Ubuntu Manpage: ntext - Alternative Bindings for the Text Widget

NAME

       ntext - Alternative Bindings for the Text Widget

SYNOPSIS

       package require Tcl  8.5

       package require Tk  8.5

       package require ntext  ?0.81?

_________________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION

The purpose of the ntext package is to make the text widget behave more like other text-editing
applications. It makes the text widget more useful for implementing a text editor, and makes it behave in
a way that will be more familiar to most users.

The package provides a binding tag named Ntext for use by text widgets in place of the default Text
binding tag.

Package ntext 's functions and variables are contained entirely in the ::ntext namespace; its other code
is contained in the binding tag Ntext. ntext has no exports to the global or other namespaces, and no
new widget commands. It uses modified copies of the Tk code, leaving the original code, and the Text
binding tag, unchanged.

The differences between the Ntext binding tag and the default Text binding tag are in three categories:

• Some Text bindings behave differently from most text-editing applications. Ntext gives these
bindings more familiar behaviour. For details see ntextBindings.

• When a logical line with leading whitespace is word-wrapped onto more than one display line, the
wrapped display lines begin further to the left than the first display line, which can make the
text layout untidy and difficult to read. Ntext can indent the wrapped lines to match the leading
whitespace of the first display line (this facility is switched off by default). For details see
ntextIndent.

• When the user navigates or selects text, Tcl/Tk sometimes needs to detect word boundaries. Ntext
provides improved rules for word boundary detection. For details see ntextWordBreak.

The remainder of this page describes the basic use and configuration of all three aspects of Ntext. For
more detailed information on the different facilities of Ntext, see the pages ntextBindings, ntextIndent,
and ntextWordBreak.

See Section EXAMPLE for how to apply the Ntext binding tag in place of the Text binding tag.

CONFIGURATION OPTIONS

       Ntext provides alternatives to a number of behaviours of the classic Text binding tag.  Where there is an
       option, the Ntext behaviour (except for display-line indentation) is switched on by default.

       The behaviour of Ntext may be configured application-wide by setting the values of a number of  namespace
       variables:

       ::ntext::classicAnchor

       •      0 - (default value) selects Ntext behaviour, i.e. the anchor point is fixed

       •      1 - selects classic Text behaviour, i.e. the anchor point is variable

       ::ntext::classicExtras

       •      0  -  (default  value)  selects  Ntext  behaviour,  i.e. several traditional Text bindings are de-
              activated

       •      1 - selects classic Text behaviour, i.e. all Text bindings are activated

       ::ntext::classicMouseSelect

       •      0 - (default value) selects Ntext behaviour, i.e. the anchor point for mouse selection  operations
              is moved by keyboard navigation

       •      1 - selects classic Text behaviour

       ::ntext::classicWordBreak

       •      0  -  (default  value)  selects  Ntext  behaviour,  i.e. platform-independent, two classes of word
              characters and one class of non-word characters.

       •      1 - selects classic Text behaviour, i.e. platform-dependent, one class of word characters and  one
              class of non-word characters

       •      After  changing  this value, the matching patterns should be recalculated.  See ntextWordBreak for
              details and advanced configuration options.

       ::ntext::classicWrap

       •      0 - selects Ntext behaviour, i.e. display lines of text widgets in -wrap word mode are indented to
              match the initial whitespace of the first display line of a logical line.  If the  widget  already
              holds text when this value is set, a function call may be necessary.  See ntextIndent for detailed
              instructions on the use of Ntext 's indentation.

       •      1 - (default value) selects classic Text behaviour, i.e. no indentation

       ::ntext::overwrite

       •      0 - (initial value) text typed at the keyboard is inserted into the widget

       •      1 - text typed at the keyboard overwrites text already in the widget

       •      The value is toggled by the Insert key.

EXAMPLE

       To create a text widget .t and use the Ntext bindings:

              package require ntext
              text .t
              bindtags .t {.t Ntext . all}

       See bindtags for more information.

KEYWORDS