suggest a better method.

If it was me, I would put the varying number grid on a Tk::Canvas, and just use tags to control which table is currently showing. It is a very good way to do it.

As to your method of recreating multiple tables, the following is probably somewhat along the way to do it. You have a packing problem, because the window will want to resize with each table. Maybe you can work that out.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Tk;
use Tk::Table;

my $mw = MainWindow->new();
my $upper = $mw->Frame()->pack(-side => 'top');
my $but1 = $upper->Frame()->pack();
my $lower = $mw->Frame()->pack(-side => 'bottom');

my $table = $lower->Table()->pack;
my $new_row = int rand 4;
my $new_col = int rand 5;
upd_table($new_row,$new_col);

$but1->Button(
    -text    => 'update',
    -command => sub { 
                     $new_row = int rand 4;
                     $new_col = int rand 5;
                     upd_table( $new_row,$new_col) },
)->pack();

MainLoop();
exit;


sub upd_table {

    $table->packForget();

    my ($rowin,$colin) = @_;

    $table = $lower->Table(-rows => $rowin, -columns => $colin)->pack;

    foreach my $row ( 0 .. $rowin-1 ) {
        foreach my $col ( 0 .. $colin ) {
            my $x = int rand 10;
            my $cell = $table->Entry( -width => 4, -text => $x );
            $table->put( $row, $col, $cell );
        }
    }
}
[download]

as far as making a Canvas do it, look at this.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Tk;

#by thundergnat on comp.lang.perl.tk

my $top = MainWindow->new;
my $canvas = $top->Canvas->pack(-expand => 1, -fill => 'both');

my (@dots, @lines);
my ($gridx, $gridy) = (5, 6);

for my $y(0 .. $gridx-1){
for my $x(0 .. $gridy-1){
$dots[$x][$y] = $canvas->createOval(
25 + $x * 55,
25 + $y * 55,
35 + $x * 55,
35 + $y * 55,
-fill => 'red'
);
}
}

current($dots[0][0]);

$top->bind('<Up>' => sub{
my ($point, $x, $y) = get_coords('active');
return if ($point < $gridy);
draw($dots[$x][$y], $dots[$x][$y-1]);
}
);

$top->bind('<Down>' => sub{
my ($point, $x, $y) = get_coords('active');
return if ($point > $gridy * ($gridx - 1));
draw($dots[$x][$y], $dots[$x][$y+1]);
}
);

$top->bind('<Left>' => sub{
my ($point, $x, $y) = get_coords('active');
return if ($point % $gridy == 1);
draw($dots[$x][$y], $dots[$x-1][$y]);
}
);

$top->bind('<Right>' => sub{
my ($point, $x, $y) = get_coords('active');
return unless ($point % $gridy);
draw($dots[$x][$y], $dots[$x+1][$y]);
}
);

$top->bind('<1>' => sub{
my (undef, $x1, $y1) = get_coords('active');
my (undef, $x2, $y2) = get_coords('current');
return unless defined $x2;
draw($dots[$x1][$y1], $dots[$x2][$y2]);
}
);

$top->bind('<BackSpace>' => sub{
return unless @lines;
my ($line, $start) = @{$lines[-1]};
$canvas->delete($line);
current($start);
pop @lines;
}
);

MainLoop;

sub get_coords{
my $tag = shift;
my $item = $canvas->find(withtag => $tag);
return unless $item;
return $item->[0], ($item->[0] - 1) % $gridy, int (($item->[0] - 1) / 
+$gridy);
}

sub current{
$canvas->itemconfigure('active', -fill => 'red');
$canvas->itemconfigure($_[0], -fill => 'yellow');
$canvas->dtag('active', 'active');
$canvas->addtag('active', 'withtag', $_[0]);
}

sub draw{
my ($start, $end) = @_;
my @start_coords = $canvas->bbox($start);
my @end_coords = $canvas->bbox($end);
return unless @end_coords;
my @line_coords = (
($start_coords[0] + $start_coords[2]) / 2,
($start_coords[1] + $start_coords[3]) / 2,
($end_coords[0]   + $end_coords[2])   / 2,
($end_coords[1]   + $end_coords[3])   / 2
);
my $line = $canvas->createLine(@line_coords, -arrow => 'last');
push @lines, [$line, $start];
current($end);
}

__END__
[download]

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