erniep has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Perl is still a language I am learning and I love it I started to look at the TK module and it looks like it has the power to do a lot of tasks within windows. I just can't get a handle on exactly what would be a good application to develop using the TK module. If any Monks could enlighten me with some practical usages or point me in the direction of some example applications I would be eternally grateful. Thanks for all the help all Monks have be knid enough to give to me in the past. Erniep

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: TK Usage
by wfsp (Abbot) on Jan 23, 2005 at 14:34 UTC
    A good place to start is to run the widget demo (widget.bat) that comes with Tk, on my machine it is in Perl/bin.

    There is also a website http://www.perltk.org/articles/index.htm.

    There is a Tk Tutorial on this site too and a Super Search will return many excellent threads.

    Not forgetting, of course, the Tk docs which include many helpful examples.

    I have just started to use Tk myself but still occasionaly get stuck in spite of the wealth of information. But posting an example of what you have tried here and asking for advice quickly gets you on your way again.

    Best of luck, expect to see your questions soon!

    Update: Removed broken link to the docs. Also, I have just noticed that converter has many links for Tk on his home node.

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
Re: TK Usage
by jbrugger (Parson) on Jan 23, 2005 at 14:23 UTC
    It all depends on what you want. I can't just tell you what a good application would be using ANY kind of language, but i wonder what you want. Tk gives you the means to create GUI for your application, you could build games, editors, tools etc. etc. be creative :-).
    A good start to learning perl and tk can be found here.
[reply]
      Thanks for the replies. This is a great start to build on.
      I was thinking of developing a community guest tracking system for windows NT. Or a calendar (i know there are millions out there)or address book just to get the feel of TK and then decide on a good business application using TK if TK is fast way to build.
      Thanks again, Monks are always are right on the mark.
[reply]
Re: TK Usage
by prowler (Friar) on Jan 23, 2005 at 15:36 UTC

    I haven't actually used it myself, but I think the first thing (after the obligatory "Hello World" pieces) I'm going to have a go with is a simple calculator. It just Feels Right.

    Prowler
     - Spelling is a demanding task that requies you full attention.

[reply]
Re: TK Usage
by wolfger (Deacon) on Jan 25, 2005 at 19:14 UTC

    Well, the only Tk I've ever used was for a tool I'm writing to simplify the process of updating my blog, RSS, and LiveJournal. Doing that without a GUI just didn't seem practical or smart. The only other time I used Tk was to solve some other monk's Tk-related problem. Most things I use perl for either do not require a GUI at all, or are web apps (and use the browser as a GUI, via CGI).


    --
    Linux, sci-fi, and Nat Torkington, all at Penguicon 3.0
    perl -e 'print(map(chr,(0x4a,0x41,0x50,0x48,0xa)))'
[reply]
[d/l]
      TK seems to be a nice to have but no real value in applications. I agree with Wolfger when he says he uses the browser as GUI via CGI. Once again, thanks Monks for all the good advise and help.
[reply]
        You just havn't figured Tk out yet. For example, if you want to maintain state, between server and client, browser based apps are harder to use. Also why bring the server and browser overhead into an application that is run solely on a local machine.

        What happens is that people get into Perl, thru using CGI, and get used to that technique. Then they want to expand into other types of GUI programming; and at that point they see they have 2 choices...learn Tk or Gtk or Wx to make real stand-alone GUI's , or they can work out hacks to simulate GUI's thru a browser-server pair. They tend to go with browser-server pair because it involves less learning.

        It is wrong for you to say that Tk has no real value in applications....what you mean to say is "you don't want to spend the time to learn it".

        If you want an example of a good use for Tk(Gtk,Wx), make a standalone GUI rolodex ( with photos) of business contacts and friends, using sqlite as the database.(Without the overhead of a server and huge browser)

        I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. flash japh
[reply]

Back to Seekers of Perl Wisdom