TEXT(9) TEXT(9)
NAME
text - Create and manipulate text widgets
SYNOPSIS
text pathName ?options?
STANDARD OPTIONS
-background -padx -selectborderwidth
-borderwidth -pady -selectforeground
-font -relief -xscrollcommand
-foreground -selectbackground -yscrollcommand
WIDGET-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
-height dist
Specifies the desired height for the window, in units
of characters in the font given by the -font option.
Must be at least one.
-spacing1 dist
Requests additional space above each text line in the
widget, using any of the standard forms for screen dis-
tances. If a line wraps, this option only applies to
the first line on the display. This option may be
overriden with -spacing1 options in tags.
-spacing2 dist
For lines that wrap (so that they cover more than one
line on the display) this option specifies additional
space to provide between the display lines that repre-
sent a single line of text. The value may have any of
the standard forms for screen distances. This option
may be overriden with -spacing2 options in tags.
-spacing3 dist
Requests additional space below each text line in the
widget, using any of the standard forms for screen dis-
tances. If a line wraps, this option only applies to
the last line on the display. This option may be over-
riden with -spacing3 options in tags.
-state state
Specifies one of two states for the text: normal or
disabled. If the text is disabled then characters may
not be inserted or deleted and no insertion cursor will
be displayed, even if the input focus is in the widget.
-tabs dist
Specifies a set of tab stops for the window. The
option's value consists of a list of dist values giving
the positions of the tab stops. Each dist may
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optionally be followed in the next list element by one
of the keywords left, right, center, or numeric, which
specifies how to justify text relative to the tab stop.
Left is the default; it causes the text following the
tab character to be positioned with its left edge at
the tab position. Right means that the right edge of
the text following the tab character is positioned at
the tab position, and center means that the text is
centered at the tab position. Numeric means that the
decimal point in the text is positioned at the tab
position; if there is no decimal point then the least
significant digit of the number is positioned just to
the left of the tab position; if there is no number in
the text then the text is right-justified at the tab
position. For example, -tabs {2c left 4c 6c center}
creates three tab stops at two-centimeter intervals;
the first two use left justification and the third uses
center justification. If the list of tab stops does
not have enough elements to cover all of the tabs in a
text line, then Tk extrapolates new tab stops using the
spacing and alignment from the last tab stop in the
list. The value of the tabs option may be overridden
by -tabs options in tags. If no -tabs option is speci-
fied, or if it is specified as an empty list, then Tk
uses default tabs spaced every eight (average size)
characters.
-width dist
Specifies the desired width for the window in units of
characters in the font given by the -font option. If
the font doesn't have a uniform width then the width of
the character ``0'' is used in translating from charac-
ter units to screen units.
-wrap val
Specifies how to handle lines in the text that are too
long to be displayed in a single line of the text's
window. The value must be none or char or word. A
wrap mode of none means that each line of text appears
as exactly one line on the screen; extra characters
that don't fit on the screen are not displayed. In the
other modes each line of text will be broken up into
several screen lines if necessary to keep all the char-
acters visible. In char mode a screen line break may
occur after any character; in word mode a line break
will only be made at word boundaries.
DESCRIPTION
The text command creates a new window (given by the pathName
argument) and makes it into a text widget. Additional
options, described above, may be specified on the command
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line to configure aspects of the text such as its default
background colour and relief. The text command returns the
path name of the new window.
A text widget displays one or more lines of text and allows
that text to be edited. Text widgets support three differ-
ent kinds of annotations on the text, called tags, marks,
and embedded windows. Tags allow different portions of the
text to be displayed with different fonts and colours. In
addition, Tk commands can be associated with tags so that
scripts are invoked when particular actions such as keys-
trokes and mouse button presses occur in particular ranges
of the text. See TAGS below for more details.
The second form of annotation consists of marks, which are
floating markers in the text. Marks are used to keep track
of various interesting positions in the text as it is
edited. See MARKS below for more details.
The third form of annotation allows arbitrary windows to be
embedded in a text widget. See EMBEDDED WINDOWS below for
more details.
INDICES
Many of the widget commands for texts take one or more
indices as arguments. An index is a string used to indicate
a particular place within a text, such as a place to insert
characters or one endpoint of a range of characters to
delete. Indices have the syntax
base modifier modifier modifier ...
Where base gives a starting point and the modifiers adjust
the index from the starting point (e.g. move forward or
backward one character). Every index must contain a base,
but the modifiers are optional.
The base for an index must have one of the following forms:
line.char Indicates char'th character on line line. Lines
are numbered from 1 for consistency with other
UNIX programs that use this numbering scheme.
Within a line, characters are numbered from 0.
If char is end then it refers to the newline
character that ends the line.
@x,y Indicates the character that covers the pixel
whose x and y coordinates within the text's win-
dow are x and y.
end Indicates the end of the text (the character
just after the last newline).
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mark Indicates the character just after the mark
whose name is mark.
tag.first Indicates the first character in the text that
has been tagged with tag. This form generates
an error if no characters are currently tagged
with tag.
tag.last Indicates the character just after the last one
in the text that has been tagged with tag. This
form generates an error if no characters are
currently tagged with tag.
pathName Indicates the position of the embedded window
whose name is pathName. This form generates an
error if there is no embedded window by the
given name.
If modifiers follow the base index, each one of them must
have one of the forms listed below.
+ count chars
Adjust the index forward by count characters, moving to
later lines in the text if necessary. If there are
fewer than count characters in the text after the cur-
rent index, then set the index to the last character in
the text. Spaces on either side of count are optional.
- count chars
Adjust the index backward by count characters, moving
to earlier lines in the text if necessary. If there
are fewer than count characters in the text before the
current index, then set the index to the first charac-
ter in the text. Spaces on either side of count are
optional.
+ count lines
Adjust the index forward by count lines, retaining the
same character position within the line. If there are
fewer than count lines after the line containing the
current index, then set the index to refer to the same
character position on the last line of the text. Then,
if the line is not long enough to contain a character
at the indicated character position, adjust the charac-
ter position to refer to the last character of the line
(the newline). Spaces on either side of count are
optional.
- count lines
Adjust the index backward by count lines, retaining the
same character position within the line. If there are
fewer than count lines before the line containing the
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current index, then set the index to refer to the same
character position on the first line of the text.
Then, if the line is not long enough to contain a char-
acter at the indicated character position, adjust the
character position to refer to the last character of
the line (the newline). Spaces on either side of count
are optional.
linestart
Adjust the index to refer to the first character on the
line.
lineend
Adjust the index to refer to the last character on the
line (the newline).
wordstart
Adjust the index to refer to the first character of the
word containing the current index. A word consists of
any number of adjacent characters that are letters,
digits, or underscores, or a single character that is
not one of these.
wordend
Adjust the index to refer to the character just after
the last one of the word containing the current index.
If the current index refers to the last character of
the text then it is not modified.
If more than one modifier is present then they are applied
in left-to-right order. For example, the index ``end - 1
chars'' refers to the next-to-last character in the text and
the index ``insert wordstart - 1 c'' refers to the character
just before the first one in the word containing the inser-
tion cursor.
TAGS
The first form of annotation in text widgets is a tag. A
tag is a textual string that is associated with some of the
characters in a text. Tags may contain arbitrary charac-
ters, but it is probably best to avoid using the the charac-
ters `` '' (space), +, or -: these characters have special
meaning in indices, so tags containing them can't be used as
indices. The tag name may not begin with a digit. There may
be any number of tags associated with characters in a text.
Each tag may refer to a single character, a range of charac-
ters, or several ranges of characters. An individual char-
acter may have any number of tags associated with it.
A priority order is defined among tags, and this order is
used in implementing some of the tag-related functions
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described below. When a tag is defined (by associating it
with characters or setting its display options or binding
commands to it), it is given a priority higher than any
existing tag. The priority order of tags may be redefined
using the ``pathName tag raise'' and ``pathName tag lower''
widget commands.
Tags serve three purposes in text widgets. First, they con-
trol the way information is displayed on the screen. By
default, characters are displayed as determined by the back-
ground, font, and foreground options for the text widget.
However, display options may be associated with individual
tags using the ``pathName tag configure'' widget command.
If a character has been tagged, then the display options
associated with the tag override the default display style.
The following options are currently supported for tags:
-background colour
Color specifies the background colour to use for char-
acters associated with the tag.
-borderwidth dist
Dist specifies the width of a 3-D border to draw around
the background. This option is used in conjunction
with the -relief option to give a 3-D appearance to the
background for characters; it is ignored unless the
-background option has been set for the tag.
-font font
Font is the name of a font to use for drawing charac-
ters.
-foreground colour
Color specifies the colour to use when drawing text and
other foreground information such as underlines.
-justify justify
If the first character of a display line has a tag for
which this option has been specified, then justify
determines how to justify the line. It must be one of
left, right, or center. If a line wraps, then the jus-
tification for each line on the display is determined
by the first character of that display line.
-lmargin1 dist
If the first character of a text line has a tag for
which this option has been specified, then dist speci-
fies how much the line should be indented from the left
edge of the window. Dist may have any of the standard
forms for screen distances. If a line of text wraps,
this option only applies to the first line on the dis-
play; the -lmargin2 option controls the indentation
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for subsequent lines.
-lmargin2 dist
If the first character of a display line has a tag for
which this option has been specified, and if the dis-
play line is not the first for its text line (i.e., the
text line has wrapped), then dist specifies how much
the line should be indented from the left edge of the
window. Dist may have any of the standard forms for
screen distances. This option is only used when wrap-
ping is enabled, and it only applies to the second and
later display lines for a text line.
-offset dist
Dist specifies an amount by which the text's baseline
should be offset vertically from the baseline of the
overall line, in pixels. For example, a positive off-
set can be used for superscripts and a negative offset
can be used for subscripts. Dist may have any of the
standard forms for screen distances.
-overstrike boolean
Specifies whether or not to draw a horizontal rule
through the middle of characters.
-relief relief
Relief specifies the 3-D relief to use for drawing
backgrounds. This option is used in conjunction with
the -borderwidth option to give a 3-D appearance to the
background for characters; it is ignored unless the
-background option has been set for the tag.
-rmargin dist
If the first character of a display line has a tag for
which this option has been specified, then dist speci-
fies how wide a margin to leave between the end of the
line and the right edge of the window. This option is
only used when wrapping is enabled. If a text line
wraps, the right margin for each line on the display is
determined by the first character of that display line.
-spacing1 dist
Dist specifies how much additional space should be left
above each text line, using any of the standard forms
for screen distances. If a line wraps, this option
only applies to the first line on the display.
-spacing2 dist
For lines that wrap, this option specifies how much
additional space to leave between the display lines for
a single text line. Dist may have any of the standard
forms for screen distances.
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-spacing3 dist
Dist specifies how much additional space should be left
below each text line, using any of the standard forms
for screen distances. If a line wraps, this option
only applies to the last line on the display.
-tabs tabList
TabList specifies a set of tab stops in the same form
as for the -tabs option for the text widget. This
option only applies to a display line if it applies to
the first character on that display line. If this
option is specified as an empty string, it cancels the
option, leaving it unspecified for the tag (the
default). If the option is specified as a non-empty
string that is an empty list, such as -tags { }, then
it requests default 8-character tabs as described for
the tags widget option.
-underline boolean
Boolean specifies whether or not to draw an underline
underneath characters.
-wrap mode
Mode specifies how to handle lines that are wider than
the text's window. It has the same legal values as the
-wrap option for the text widget: none, char, or word.
If this tag option is specified, it overrides the -wrap
option for the text widget.
If a character has several tags associated with it, and if
their display options conflict, then the options of the
highest priority tag are used. If a particular display
option hasn't been specified for a particular tag, or if it
is specified as an empty string, then that option will never
be used; the next-highest-priority tag's option will be
used instead. If no tag specifies a particular display
option, then the default style for the widget will be used.
The second purpose for tags is event bindings. You can
associate bindings with a tag in much the same way you can
associate bindings with a widget class: whenever particular
X events occur on characters with the given tag, a given Tk
command will be executed. Tag bindings can be used to give
behaviours to ranges of characters; among other things, this
allows hypertext-like features to be implemented. For
details, see the description of the tag bind widget command
below.
The third use for tags is in managing the selection. See
THE SELECTION below.
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MARKS
The second form of annotation in text widgets is a mark.
Marks are used for remembering particular places in a text.
They are something like tags, in that they have names and
they refer to places in the file, but a mark isn't associ-
ated with particular characters. Instead, a mark is associ-
ated with the gap between two characters. Only a single
position may be associated with a mark at any given time.
If the characters around a mark are deleted the mark will
still remain; it will just have new neighbour characters.
In contrast, if the characters containing a tag are deleted
then the tag will no longer have an association with charac-
ters in the file. Marks may be manipulated with the ``path-
Name mark'' widget command, and their current locations may
be determined by using the mark name as an index in widget
commands.
Each mark also has a gravity, which is either left or right.
The gravity for a mark specifies what happens to the mark
when text is inserted at the point of the mark. If a mark
has left gravity, then the mark is treated as if it were
attached to the character on its left, so the mark will
remain to the left of any text inserted at the mark posi-
tion. If the mark has right gravity, new text inserted at
the mark position will appear to the right of the mark. The
gravity for a mark defaults to right.
The name space for marks is different from that for tags:
the same name may be used for both a mark and a tag, but
they will refer to different things.
Two marks have special significance. First, the mark insert
is associated with the insertion cursor, as described under
THE INSERTION CURSOR below. Second, the mark current is
associated with the character closest to the mouse and is
adjusted automatically to track the mouse position and any
changes to the text in the widget (one exception: current
is not updated in response to mouse motions if a mouse but-
ton is down; the update will be deferred until all mouse
buttons have been released). Neither of these special marks
may be deleted.
EMBEDDED WINDOWS
The third form of annotation in text widgets is an embedded
window. Each embedded window annotation causes a window to
be displayed at a particular point in the text. There may
be any number of embedded windows in a text widget, and any
widget may be used as an embedded window (subject to the
usual rules for geometry management, which require the text
window to be the parent of the embedded window or a descen-
dant of its parent). The embedded window's position on the
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screen will be updated as the text is modified or scrolled,
and it will be mapped and unmapped as it moves into and out
of the visible area of the text widget. Each embedded win-
dow occupies one character's worth of index space in the
text widget, and it may be referred to either by the name of
its embedded window or by its position in the widget's index
space. If the range of text containing the embedded window
is deleted then the window is destroyed.
When an embedded window is added to a text widget with the
window create widget command, several configuration options
may be associated with it. These options may be modified
later with the window configure widget command. The follow-
ing options are currently supported:
-align where
If the window is not as tall as the line in which it is
displayed, this option determines where the window is
displayed in the line. Where must have one of the val-
ues top (align the top of the window with the top of
the line), center (center the window within the range
of the line), bottom (align the bottom of the window
with the bottom of the line's area), or baseline (align
the bottom of the window with the baseline of the
line).
-padx dist
Dist specifies the amount of extra space to leave on
each side of the embedded window. It may have any of
the usual forms defined for a screen distance.
-pady dist
Dist specifies the amount of extra space to leave on
the top and on the bottom of the embedded window. It
may have any of the usual forms defined for a screen
distance.
-stretch boolean
If the requested height of the embedded window is less
than the height of the line in which it is displayed,
this option can be used to specify whether the window
should be stretched vertically to fill its line. If
the -pady option has been specified as well, then the
requested padding will be retained even if the window
is stretched.
-window pathName
Specifies the name of a window to display in the anno-
tation.
THE SELECTION
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Selection support is implemented via tags. The sel tag is
automatically defined when a text widget is created, and it
may not be deleted with the ``pathName tag delete'' widget
command. Furthermore, the selectBackground, selectBorder-
Width, and selectForeground options for the text widget are
tied to the -background, -borderwidth, and -foreground
options for the sel tag: changes in either will automati-
cally be reflected in the other.
THE INSERTION CURSOR
The mark named insert has special significance in text wid-
gets. It is defined automatically when a text widget is
created and it may not be unset with the ``pathName mark
unset'' widget command. The insert mark represents the
position of the insertion cursor, and the insertion cursor
will automatically be drawn at this point whenever the text
widget has the input focus.
WIDGET COMMAND
The text command creates a new Tk command whose name is the
same as the path name of the text's window. This command
may be used to invoke various operations on the widget. It
has the following general form:
pathName option ?arg arg ...?
PathName is the name of the command, which is the same as
the text widget's path name. Option and the args determine
the exact behaviour of the command. The following commands
are possible for text widgets:
pathName bbox index
Returns a list of four elements describing the screen
area of the character given by index. The first two
elements of the list give the x and y coordinates of
the upper-left corner of the area occupied by the char-
acter, and the last two elements give the width and
height of the area. If the character is only partially
visible on the screen, then the return value reflects
just the visible part. If the character is not visible
on the screen then the return value is an empty list.
pathName cget option
Returns the current value of the configuration option
given by option. Option may have any of the values
accepted by the text command.
pathName compare index1 op index2
Compares the indices given by index1 and index2 accord-
ing to the relational operator given by op, and returns
1 if the relationship is satisfied and 0 if it isn't.
Op must be one of the operators <, <=, ==, >=, >, or
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!=. If op is == then 1 is returned if the two indices
refer to the same character, if op is < then 1 is
returned if index1 refers to an earlier character in
the text than index2, and so on.
pathName configure ?option? ?value option value ...?
Query or modify the configuration options of the wid-
get. If no option is specified, returns a list of all
of the available options for pathName. If one or more
option-value pairs are specified, then the command mod-
ifies the given widget option(s) to have the given
value(s); in this case the command returns an empty
string. Option may have any of the values accepted by
the text command.
pathName debug ?boolean?
If the value is a true one then internal consistency
checks will be turned on in the code associated with
text widgets. If boolean has a false value then the
debugging checks will be turned off. In either case
the command returns an empty string. If boolean is not
specified then the command returns on or off to indi-
cate whether or not debugging is turned on. There is a
single debugging switch shared by all text widgets:
turning debugging on or off in any widget turns it on
or off for all widgets. For widgets with large amounts
of text, the consistency checks may cause a noticeable
slow-down.
pathName delete index1 ?index2?
Delete a range of characters from the text. If both
index1 and index2 are specified, then delete all the
characters starting with the one given by index1 and
stopping just before index2 (i.e. the character at
index2 is not deleted). If index2 doesn't specify a
position later in the text than index1 then no charac-
ters are deleted. If index2 isn't specified then the
single character at index1 is deleted. It is not
allowable to delete characters in a way that would
leave the text without a newline as the last character.
The command returns an empty string.
pathName dlineinfo index
Returns a list with five elements describing the area
occupied by the display line containing index. The
first two elements of the list give the x and y coordi-
nates of the upper-left corner of the area occupied by
the line, the third and fourth elements give the width
and height of the area, and the fifth element gives the
position of the baseline for the line, measured down
from the top of the area. All of this information is
measured in pixels. If the current wrap mode is none
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and the line extends beyond the boundaries of the win-
dow, the area returned reflects the entire area of the
line, including the portions that are out of the win-
dow. If the line is shorter than the full width of the
window then the area returned reflects just the portion
of the line that is occupied by characters and embedded
windows. If the display line containing index is not
visible on the screen then the return value is an empty
list.
pathName get index1 ?index2?
Return a range of characters from the text. The return
value will be all the characters in the text starting
with the one whose index is index1 and ending just
before the one whose index is index2 (the character at
index2 will not be returned). If index2 is omitted
then the single character at index1 is returned. If
there are no characters in the specified range (e.g.
index1 is past the end of the file or index2 is less
than or equal to index1) then an empty string is
returned. If the specified range contains embedded
windows, no information about them is included in the
returned string.
pathName index index
Returns the position corresponding to index in the form
line.char where line is the line number and char is the
character number. Index may have any of the forms
described under INDICES above.
pathName insert index chars ?tagList chars tagList ...?
Inserts all of the chars arguments just before the
character at index. If index refers to the end of the
text (the character after the last newline) then the
new text is inserted just before the last newline
instead. If there is a single chars argument and no
tagList, then the new text will receive any tags that
are present on both the character before and the char-
acter after the insertion point; if a tag is present on
only one of these characters then it will not be
applied to the new text. If tagList is specified then
it consists of a list of tag names; the new characters
will receive all of the tags in this list and no oth-
ers, regardless of the tags present around the inser-
tion point. If multiple chars-tagList argument pairs
are present, they produce the same effect as if a sepa-
rate insert widget command had been issued for each
pair, in order. The last tagList argument may be omit-
ted.
pathName mark option ?arg arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate marks. The exact
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behaviour of the command depends on the option argument
that follows the mark argument. The following forms of
the command are currently supported:
pathName mark gravity markName ?direction?
If direction is not specified, returns left or
right to indicate which of its adjacent characters
markName is attached to. If direction is speci-
fied, it must be left or right; the gravity of
markName is set to the given value.
pathName mark names
Returns a list whose elements are the names of all
the marks that are currently set.
pathName mark next index
Returns the name of the next mark at or after
index. If index is specified in numerical form,
then the search for the next mark begins at that
index. If index is the name of a mark, then the
search for the next mark begins immediately after
that mark. This can still return a mark at the
same position if there are multiple marks at the
same index. These semantics mean that the mark
next operation can be used to step through all the
marks in a text widget in the same order as the
mark information returned by the dump operation.
If a mark has been set to the special end index,
then it appears to be after end with respect to
the mark next operation. An empty string is
returned if there are no marks after index.
pathName mark previous index
Returns the name of the mark at or before index.
If index is specified in numerical form, then the
search for the previous mark begins with the char-
acter just before that index. If index is the
name of a mark, then the search for the next mark
begins immediately before that mark. This can
still return a mark at the same position if there
are multiple marks at the same index. These
semantics mean that the mark previous operation
can be used to step through all the marks in a
text widget in the reverse order as the mark
information returned by the dump operation. An
empty string is returned if there are no marks
before index.
pathName mark set markName index
Sets the mark named markName to a position just
before the character at index. If markName
already exists, it is moved from its old position;
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if it doesn't exist, a new mark is created. This
command returns an empty string.
pathName mark unset markName ?markName markName ...?
Remove the mark corresponding to each of the mark-
Name arguments. The removed marks will not be
usable in indices and will not be returned by
future calls to ``pathName mark names''. This
command returns an empty string.
pathName scan option args
This command is used to implement scanning on texts.
It has two forms, depending on option:
pathName scan mark x y
Records x and y and the current view in the text
window, for use in conjunction with later scan
dragto commands. Typically this command is asso-
ciated with a mouse button press in the widget.
It returns an empty string.
pathName scan dragto x y
This command computes the difference between its x
and y arguments and the x and y arguments to the
last scan mark command for the widget. It then
adjusts the view by 10 times the difference in
coordinates. This command is typically associated
with mouse motion events in the widget, to produce
the effect of dragging the text at high speed
through the window. The return value is an empty
string.
pathName search ?switches? pattern index ?stopIndex?
Searches the text in pathName starting at index for a
range of characters that matches pattern. If a match
is found, the index of the first character in the match
is returned as result; otherwise an empty string is
returned. One or more of the following switches may be
specified to control the search:
-forwards
The search will proceed forward through the text,
finding the first matching range starting at or
after the position given by index. This is the
default.
-backwards
The search will proceed backward through the text,
finding the matching range closest to index whose
first character is before index.
-exact
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Use exact matching: the characters in the match-
ing range must be identical to those in pattern.
This is the default.
-nocase
Ignore case differences between the pattern and
the text.
-count varName
The argument following -count gives the name of a
variable; if a match is found, the number of char-
acters in the matching range will be stored in the
variable.
-- This switch has no effect except to terminate the
list of switches: the next argument will be
treated as pattern even if it starts with -.
The matching range must be entirely within a single
line of text. For regular expression matching the new-
lines are removed from the ends of the lines before
matching: use the $ feature in regular expressions to
match the end of a line. For exact matching the new-
lines are retained. If stopIndex is specified, the
search stops at that index: for forward searches, no
match at or after stopIndex will be considered; for
backward searches, no match earlier in the text than
stopIndex will be considered. If stopIndex is omitted,
the entire text will be searched: when the beginning or
end of the text is reached, the search continues at the
other end until the starting location is reached again;
if stopIndex is specified, no wrap-around will occur.
pathName see index
Adjusts the view in the window so that the character
given by index is completely visible. If index is
already visible then the command does nothing. If
index is a short distance out of view, the command
adjusts the view just enough to make index visible at
the edge of the window. If index is far out of view,
then the command centers index in the window.
pathName tag option ?arg arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate tags. The exact
behaviour of the command depends on the option argument
that follows the tag argument. The following forms of
the command are currently supported:
pathName tag add tagName index1 ?index2 index1 index2 ...?
Associate the tag tagName with all of the charac-
ters starting with index1 and ending just before
index2 (the character at index2 isn't tagged). A
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single command may contain any number of index1-
index2 pairs. If the last index2 is omitted then
the single character at index1 is tagged. If
there are no characters in the specified range
(e.g. index1 is past the end of the file or index2
is less than or equal to index1) then the command
has no effect.
pathName tag bind tagName ?sequence? ?script?
This command associates script with the tag given
by tagName. Whenever the event sequence given by
sequence occurs for a character that has been
tagged with tagName, the script will be invoked.
This widget command is similar to the bind command
except that it operates on characters in a text
rather than entire widgets. See the bind manual
entry for complete details on the syntax of
sequence and the substitutions performed on script
before invoking it. If all arguments are speci-
fied then a new binding is created, replacing any
existing binding for the same sequence and tagName
(if the first character of script is ``+'' then
script augments an existing binding rather than
replacing it). In this case the return value is
an empty string. If script is omitted then the
command returns the script associated with tagName
and sequence (an error occurs if there is no such
binding). If both script and sequence are omitted
then the command returns a list of all the
sequences for which bindings have been defined for
tagName.
The only events for which bindings may be speci-
fied are those related to the mouse and keyboard,
such as Enter, Leave, ButtonPress, Motion, and
KeyPress. Event bindings for a text widget use
the current mark described under MARKS above. An
Enter event triggers for a tag when the tag first
becomes present on the current character, and a
Leave event triggers for a tag when it ceases to
be present on the current character. Enter and
Leave events can happen either because the current
mark moved or because the character at that posi-
tion changed. Note that these events are differ-
ent than Enter and Leave events for windows.
Mouse and keyboard events are directed to the cur-
rent character.
It is possible for the current character to have
multiple tags, and for each of them to have a
binding for a particular event sequence. When
this occurs, one binding is invoked for each tag,
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in order from lowest-priority to highest priority.
If there are multiple matching bindings for a sin-
gle tag, then the most specific binding is chosen
(see the manual entry for the bind command for
details). The continue and break commands within
binding scripts are processed in the same way as
for bindings created with the bind command.
If bindings are created for the widget as a whole
using the bind command, then those bindings will
supplement the tag bindings. The tag bindings
will be invoked first, followed by bindings for
the window as a whole.
pathName tag cget tagName option
This command returns the current value of the
option named option associated with the tag given
by tagName. Option may have any of the values
accepted by the tag configure widget command.
value ...?
pathName tag configure tagName ?option? ?value? ?option
This command is similar to the configure widget
command except that it modifies options associated
with the tag given by tagName instead of modifying
options for the overall text widget. If no option
is specified, the command returns a list describ-
ing all of the available options for tagName (see
Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the format of
this list). If option is specified with no value,
then the command returns a list describing the one
named option (this list will be identical to the
corresponding sublist of the value returned if no
option is specified). If one or more option-value
pairs are specified, then the command modifies the
given option(s) to have the given value(s) in tag-
Name; in this case the command returns an empty
string. See TAGS above for details on the options
available for tags.
pathName tag delete tagName ?tagName ...?
Deletes all tag information for each of the tag-
Name arguments. The command removes the tags from
all characters in the file and also deletes any
other information associated with the tags, such
as bindings and display information. The command
returns an empty string.
pathName tag lower tagName ?belowThis?
Changes the priority of tag tagName so that it is
just lower in priority than the tag whose name is
belowThis. If belowThis is omitted, then
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tagName's priority is changed to make it lowest
priority of all tags.
pathName tag names ?index?
Returns a list whose elements are the names of all
the tags that are active at the character position
given by index. If index is omitted, then the
return value will describe all of the tags that
exist for the text (this includes all tags that
have been named in a ``pathName tag'' widget com-
mand but haven't been deleted by a ``pathName tag
delete'' widget command, even if no characters are
currently marked with the tag). The list will be
sorted in order from lowest priority to highest
priority.
pathName tag nextrange tagName index1 ?index2?
This command searches the text for a range of
characters tagged with tagName where the first
character of the range is no earlier than the
character at index1 and no later than the charac-
ter just before index2 (a range starting at index2
will not be considered). If several matching
ranges exist, the first one is chosen. The
command's return value is a list containing two
elements, which are the index of the first charac-
ter of the range and the index of the character
just after the last one in the range. If no
matching range is found then the return value is
an empty string. If index2 is not given then it
defaults to the end of the text.
pathName tag prevrange tagName index1 ?index2?
This command searches the text for a range of
characters tagged with tagName where the first
character of the range is before the character at
index1 and no earlier than the character at index2
(a range starting at index2 will be considered).
If several matching ranges exist, the one closest
to index1 is chosen. The command's return value
is a list containing two elements, which are the
index of the first character of the range and the
index of the character just after the last one in
the range. If no matching range is found then the
return value is an empty string. If index2 is not
given then it defaults to the beginning of the
text.
pathName tag raise tagName ?aboveThis?
Changes the priority of tag tagName so that it is
just higher in priority than the tag whose name is
aboveThis. If aboveThis is omitted, then
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tagName's priority is changed to make it highest
priority of all tags.
pathName tag ranges tagName
Returns a list describing all of the ranges of
text that have been tagged with tagName. The
first two elements of the list describe the first
tagged range in the text, the next two elements
describe the second range, and so on. The first
element of each pair contains the index of the
first character of the range, and the second ele-
ment of the pair contains the index of the charac-
ter just after the last one in the range. If
there are no characters tagged with tag then an
empty string is returned.
...?
pathName tag remove tagName index1 ?index2 index1 index2
Remove the tag tagName from all of the characters
starting at index1 and ending just before index2
(the character at index2 isn't affected). A sin-
gle command may contain any number of index1-
index2 pairs. If the last index2 is omitted then
the single character at index1 is tagged. If
there are no characters in the specified range
(e.g. index1 is past the end of the file or index2
is less than or equal to index1) then the command
has no effect. This command returns an empty
string.
pathName window option ?arg arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate embedded windows.
The behaviour of the command depends on the option
argument that follows the tag argument. The following
forms of the command are currently supported:
pathName window cget index option
Returns the value of a configuration option for an
embedded window. Index identifies the embedded
window, and option specifies a particular configu-
ration option, which must be one of the ones
listed in the section EMBEDDED WINDOWS.
pathName window configure index ?option value ...?
Query or modify the configuration options for an
embedded window. If no option is specified,
returns a list of all of the available options for
the embedded window at index. If one or more
option-value pairs are specified, then the command
modifies the given option(s) to have the given
value(s); in this case the command returns an
empty string. See EMBEDDED WINDOWS for
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information on the options that are supported.
pathName window create index ?option value ...?
This command creates a new window annotation,
which will appear in the text at the position
given by index. Any number of option-value pairs
may be specified to configure the annotation. See
EMBEDDED WINDOWS for information on the options
that are supported. Returns an empty string.
pathName window names
Returns a list whose elements are the names of all
windows currently embedded in window.
pathName xview option args
This command is used to query and change the horizontal
position of the text in the widget's window. It can
take any of the following forms:
pathName xview
Returns a list containing two elements. Each ele-
ment is a real fraction between 0 and 1; together
they describe the portion of the document's hori-
zontal span that is visible in the window. For
example, if the first element is .2 and the second
element is .6, 20% of the text is off-screen to
the left, the middle 40% is visible in the window,
and 40% of the text is off-screen to the right.
The fractions refer only to the lines that are
actually visible in the window: if the lines in
the window are all very short, so that they are
entirely visible, the returned fractions will be 0
and 1, even if there are other lines in the text
that are much wider than the window. These are
the same values passed to scrollbars via the
-xscrollcommand option.
pathName xview moveto fraction
Adjusts the view in the window so that fraction of
the horizontal span of the text is off-screen to
the left. Fraction is a fraction between 0 and 1.
pathName xview scroll number what
This command shifts the view in the window left or
right according to number and what. Number must
be an integer. What must be either units or
pages. If what is units, the view adjusts left or
right by number average-width characters on the
display; if it is pages then the view adjusts by
number screenfuls. If number is negative then
characters farther to the left become visible; if
it is positive then characters farther to the
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right become visible.
pathName yview ?args?
This command is used to query and change the vertical
position of the text in the widget's window. It can
take any of the following forms:
pathName yview
Returns a list containing two elements, both of
which are real fractions between 0 and 1. The
first element gives the position of the first
character in the top line in the window, relative
to the text as a whole (0.5 means it is halfway
through the text, for example). The second ele-
ment gives the position of the character just
after the last one in the bottom line of the win-
dow, relative to the text as a whole. These are
the same values passed to scrollbars via the
-yscrollcommand option.
pathName yview moveto fraction
Adjusts the view in the window so that the charac-
ter given by fraction appears on the top line of
the window. Fraction is a fraction between 0 and
1; 0 indicates the first character in the text,
0.33 indicates the character one-third the way
through the text, and so on.
pathName yview scroll number what
This command adjust the view in the window up or
down according to number and what. Number must be
an integer. What must be either units or pages.
If what is units, the view adjusts up or down by
number lines on the display; if it is pages then
the view adjusts by number screenfuls. If number
is negative then earlier positions in the text
become visible; if it is positive then later
positions in the text become visible.
pathName yview ?-pickplace? index
Changes the view in the widget's window to make
index visible. If the -pickplace option isn't
specified then index will appear at the top of the
window. If -pickplace is specified then the wid-
get chooses where index appears in the window:
[1] If index is already visible somewhere in the
window then the command does nothing.
[2] If index is only a few lines off-screen above
the window then it will be positioned at the
top of the window.
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[3] If index is only a few lines off-screen below
the window then it will be positioned at the
bottom of the window.
[4] Otherwise, index will be centered in the win-
dow.
The -pickplace option has been made obsolete by
the see widget command (see handles both x- and
y-motion to make a location visible, whereas
-pickplace only handles motion in y).
pathName yview number
This command makes the first character on the line
after the one given by number visible at the top
of the window. Number must be an integer. This
command used to be used for scrolling, but now it
is obsolete.
BINDINGS
Tk automatically creates bindings for texts that give them
the following default behaviour. In the descriptions below,
``word'' refers to a contiguous group of letters, digits, or
``_'' characters, or any single character other than these.
[1] Clicking mouse button 1 positions the insertion cursor
just before the character underneath the mouse cursor,
sets the input focus to this widget, and clears any
selection in the widget. Dragging with mouse button 1
strokes out a selection between the insertion cursor
and the character under the mouse.
[2] Double-clicking with mouse button 1 selects the word
under the mouse and positions the insertion cursor at
the beginning of the word. Dragging after a double
click will stroke out a selection consisting of whole
words.
[6] If any normal printing characters are typed, they are
inserted at the point of the insertion cursor, replac-
ing the current selection.
[8] If the mouse is dragged out of the widget while button
1 is pressed, the entry will automatically scroll to
make more text visible (if there is more text off-
screen on the side where the mouse left the window).
[9] The Left and Right keys move the insertion cursor one
character to the left or right; they also clear any
selection in the text. Control-b and Control-f behave
the same as Left and Right, respectively.
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[10] The Up and Down keys move the insertion cursor one line
up or down and clear any selection in the text.
Control-p and Control-n behave the same as Up and Down,
respectively.
[11] The Next and Prior keys move the insertion cursor for-
ward or backwards by one screenful and clear any selec-
tion in the text. If the Shift key is held down while
Next or Prior is typed, then the selection is extended
to include the new character. Control-v moves the view
down one screenful without moving the insertion cursor
or adjusting the selection.
[13] Home and Control-a move the insertion cursor to the
beginning of its line and clear any selection in the
widget. Shift-Home moves the insertion cursor to the
beginning of the line and also extends the selection to
that point.
[14] End and Control-e move the insertion cursor to the end
of the line and clear any selection in the widget.
Shift-End moves the cursor to the end of the line and
extends the selection to that point.
[15] Control-Home and Control-< move the insertion cursor to
the beginning of the text and clear any selection in
the widget.
[16] Control-> moves the insertion cursor to the end of the
text and clears any selection in the widget.
[18] Control-/ selects the entire contents of the widget.
[19] Control-\ clears any selection in the widget.
[23] The Delete key deletes the selection, if there is one
in the widget. If there is no selection, it deletes
the character to the right of the insertion cursor.
[24] Backspace and Control-h delete the selection, if there
is one in the widget. If there is no selection, they
delete the character to the left of the insertion cur-
sor.
[25] Control-d deletes the character to the right of the
insertion cursor.
[27] Control-k deletes from the insertion cursor to the end
of its line; if the insertion cursor is already at the
end of a line, then Control-k deletes all of the next
line.
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[28] Control-o opens a new line by inserting a newline char-
acter in front of the insertion cursor without moving
the insertion cursor.
If the widget is disabled using the -state option, then its
view can still be adjusted and text can still be selected,
but no insertion cursor will be displayed and no text modi-
fications will take place.
The behaviour of texts can be changed by defining new bind-
ings for individual widgets.
BUGS
Tab alignment doesn't work correctly.
The -stretch option on embedded windows is not implemented.
SEE ALSO
entry(9), options(9), types(9)
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