Path: usenet.cis.ufl.edu!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!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 part5 of 5 Followup-To: comp.lang.perl.tk Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 09:03:08 GMT Organization: Wilson Lab, Cornell U., Ithaca, NY, 14853 Lines: 546 Approved: pvhp@lns62.lns.cornell.edu (Peter Prymmer) Expires: Mon, 20 May 1996 09:03:02 GMT Message-ID: <009A0E11.4D622030@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:1706 comp.lang.perl.announce:324 comp.answers:17999 news.answers:69928 Summary: comp.lang.perl.tk Frequently Asked Questions. Archive-name: perl-faq/ptk-faq/part5 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: <0099F5AD.0992A540@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 5 of 5 - Miscellany ************************************ ______________________________________________________________________ 18. How do I "clear the screen"? What screen are you trying to clear? If you are trying to clear a tty (e.g. xterm) screen then try either of the following within your script: system "clear"; or print `clear`; (where the choice between these two depends on the rest of the script: the first is fast - but proceeds via fork and may not occur at exactly the time that you want it to in the script). David and Rachel Weintraub recommend using the old termcap.pl p4 library. You might also consider the perl 5 equivalents: Term.pm (especially the Term::Control module), Curses.pm, Perlmenu.pm, PV. If you are trying to eliminate a TopLevel or a MainWindow then try: $main -> destroy; If you would rather not destroy then try: $main->withdraw; # remove $main->deiconify; # put back If $w is a sub-window (sub-widget) then $w->pack('forget'); # remove if packed (newer Tk-b9.01++) $w->packForget; # remove if packed (older versions) $w->pack(...); # put back There are also ways to call low level C-ish versions: $w->UnmapWindow; but that is for special purposed only.... If you are trying to erase an $item on a Canvas then try: delete($item); (Thanks to the post by which extended this answer considerably.) ______________________________________________________________________ 19. Are there any international font packages for perl/Tk? In principle you may specify the -font configuration option on all your Button, Entry, Label, Message, etc. widgets. In addition to the Unix programs xfontsel and xlsfonts you may find xset useful for determining and/or specifying fonts - especially international ones. Kobayasi Hiroaki has converted the Tcl/Tk "japanization" by so that it may be used with perl/Tk. It is presently available (the current README file is in Japanese) from: ftp://ftp.sowa.is.uec.ac.jp/pub/Lang/perl5/Tk/Tk-b9.jp-a6.gz From the author's own description: Currently, the "japanization patch for perl/Tk" enables: [1] To show kanji & ASCII (by choosen kanji-font) in every widget. [2] To edit kanji (double width of ASCII) correctly in Text & Entry. [3] To support of Kanji Input method. (tkKinput.c) [4] Automatic kanji-code-detection & conversion with 'insert/get'. Supports: "JIS(Japanese Industrial Standard)", "MS-KANJI", "EUC". & the patch lacks: [5] by manual Kanji-code conversion. (JIS <=> MS-KANJI <=> EUC) [6] 'Good' interface to specify kanji-code used in internal. (tkWStr.c) [7] Documentation in English about [1-6]. # but, since interface-change is suspected in near future, # documenting them is ... I thought that[5-7] was not enough for world-people, but already worth for natives. So I announced it on "fj.lang.perl". ______________________________________________________________________ 20. Are there any other ways to create X interfaces from perl? Yes. A short list would have to mention: For perl 4: WAFE, STDWIN For perl 5: Sx (uses Athena & Xlib), Motif (uses Motif & Xt), Fresco (post X11R6) There is also Malcolm Beattie's Tkperl (which is largely incompatible with perl/Tk). Further information on X interfaces to Perl is provided in the perl FAQ. SGI folk may be interested in the OpenGL Perl Module (Sun folk too - if you have "mesaGL" installed). For perl generation of GIF images see the question on the GD module. ______________________________________________________________________ 21. Where can I get more information on the GD module? The GD.pm perl module was ported to perl from the C code of a similar name by Lincoln Stein. It allows for the generation of GIF (Graphics Inline Format) images from within a perl script. The module itself is available from any CPAN ftp site, and Lincoln maintains an informational web page at: http://www-genome.wi.mit.edu/ftp/pub/software/WWW/GD.html ______________________________________________________________________ 22. Are there any major applications written in perl/Tk? In part the answer to this depends on what you mean by major as well as on the fact that the perl/Tk language itself is still in beta. Be sure to check the newsgroups comp.lang.perl.tk, comp.lang.perl.announce, as well as the mailing list archive. In addition, there are some interesting perl/Tk applications already available from: Your own Tk-b# distibution: --------------------------- The following programs may be found in your Tk-b#/ directory: program description pfm perl file manager - cute iconic front to emacs ptknews a GUI perl newsreader (Tk-b9.01) - a work in progress. tkpsh perl/Tk equivalent of wish. toyedit a Text widget editor. The following programs may be found either in your demos directory (consult the README file there for fuller descriptions) or in your perl/bin install directory: program description browse Simple file browser front end for emacs. color_editor Front end to Tk::ColorEditor allows RGB, CMY, and HSV color cube manipulation (based on tcolor.tcl). ixset GUI front end to xset - for terminal settings. pgs Perl front end to Ghostscript (for viewing PostScript(c) files). rmt perl/Tk "development shell/remote control application" You can launch or talk to other perl/Tk apps with rmt. rolodex Like the Tcl/Tk app of the same name. Requires editing for personal use. timer Stopwatch - like seconds timer. tkweb The perl gui web browser. Other perl/Tk application distributors: --------------------------------------- ptkb.pl an xbiff like mailbox watcher. Available from ftp://ftp.wpi.edu/perl5/pTk-Modules/ptkb.pl bioTkperl Was announced by Gregg Helt recently. See the home page at: http://www.cbil.upenn.edu/~dsearls/bioTk.html. Source at: ftp://fruitfly.berkeley.edu/pub/bioTk/bioTkperl0.8.tar.gz EVA Hiroaki Kobayasi's EVA is a sophisticated wish like perl/Tk "shell". It is available from: ftp://ftp.sowa.is.uec.ac.jp/pub/Lang/perl5/Tk/eva-*.tar.gz www The original 8 line wonder by Jon Orwant. Pick it up (and modify it) from: http://sun20.ccd.bnl.gov/~ptk/archive/ptk.1995.08/0411.html. (Please note: www is for amusement, the more serious perl/Tk browser - tkweb - is distributed with Tk-b# and is "only" 60 lines long!.) ______________________________________________________________________ 23. What is the history of pTk and perl/Tk? This list is only slowly coming together. Please forgive any absences. o tkperl5a5 is announced Thu, 20 Oct 1994 14:44:23 +0000 (BST) NOTE This project is unrelated to the one which is adding usersubs to perl4 to get access to Tk via Tcl. Often, postings on comp.lang.perl just say "tkperl" without saying which one is meant. They are two totally different kettles of fish. --Malcolm (Beattie) o Fri, 25 Nov 94 14:29:53 GMT Nick Ing-Simmons is working on what will be known as "nTk" eventually. o Mon, 12 Dec 94 08:56:36 GMT, Nick Ing-Simmons reports: I have a re-port of ext/Tk nearly ready for alpha. It builds its own "pTk" library from sources semi-automatically derived from Tk3.6. There is no Tcl library at all. Would anyone like to assist me in testing it? o nTk-a2 announced Fri, 16 Dec 1994 10:59:36 -0500 o nTk-a3 announced Mon, 19 Dec 1994 18:03:27 -0500 o nTk-a5 announced Fri, 23 Dec 1994 10:18:16 -0500 (last to use Tk 3.6 ?) o nTk-a6 first to use Tk 4.0 (?) o nTk-a7 announced Fri, 13 Jan 1995 10:55:27 -0500 o nTk-a8 has appeared before Tue, 17 Jan 95 09:04:33 GMT o nTk-a9 has appeared before Wed, 18 Jan 95 19:25:10 GMT o nTk-a10 announced Tue, 24 Jan 1995 14:32:02 -0500 o nTk-a11 announced Tue, 31 Jan 95 19:05:32 GMT o Malcolm Beattie suggests the nTk -> Tk name change, Larry Wall concurs o nTk-a12 announced Thu, 16 Feb 1995 09:12:26 -0500 o Nick Ing-Simmons calls for a new mail list Thu, 16 Feb 95 14:13:55 GMT o Tk-a13 announced Wed, 1 Mar 1995 11:38:15 -0500 (Name has changed from "nTk") o Tk-b1 announced Tue, 14 Mar 95 16:58:40 GMT o Tk-b2 announced Wed, 29 Mar 95 15:52:44 BST o Tk-b3 announced Fri, 31 Mar 95 16:54:54 BST o Tk-b4 announced Fri, 12 May 1995 11:45:32 -0400 EST o Tk-b5 announced Mon, 26 Jun 95 17:14:06 BST o Tk-b6 announced Fri, 21 Jul 95 15:42:35 BST o Tk-b7 announced Fri, 28 Jul 95 15:16:02 BST o Tk-b8 announced Wed, 16 Aug 95 12:34:05 BST o an RFD (Request For Discussion) for a new usenet group comp.lang.perl.tk is circulated by Jon Orwant Fri, 4 Aug 1995 08:29:46 -0400 o unmoderated newsgroup comp.lang.perl.tk passes by a vote of 352 to 18 with 1 abstention in an announcement made Mon, 9 Oct 1995 10:13:17 -0400 (EDT). The new group makes its appearance at news-servers roughly 18 October 1995. o Tk-b9.01 announced Wed, 20 Dec 95 10:06:47 GMT. o Tk-b10 announced Sat, 23 Mar 96 17:16:27 GMT. o Tk-b11 announced Mon, 1 Apr 96 16:44:48 GMT. o Tk-b11.01 announced Wed, 3 Apr 96 17:48:09 GMT. o Tk-b11.02 announced 10 Apr 96 12:52:28 GMT. ______________________________________________________________________ 24. What can we expect the future to hold? Here is a summary of the Tk-b11.02 announcement: Changes in b11.02 o Fix for K&R 'cc' (e.g. Sun's /bin/cc) compile. o 'Scrolled' scrollbars now only get packed (dynamically) when required. o Tweaks for perl5.002_01 o Tidied up basic_credentials stuff to HTML/Web.pm a bit o Brought Pod viewer up to date. o Fixed memory leak in Tk::Callback->new, highlighted by recent 'after' changes. The gamma release will not be far off... ______________________________________________________________________ 25. How do I obtain the latest version of this FAQ? On the world wide web --------------------- Hypertext (split by question): http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkTOC.html Hypertext (whole thing - may be too large for some browsers, but is amenable to searching): http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ.html Plaintext (whole): http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ.txt Plaintext (multi-part): http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ0.txt http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ1.txt http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ2.txt http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ3.txt http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ4.txt http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ5.txt or gzipped PostScript(c) (about 60 US 8.5"x11" pages): http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ.ps.gz or gzipped PostScript(c) (about 60 A4 pages): http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ.A4.ps.gz For those without WWW access: ----------------------------- usenet newsgroup ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This FAQ will be posted to the newsgroup comp.lang.perl.tk. This FAQ will also be posted to comp.answers and news.answers, hence, this FAQ is being carried by the big usenet anonymous ftp servers such as ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/ ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/perl-faq/ptk-faq/ ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.lang.perl.tk ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/comp/lang/perl/tk ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/news.answers/perl-faq/ptk-faq etc. For information on usenet please see news.software.nntp http://www.academ.com/academ/nntp.html ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/news/answers/usenet/site-setup ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/news/answers/usenet/software/part1 http://info.internet.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc/files/rfc977.txt ftp://ftp.academ.com/pub/nntpclnt http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/LineMode/Defaults/AboutNewsServers.html (Note that as of Tk-b9.01 there is a script called ptknews that may help you. Don't forget Larry Wall's rn prgram either.) ftp ~~~ This FAQ is available via ftp from: USA IP ftp://ftp.ccd.bnl.gov/pub/ptk/ 130.199.54.188 ftp://ftp.ccd.bnl.gov/pub/ptk/ptkFAQ.txt 130.199.54.188 ftp://ftp.wpi.edu/perl5/pTk-FAQ 130.215.24.209 ftp://perl.com/pub/perl/doc/ptkFAQ.gz 199.45.129.30 ftp://perl.com/pub/perl/doc/ptkFAQ.ps.gz 199.45.129.30 This FAQ is now being carried by the CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) ftp sites (thanks Tom ;-). At any of the CPAN locations go into the doc/ directory to retrieve either the ptkFAQ.gz file (gzipped plaintext), the ptkFAQ.html.gz file (gzipped html [with some links relative to "http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/"]), or the ptkFAQ.ps.gz file (gzipped PostScript(c)). To unfurl any of these files try gunzip. As an example the South African files are at: Africa South Africa ftp://ftp.is.co.za/programming/perl/CPAN/doc/ptkFAQ.gz ftp://ftp.is.co.za/programming/perl/CPAN/doc/ptkFAQ.html.gz ftp://ftp.is.co.za/programming/perl/CPAN/doc/ptkFAQ.ps.gz See a previous question for a more extensive list of CPAN locations. e-mail services: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Send e-mail (content of message unimportant) to and you will receive the text version of this FAQ. (Many thanks to Alan L. Stange at Brookhaven for setting this up!) Those without FTP access can get the plaintext version via e-mail from the rtfm archive. For help send e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with a message of: send usenet/news.answers/finding-sources The mail server at rtfm may be able to e-mail a plaintext version of this faq. Send e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu containing: send /pub/usenet/news.answers/perl-faq/ptk-faq/part0 Then send several more (separate) requests, such as: send /pub/usenet/news.answers/perl-faq/ptk-faq/part1 send /pub/usenet/news.answers/perl-faq/ptk-faq/part2 send /pub/usenet/news.answers/perl-faq/ptk-faq/part3 send /pub/usenet/news.answers/perl-faq/ptk-faq/part4 send /pub/usenet/news.answers/perl-faq/ptk-faq/part5 The ptk@guest.wpi.edu mailing list is devoted more to porting and development issues. The URL's to this FAQ may be posted there, but not the text (it is simply too big). Webmail Gateways: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With e-mail you might try one of the (experimental & not necessarily reliable) http-to-mail services such as either of the following: When last tested the service at webmail@www.ucc.ie reported that the single ptkFAQ.txt file was too large to send. Hence, you must send several separate e-mail requests to A Subject: line is not required but do include the following one line message body in your first e-mail: GO http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ0.txt Then send several more (separate) requests as follows: GO http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ1.txt GO http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ2.txt GO http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ3.txt GO http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ4.txt GO http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ5.txt please note: In days gone by this service would take several hours to send back both a plaintext and a uuencoded version of the stated file - both within a single mail message. The service did mention receiving more than 17,000 requests in October 1995 alone and it is not known whether they will continue. Send e-mail to agora@mail.w3.org with a one line message body (Subject: line not required) such as: SEND http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ.txt please note: this last method bounced backed a "permanently out of service" message when last attempted. The home page at http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Agora/ mentions "temporarily out of service", caveat netsurfer; the page at http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MailRobot/send.html does not mention being out of service. System administrator and webmasters are encouraged to visit any of the following pages: http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MailRobot/Overview.html http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MailRobot/send.html http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Mailing/Form.html http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Agora/ and decide if they wish to set up a webmail gateway of their own. The agora.pl script is written in perl and makes use of the www line mode browser. It could presumably be re-written to use url-get.pl or any other fine code such as the latest, greatest perl5 module for URL fetching :-) gopher ~~~~~~ On a very experimental basis you might try: gopher-client 128.84.219.153 or in URL form: gopher://128.84.219.153/1 ______________________________________________________________________ 26. Acknowledgements & maintainer. 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. Especial thanks to: Nick Ing-Simmons for writing perl/Tk. Malcolm Beattie for tkperl. An anonymous comp.lang.perl.tk poster for writing the initial "pseudo-FAQ" that got this started. Larry Wall for writing extensible Perl 5 & John Ousterhout for writing Tk 4. Tom Christiansen and Stephen P. Potter for writing and maintaining excellent perl documentation, and general doc help. Jon Orwant for organizing the comp.lang.perl.tk Usenet newsgroup. Alan Stange & Tom Schlagel for the hypermail archive, the ftp & e-mail distribution of the FAQ, etc. Achim Bohnet for an excellent searchable hypermail archive. Ilya Zakharevich for great perl/Tk pod docs. Kobayasi Hiroaki for great perl/Tk scripts. William J. Middleton for archive help. Ioi Kim Lam for Tix. Larry Virden for cross-posting the Tcl FAQ. In addition, this FAQ has benefitted from the contributions of many people all over the net to whom I am quite grateful. I am: Peter Prymmer Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 pvhp@lns62.lns.cornell.edu ______________________________________________________________________ Hypertext whole FAQ: http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ.html Hypertext (split by question) FAQ: http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkTOC.html Plaintext FAQ: http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ.txt Plaintext multi-part FAQ: http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ[0..3].txt Image-supplement: http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/ptk/ptkIMG.html