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From: [email protected] (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
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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: <[email protected]>

URL (Hypertext-split): http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkTOC.html
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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 <[email protected]> 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
<[email protected]>. 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 <[email protected]> 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 <[email protected]> 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, [email protected].
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.

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