TKTESTER(1) TKTESTER(1)
NAME
tktester - test Tk widgets and help design Tk layouts
SYNOPSIS
wm/tktester [ -import ]
DESCRIPTION
Tktester not only tests the tk(2) widget implementation but
can help when designing Tk application layouts. Its main
window contains the design area where widgets are placed and
edited. Most of the commands for creating and moving widgets
are located on the control bar just below the design area
although a few commands may be found in the menus at the top
of the window. Output is sent to the text box below the con-
trol bar.
Widget properties may be modified using the config window
and widget commands called from the command window.
Main Window
This is split into four areas:
Menu Bar
This contains various file operations as well as a few com-
mands
File New: Starts a new file
Open: Opens a saved file
Snarf: Sends the current file to snarf
Save: Saves the current file
Save as: Asks for a new filename and then saves
the file
Exit: Close tktester
Files are saved in the form of a list of tk commands. This
means that they can easily be imported into programs as part
of an array. Files to be loaded must have .f as the top
frame with no widgets outside it.
Row/Column
The current row/column is the one in which the
currently selected widget/empty cell is located
Insert - inserts a new row/column either before or
after the currently selected row/column Delete -
deletes currently selected row/column Format -
sets the properties for the current row/column
Hidden Forget - removes the current widget from the dis-
play area but does not delete it. The widget name
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is then added to the 'Hidden' menu and can still
be selected by clicking on its name there. This
can be useful for operations which require widgets
that are not currently packed e.g. placing a frame
as a window within a canvas. Forgotten items will
still be saved.
Disabled This menu only appears when a widget has been dis-
abled. In this state, button bindings are ignored
so it becomes impossible to select the widget.
When a widget is disabled, its name is automati-
cally added to the 'Disabled' menu and can be
selected from there.
Design Area
This is the main area of the main window where the widgets
are displayed. To select a widget, click on it with mouse
button 3, the control bar shows the name and other informa-
tion about the currently selected widget. Frames themselves
can only be selected by clicking on their label, clicking
elsewhere on the frame (if there is no widget there) will
select the empty cell, any new widget created will be placed
here. Once a widget has been selected, you can move it by
clicking on the empty destination cell with mouse button 2.
Individual widgets can be moved from one frame to another
but frames themselves can currently only be moved within the
same parent frame. Clicking mouse button 2 on a widget will
delete that widget if the Free Delete button on the control
bar is on.
Control Bar
This is split into three different menus. To select the dif-
ferent submenus, click on the >> at the end of the menu
title.
Data Menu
Widget shows information about the current widget
clicking on the Destroy button will delete the
currently selected widget. The Free Delete button
to the right of the Destroy button can be toggled
on and off by clicking on it. When turned on (red
background) , clicking mouse button 2 on a widget
in the design area will delete it.
Grid shows information about the current grid
Clicking the Hide Labels button will hide the
frame labels so that you can see what the screen
will look like normally.
Position and Formatting Menu
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Move Move the widget within its current frame
Spanning Change row and column spanning properties
Padding Set cell padding, checkbox selects internal or
external padding
Position Adjust widget position, widget can be stretched if
opposite positions are selected e.g. to flill hor-
izontaly, select < and >
New Menu
Clicking on 'New' will bring up the pack menu, here you can
set packing to down or right. This is used when a new widget
is created. If the user has not selected an empty cell, the
new widget will be placed either below or to the right of
the currently selected widget. Clicking on '>>' will scroll
the buttons within the menu to the left to allow access to
those that might be off screen.
Output Box
Output and errors are reported here. This box may be hidden
by clicking on the grey button located at the bottom of the
main window.
POPUP WINDOWS
Config Window
This window is opened by clicking on the red button located
at the bottom of the main window. To configure a widget's
options, the widget must be selected. To modify an option,
type the new value required into the relevant entry box and
click the 'set' button. Any output (including error mes-
sages) returned will be sent to the output box.
There are two template buttons at the bottom of the config
window, set as default and save as default. Set will cause
each new widget of the same type to be created with the same
options as the currently selected widget. This default will
not be remembered once tktester has been closed. Save does
the same as set except the default is saved so it will be
not be lost if tktester is closed.
Default Template Options
%n the name of the widget e.g. .f.f1.b2
%t the widget type e.g. button
%i the number of the widget
By default, each widget with a -text option is set to {%t
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%i} e.g. button 2. Note: These options only work with
default templates, setting the -text option of a specific
button to {%t %i} will just cause '%t %i' to be displayed.
Command Window
This window is opened by clicking on the green button
located at the bottom of the main window. To call the com-
mands for a particular widget, the widget must be selected.
The command window is split into two listboxes and one entry
box. The first listbox contains all the main commands avail-
able for the current widget type. Selecting a command will
bring up a list of subcommands (if they exist) in the second
listbox as well as displaying any arguments required above
the entrybox. To run a command, first select the command
(and any subcommand), then enter the required arguments into
the entry box and click run. The command, as well as any
output, is sent to the output box on the main window. If no
output is returned, the output box will display 'ok'.
OPTIONS
-import Tells tktester to import valid widget commands
from the man pages. This data is saved in the
tkwargs/ directory, which must already exist.
FILES
The file tkwargs/widgets must contain a list of widgets, one
per line as follows:
[name] [abv]
with the fields separated by tabs or spaces. For example:
menubutton mb
listbox lb
SOURCE
/appl/wm/tktester
BUGS
The command window sometimes lists a command more than once.
It does not matter which one is used.
In a saved file, any grid commands must put -row and -column
options before -rowspan or -columnspan.
Tktester can crash when loading a file if it is not in the
correct format.
PROPOSED ADDITIONS
Allow renaming of widgets
At the moment, tktester can only load, save and use tk
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commands where the widget names adhere to the format .abv[n]
where abv is the abreviation for the widget type e.g. b for
buttons, sb for scrollbars etc and n is an optional number.
It would be better to allow users to have more meaningful
names such as .f.fmenu. Implementing this would also make it
possible to load in commands written outside of tktester for
testing or modification purposes.
Column and Row indicators
This would more clearly show which rows and columns widgets
were in (especially when widgets are spanning more than
one). Also could be used to select individual rows and
columns more explicity and maybe for multiple selections.
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