Path: usenet.cis.ufl.edu!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!hookup!solaris.cc.vt.edu!news.mathworks.com!gatech!lepidopteran.cse.psu.edu!uwm.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!csn!news-1.csn.net!ub!newsstand.cit.cornell.edu!lnsnews.lns.cornell.edu!lns62.lns.cornell.edu!PVHP From: pvhp@lns62.lns.cornell.edu (Peter Prymmer) Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl.tk,comp.lang.perl.announce,comp.answers,news.answers Subject: comp.lang.perl.tk FAQ part0 of 5 Followup-To: comp.lang.perl.tk Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 09:00:39 GMT Organization: Wilson Lab, Cornell U., Ithaca, NY, 14853 Lines: 452 Approved: pvhp@lns62.lns.cornell.edu (Peter Prymmer) Expires: Wed, 15 May 1996 09:00:16 GMT Message-ID: <009A0E10.F40DC750@lns62.lns.cornell.edu> Reply-To: PVHP@lns62.lns.cornell.edu NNTP-Posting-Host: lns62.lns.cornell.edu Xref: usenet.cis.ufl.edu comp.lang.perl.tk:1701 comp.lang.perl.announce:319 comp.answers:17994 news.answers:69923 Summary: comp.lang.perl.tk Frequently Asked Questions. Archive-name: perl-faq/ptk-faq/part0 Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-modified: Mon Apr 15 03:41:28 EDT 1996 URL: http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ.html Version: 0.02 Supersedes: <0099F5AC.4B8318F0@lns62.lns.cornell.edu> URL (Hypertext-split): http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkTOC.html URL (Plaintext): http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ.txt Image-supplement: http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkIMG.html ftp-Archive: ftp://ftp.ccd.bnl.gov/pub/ptk/ptkFAQ.txt ftp-Archive: ftp://ftp.wpi.edu/perl5/pTk-FAQ ftp-Archive: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/perl-faq/ptk-faq/ e-mail-Archive: ptkfaq@pubweb.bnl.gov gopher-Archive: 128.84.219.153 Perl/Tk FAQ part 0 of 5 - Introduction ************************************** The Perl/Tk extension to the Perl programming language is copywritten by its author Nick Ing-Simmons whose Tk-b11.02/COPYING file reads as follows: Copyright (c) 1995 Nick Ing-Simmons. All rights reserved. This package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, with the exception of the files in the pTk sub-directory which have separate terms derived from those of the orignal Tk4.0 sources and/or Tix. See pTk/license.terms for details of this Tk license, and pTk/Tix.license for the Tix license. This compilation of Frequently Asked Questions & answers (FAQ) is intended to answer several of the first (and mostly more basic) questions posted to the comp.lang.perl.tk newsgroup. This document concerns itself with the Perl/Tk programming language (or, if you prefer, the Tk extension to Perl). Please beware that this is not the Perl FAQ, this is not the Tcl FAQ, nor is this the Tcl/Tk FAQ. Each of those other documents are useful sources of information for Perl/Tk programmers but are completely different from this one. This is a dynamic document and contributions, clarifications, and corrections are most welcome! Please send e-mail to . With your help this document will get better (-: perl/Tk FAQ 1. What is perl/Tk? 2. What is the difference between perl/Tk and Tkperl? 3. Where is it? 4. What/Where is CPAN? 5. How do I build it? 6. Where is the Documentation? 7. How do I write scripts in perl/Tk? 8. What widget types are available under perl/Tk? 9. How do I get widget X to do Y ? 1. How do I get a Button to call a Perl subroutine? 2. How do I arrange the layout of my widgets? 3. How do I get a Popup to popup? 4. How do I bind keyboard keys? 5. How do I add bindings? 6. How do I bind the action of a slider (sic) to ... ? 7. How do I configure a Scrollbar to scroll multiple widgets? 8. How do I display a bitmap? 9. How do I display an image? 10. What Image types are available? 11. Is there any way to have more than one Listbox contain a selection? 12. How do I select a range of tags in a Text widget? 13. How do I group Radiobuttons together? 14. How do I specify fonts? 15. How do I get the entry in an Entry? 16. How do I hide a password Entry? 17. How do I obtain Menus that do not tear off? 10. How do I get a Canvas to ... ? 1. Display a bitmap? 2. Erase a display? 3. Display an Image? 4. What things can be created on a Canvas? 5. How do I use the Canvas as a geometry manager? 6. How do I get a Canvas to output PostScript(c)? 7. How do I get a PostScript(c) output of a Canvas w/ widgets? 8. How do I get the size of a Canvas? After a re-size? 9. How do I bind different actions to different areas of the same Canvas? 11. Common Problems. 1. What do the ->, => and :: symbols mean? 2. What happened to the ampersands &? 3. What happened to the quotation marks? 4. Must I use "my" on all my variables? 5. Is there a way to find out what is in my perl/Tk "PATH"? 6. What is the difference between use and require? 7. How do I change the cursor/color? 8. How do I ring the bell? 9. How do I determine the version of perl/Tk that I am running? 10. How do I call perl from C? 11. How do I call Tcl code from perl/Tk? 12. What are some of the primary differences between Tcl/Tk and Perl/Tk? 13. How do I install new scripts | modules | extensions? 14. How do I write new modules? 15. Composite Widgets. 1. How do I get a Dialog box? 2. Is there a file selector? 3. Is there a color editor? 4. Is there a round Scale? 5. Is there something equivalent to tkerror? 6. Are there Tables? 16. Programming/development tools. 1. Is there a Tcl/Tk to perl/Tk translator? 2. Is there something equivalent to wish in perl/Tk? 3. Is there a debugger specifically for perl/Tk? 4. Is there a GUI builder in perl/Tk? 17. Processes & Inter-Process Communication under Perl/Tk. 1. How does one get Perl/Tk to act on events that are not coming from X? 2. Is there a send and do I need xauth? 3. How can I do animations using after? 4. How do you fork on System V (HP)? 18. How do I "clear the screen"? 19. Are there any international font packages for perl/Tk? 20. Are there any other ways to create X interfaces from perl? 21. Where can I get more information on the GD module? 22. Are there any major applications written in perl/Tk? 23. What is the history of pTk and perl/Tk? 24. What can we expect the future to hold? 25. How do I obtain the latest version of this FAQ? 26. Acknowledgements & maintainer. ______________________________________________________________________ 1. What is perl/Tk? Perl/Tk (also known as pTk or ptk) is a collection of modules and code that attempts to wed the easily configured Tk 4 widget toolkit to the powerful lexigraphic, dynamic memory, I/O, and object-oriented capabilities of Perl 5. In other words, it is an interpreted scripting language for making widgets and programs with Graphical User Interfaces (GUI). (Examples of widget programs [not necessarily written in perl/Tk] include xterm, xclock, most web-browsers, etc.. They are programs with "GUI" interfaces of one sort or another and are subject to the effects of your window manager.) Perl/Tk is based on "Tk 4.0" the widget Toolkit originally associated with the Tcl (Tool command language) scripting language. However, Perl/Tk does not require any of the lexical features/idiosynchrocies of Tcl. Perl/Tk uses perl 5 syntax and grammar. Like perl, wish, and even tclsh; perl/Tk is most easily used on a Unix computer platform running X. Having said that, it is worth noting that things like Linux and FreeBSD mean that the micro-computer hardware crowd too can have access to the wonders of perl/Tk. Perl and Tcl/Tk have also been ported to non Unix operating systems, there is no reason to suppose it cannot be done with the perl/Tk code eventually as well. The perl/Tk package is still in beta phase and is being written primarily by Nick Ing-Simmons at Texas Instruments in Northampton, England. The pTk code proper is an externally callable Tk toolkit (i.e. a re-write of the Tk 4.0 code that allows easier external linking & calling, especially by perl). Ptk can then be called from Perl 5 via the Tk.pm et al perl glue modules. Hence "ptk" does not necessarily refer to Perl Tk but could be taken to mean portable Tk - given a glue package to another language. The stated goal of the pTk code is to have its library usable from perl, Tcl, LISP, C++, python, etc.. It just so happens that present work is concentrating on perl. Historical note: "ptk" was known as "ntk" before about 11:30 EST 4 May 1995. The perl/Tk language is itself further extensible via the perl 5 module mechanism. A number of composite widget extensions to the language have been written using perl modules. ______________________________________________________________________ 2. What is the difference between perl/Tk and Tkperl? TkPerl was originally the name of a (now unsupported) perl 4 package that Malcolm Beattie at Oxford University called his code to wed the Tk X toolkit with Perl. (He has referred to this code as a different "kettle of fish" from perl/Tk.) Since that beginning Malcolm has also come up with a Tcl module for perl 5 that has a Tcl::Tk module extension. That module allows the use of Tcl within a Perl script (i.e. you must know both languages to get your widgets to work.) If you are interested in that package instead, see the necessary kits for Malcolm Beattie's Tcl/Tk extensions to Perl, which have been distrubuted as Tcl-b#.tar.gz and TclTk-b#.tar.gz files in the authors/id/MICB/ directory at CPAN sites (locations given in a separate question in this FAQ). The name "tkperl" is sometimes applied to the "perl/Tk" or "ptk" package that is the subject of this FAQ. Nick Ing-Simmons prefers "perl/Tk" as the name of the package, with "pTk" or "ptk" as contractions of that name as well as referring to something technically distinct: given the extensibility of the pTk code the "p" could also be taken to mean 'portable' or 'pure' (not to be confused with either the Helsinki University of Technology portTk, nor with Brian Warkentine's Rivet). In this document the code of interest is either referred to as "perl/Tk", "pTk", or "ptk" though the primary focus is on perl/Tk. Warning: do not attempt to install both perl/Tk and Tcl/Tkperl in the same perl installation. The names in the respective modules overlap. In particular the Tcl::Tk module is declared in a Tk.pm file - so a statement like: use Tk; will probably confuse your perl. If you cannot live without either module then install make & maintain separate perls for each and arrange your script writing accordingly (this will not be easy). A more extensive comparison of the differences between the Tkperl and the perl/Tk code is given in the Tcl-perl.pod file that is distributed with perl/Tk (see below for locations). Lastly, it should be mentioned that if you build your Tk-b# statically rather than dynamically it will make a new perl interpreter called tkperl (confusing isn't it? :-). ______________________________________________________________________ 3. Where is it? Source code ----------- Tk-b11.02 (the latest): you will need Perl 5.002, a recent MakeMaker and the Tk-b11.02 kit. In addition to the CPAN sites (discussed in the next question), the Tk-b11.02 kit is also available from: ftp://ftp.wpi.edu/perl5/Tk-b11.02.tar.gz 130.215.24.209 However, visiting the CPAN sites (discussed in the next question) should provide you with all that you need (including other perl modules). (Note: if you will be attempting to build with Tk-b9.01 then may also want Nick's document patch to go with that older kit, it is available from:) http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/etc/ptkpod-b9.01.patch To construct Perl 5.002 go to a CPAN site and pick up the full kit (it will have some mysterious name like perl5.002.tar.gz or something). As of November 1995 Tk-b# (various versions) are being distributed at CPAN ftp sites (see later question in this FAQ) in the authors/id/NI-S/ directory. Tk-b8: For this older version you must have Perl (5.001m) (not n) and the ========================================================================== ptk kit. The Tk-b8 kit is at CPAN sites, as well as from: USA ftp://ftp.wpi.edu/perl5/Tk-b8.tar.gz 130.215.24.209 ftp://ftp.perl.com/pub/perl/ext/tk/ 199.45.129.30 http://www.freebsd.org/ports/programming.html (pick up "pTk-b8") http://www.metronet.com/perlinfo/perl5/extensions/Tk-b8.tar.gz UK ftp://ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/perl/Tk-b8.tar.gz 163.1.2.4 Germany ftp://franz.ww.tu-berlin.de/pub/authors/NI-S/Tk-b8.tar.gz 130.149.200.51 Australia (please be patient and only try during off hours) ftp://ftp.syd.dit.csiro.au/pub/perl5/ftp.wpi.edu 130.155.20.5 Perl 5.001m is available from one of the CPAN ftp sites in the src/5.0/ directory as file perl5.001m.tar.gz. Binaries -------- A pre-compiled binary distribution of Perl5.001m with Tk-b8 for Linux is available from: Australia (please be patient and only try during off hours) ftp://syd.dit.csiro.au/pub/perl5/local/perl5.001m+Tk-b8-Linux-ELF.tar.gz It unpacks into /usr/local. You need to have ELF running and to have the ELF X11 libraries (please be patient and only try during off hours). Binaries for the Perl 5 & Tk-b6 are available for a number of UNIX platforms courtesy of Thomas Schlagel and Alan Stange of Brookhaven Lab at: USA http://pubweb.bnl.gov/~ptk/ Thomas and Alan have recently announced that they will update the Tk module version number of their many binaries. ______________________________________________________________________ 4. What/Where is CPAN? "CPAN" = Comprehensive Perl Archive Network a worldwide collection of anonymous ftp sites for Perl et al (not to be confused with CTAN which is for TeX). The files of particular interest to a perl/Tk programmer are: o The latest Tk-b# release should be in the authors/id/NI-S/ directory at any site listed below. o The latest official Perl release should be in the the src/ directory in a file called latest.tar.gz at any site listed below. o If you need something older or newer than the latest supported release try the src/5.0/ directory (for perl5.002_*.tar.gz e.g.) at any site listed below. (Also, if you need something really new try the incoming/ directory at any site listed below.) o Alan Scheinine's SelFile.pm is in the authors/id/ALSCH/ directory at any site listed below. o Guy Decoux's BLT_Table geometry manager is in the authors/id/GUYDX/ directory at any site listed below. o Ilya Zakharevich's eText plug in replacement for the Text widget is in the authors/id/ILYAZ/etext/ directory at any site listed below. o The latest version of MakeMaker (the perl equivalent to imake/xmkmf) is available from the authors/id/ANDK/ directory at any site listed below. o To run the ptknews script you will need Mail/RFC822.pm from the Mailtools module kit, available from the authors/id/GBARR/ directory at any site listed below. o The build of Tk-b10(++) requires URI::URL and HTML::Parse these are part of the libwww-perl-*.tar.gz kit, available from the authors/id/GAAS/ directory at any site listed below. libwww-perl-*.tar.gz in turn requires NET-FTP-*.tar.gz, available from the authors/id/GBARR/ directory at any site listed below. o Assorted documentation is in the doc/ directory at any site listed below. o The Perl reference card is in doc/perlref-5.0.tar.gz at any site listed below. o The Perl/Tk UserGuide is in doc/tk-userguide.ps.gz at any site listed below. o A fairly up-to-date version of this FAQ is in doc/ptkFAQ.gz, doc/ptkFAQ.html.gz, or doc/ptkFAQ.ps.gz at any site listed below. o Most things perl/Tk (exclusive of external documentation such as this FAQ) are also linked to a modules/by-module/Tk/ directory at any site listed below. Here are the CPAN sites/directories (with dotted quads [IP numbers] given on the right for those without name-servers): Updated: Sun Apr 14 23:50:38 EDT 1996 Africa South Africa ftp://ftp.is.co.za/programming/perl/CPAN/ 196.4.160.8 Asia Japan ftp://ftp.lab.kdd.co.jp/lang/perl/CPAN/ 192.26.91.3 Taiwan ftp://dongpo.math.ncu.edu.tw/perl/CPAN/ 140.115.25.3 Australasia Australia ftp://coombs.anu.edu.au/pub/perl/CPAN/ 150.203.76.2 ftp://ftp.mame.mu.oz.au/pub/perl/CPAN/ 128.250.209.2 New Zealand ftp://ftp.tekotago.ac.nz/pub/perl/CPAN/ 202.49.6.24 Europe Austria ftp://ftp.tuwien.ac.at/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/ 128.130.66.11 Czech Republic ftp://sunsite.mff.cuni.cz/MIRRORS/ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/ 194.50.16.66 Denmark ftp://sunsite.auc.dk/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/ 130.225.51.30 Finland ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/ 128.214.248.6 France ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/perl/CPAN/ 132.227.77.2 ftp://ftp.pasteur.fr/pub/computing/unix/perl/CPAN/ 157.99.64.12 Germany ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/programming/languages/perl/CPAN/ 131.159.0.252 ftp://ftp.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pub/CPAN/ 134.147.32.42 Greece ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/lang/perl/ 147.102.222.210 Hungary ftp://ftp.kfki.hu/pub/packages/perl/ 148.6.0.5 the Netherlands ftp://ftp.cs.ruu.nl/pub/PERL/CPAN/ 131.211.80.17 Poland ftp://ftp.pk.edu.pl/pub/lang/perl/CPAN/ 149.156.132.152 ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/CPAN/ 148.81.209.3 Portugal ftp://ftp.ci.uminho.pt/pub/lang/perl/ 193.136.16.247 Slovenia ftp://ftp.arnes.si/software/perl/CPAN/ 193.2.1.72 Spain ftp://ftp.rediris.es/mirror/CPAN/ 130.206.1.2 Sweden ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/lang/perl/CPAN/ 130.238.127.3 Switzerland ftp://ftp.switch.ch/mirror/CPAN/ 130.59.1.40 UK ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/mirrors/perl/CPAN/ 158.152.1.44 ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/CPAN/ 193.63.255.1 ftp://unix.hensa.ac.uk/mirrors/perl-CPAN/ 129.12.200.129 North America British Columbia ftp://mango.pinc.com/pub/mirrors/CPAN/ 204.174.113.53 California ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/plan/perl/CPAN/ 204.123.2.4 ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/perl/CPAN/ 165.113.58.253 Colorado ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/perl/CPAN/ 128.138.243.20 Florida ftp://ftp.cis.ufl.edu/pub/perl/CPAN/ 128.227.162.34 Illinois ftp://uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/lang/perl/CPAN/ 128.174.5.14 Massachusetts ftp://ftp.delphi.com/pub/mirrors/packages/perl/CPAN/ 206.15.105.99 Oklahoma ftp://ftp.uoknor.edu/mirrors/CPAN/ 129.15.2.50 Texas ftp://ftp.sedl.org/pub/mirrors/CPAN/ 198.213.9.194 ftp://ftp.metronet.com/pub/perl/ 192.245.137.6 ftp://ftp.sterling.com/CPAN/ 198.4.58.3 For those equipped with multi-protocol browsers you might pay a visit to Tom Christiansen's CPAN multiplexer whose relevant Tk URLs are: http://perl.com/cgi-bin/cpan_mod?module=Tk http://perl.com/cgi-bin/cpan_mod?module=Tk&readme=1 According to Stephen P. Potter some of the CPAN sites have decompression on the fly for people who do not have programs like gunzip. For example, at the ufl site (Florida USA) type this into your ftp session to download a gunzipped version of Tk: ftp> get Tk-b11.02.tar.gz Tk-b11.02.tar You can send e-mail to the CPAN administrators, cpan-adm@ftp.funet.fi. If you know of some Perl resources that seem not to be in the CPAN (you did check the contents listings in indices/, didn't you?) please tell the CPAN administrators. If you have some modules/scripts/documentation yourself that you would like to contribute to CPAN, please read the file authors/00upload.howto and let the CPAN administrators know about it. .