => "Write to database",
-command => sub {
my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:mysql:test", "root", "") or die;
my $encoded_input = encode("iso-8859-1", $input);
$dbh->do("INSERT INTO testtable VALUES (?)", undef, $encoded_input) or die;
},
)->pack;
MainLoop;
Unfortunately, there are still places in Perl ignorant of Unicode. One of these places are
filenames. Consequently, the file selectors in Perl/Tk do not handle encoding of filenames
properly. Currently they suppose that filenames are in iso-8859-1 encoding, at least on
Unix systems. As soon as Perl has a concept of filename encodings, then Perl/Tk will also
implement such schemes.