Tk4.2 (Skunkware97)

These packages are binary runtimes (for SCO UnixWare and OpenServer) and the sources and documentation for Tk, an X11 toolkit implemented with the Tcl scripting language

The information here corresponds to Tk 4.2, patch level 2 for Tk 4.2, released January 31, 1997. This is actually the first official patch release for Tk 4.2: patch level 1 was only released for the Macintosh. Tk 4.2 is designed to work with Tcl 7.6 and may not work with any other version of Tcl.

Summary of changes in Tk 4.2

Tk 4.2 is a minor release. The main changes are a revision of the gridder, a new set of standard dialog boxes, and a new virtual event mechanism. See below for details. There should be no backward incompatibilities in Tk 4.2 except for two small changes related to the gridder.

Here are the new features in Tk 4.2. The release also includes several bug fixes. See the "changes" file in the source package for a complete list of all changes.

1. The grid geometry manager has been completely rewritten:
   • The layout algorithm produces much better layouts than before, particularly where rows or columns were stretchable.
   • There is a new -pad option for rows and columns.
   • The command "grid forget" has been renamed "grid remove", and "grid forget" now has semantics like "pack forget".
   • The "grid" command no longer accepts floating-point values for row or column weights: integers must be used.
2. There are new commands for creating common dialog boxes: tk_chooseColor, tk_getOpenFile, tk_getSaveFile and tk_messageBox. These use native dialog boxes if they are available. Examples of the dialogs are available in the widget demo.
3. There is a new virtual event mechanism for handling events in a more portable way. See the new command "event". It also allows events (both physical and virtual) to be generated dynamically. The Macintosh now generates <>, <>, <>, and <> events from the edit menu.

The only incompatible changes in this release are the last two for the gridder ("grid forget" and integer row/column weights). Most scripts that ran under Tk 4.1 should also work under Tk 4.2 with no changes.

Info Resources

• Tk FAQ
• BLT
• tix
• Other Information resources are as for Tcl.