I want to share my experience how to make Tcl/Tk GUI easier for end-user.

Perl/Tk have balloon widget, so anyone can create and manipulate Balloon widget.
I've rarely actually used it, because of its complexity.

Now that I'm using Tcl::Tk for a long time already for Tk GUI, I want to share how much easier it is.

Every widget in Tcl::Tk now have tooltip("text") method, so now tooltips are trivial and I use them even for tiny programs, just making final programs better to user.

Here's an example: 

use Tcl::Tk;
my $mw = Tcl::Tk::tkinit;

$mw->Entry->tooltip('enter small values here')->pack;
$mw->Button(-text=>'test')->tooltip("test button\npress to see the res
+ult")->pack;

Tcl::Tk::MainLoop;

[download]
That simple!

Best regards,
Vadim.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Tooltips for Tk widgets in perl - easier than ever
by zentara (Cardinal) on Jul 13, 2007 at 12:17 UTC
    Gtk2 has similar ease of adding tooltips to any widget: 
    my $tooltip1 = Gtk2::Tooltips->new;
my $tip_text1 = 'Just Another Exit Button';
$tooltip1->set_tip($button, $tip_text1, undef);

    [download]

    and it's not really that much harder in Perl/Tk. The real difficulty with balloons comes, when you need to dynamically change them at post time. 

    #!/usr/bin/perl

#by Jack D.
# Just attach the balloon to the widget itself instead 
# of treating it like a canvas item. 
# The script below shows both.
## Example ##

use Tk;
use Tk::Balloon;
use strict;

my $mw=tkinit;
my $c=$mw->Canvas->pack;
my $l = $c->Label(-relief=>'sunken',-text=>'embedded window');
$c->create('window',150,150,-window=>$l);
$c->create('text', 150,100,-text=>"A Text Canvas Item",-tags=>'TESTTAG
+');

my $ba = $mw->Balloon(-background=>'yellow');

$ba->attach($l,-initwait=>0,-balloonmsg=>'Attached to Widget');

$ba->attach($c, -initwait=>0,
       -balloonposition => 'mouse',
       -msg=>{ 'TESTTAG'=>'A Canvas Item'}
);
MainLoop;

__END__

    [download]
    I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Cogito ergo sum a bum
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[d/l]
[select]
      all true.

      However, perl/Tk limits to Tix's Balloons, whereas in Tcl/Tk there is larger choice of different "tooltip" widgets, so allowing better TIMTOWTDI principle.

      Best regards,
      Vadim.

[reply]
        Yeah. someone has to keep people aware of the virtues of Tcl/TK ...... it's good, but Tcl is not Perl, thats it's drawback in my book.
        I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Cogito ergo sum a bum
[reply]

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