The Patch Releases

A series of 8.3 patch releases mainly provided incremental improvements and bug fixes, but did add a few new features. The 8.3.5 patch release was a final stabilization release for the 8.3 series, and was released concurrently with version 8.4.1. The only significant new feature of 8.3.5 versus the previous patch release was the ability of the canvas to generate Postscript for embedded widgets on Windows platforms, which was concurrently added with the 8.4.1 patch release.

Detection of Entry Validation Type

The %V substitution for entry widget validation reports the type of validation that triggered the callback (key, focusin, focusout, forced). (8.3.1)

Macintosh File Selection Dialog Enhancement

On the Macintosh — when Navigation Services are installed — the tk_getOpenFile and tk_getSaveFile commands accept a -message option to specify a message to include in the client area of the dialog. (8.3.1)

State Attributes for Label Widgets

The label widget now supports a state attribute, with normal, active, and disabled states. (8.3.1) Additionally, it has new activeBackground and activeForeground attributes to control its appearance in the active state (8.3.2), and a disabledForeground attribute to control its appearance in the disabled state (8.3.1).

Support for Windows Icons

On Windows systems, you can provide the path of a valid Windows icon file (usually .ico or .icr files) when setting the window's icon with the wm iconbitmap command. (8.3.3)

New Reference Pages

The online documentation includes new colors, cursors, and keysyms reference pages, documenting the supported color names, cursor names, and keysyms. (8.3.2)