Using Tix

Toplevel widget of Tix which represents mostly the main window of an application. It has an associated Tcl interpreter.

Classes in the :mod:`Tix` module subclasses the classes in the :mod:`Tkinter` module. The former imports the latter, so to use :mod:`Tix` with Tkinter, all you need to do is to import one module. In general, you can just import :mod:`Tix`, and replace the toplevel call to :class:`Tkinter.Tk` with :class:`Tix.Tk`:

import Tix
from Tkconstants import *
root = Tix.Tk()

To use :mod:`Tix`, you must have the :mod:`Tix` widgets installed, usually alongside your installation of the Tk widgets. To test your installation, try the following:

import Tix
root = Tix.Tk()
root.tk.eval('package require Tix')

If this fails, you have a Tk installation problem which must be resolved before proceeding. Use the environment variable :envvar:`TIX_LIBRARY` to point to the installed :mod:`Tix` library directory, and make sure you have the dynamic object library (:file:`tix8183.dll` or :file:`libtix8183.so`) in the same directory that contains your Tk dynamic object library (:file:`tk8183.dll` or :file:`libtk8183.so`). The directory with the dynamic object library should also have a file called :file:`pkgIndex.tcl` (case sensitive), which contains the line:

package ifneeded Tix 8.1 [list load "[file join $dir tix8183.dll]" Tix]

Tix Widgets

Tix introduces over 40 widget classes to the :mod:`Tkinter` repertoire. There is a demo of all the :mod:`Tix` widgets in the :file:`Demo/tix` directory of the standard distribution.

Tix Commands

The tix commands provide access to miscellaneous elements of :mod:`Tix`'s internal state and the :mod:`Tix` application context. Most of the information manipulated by these methods pertains to the application as a whole, or to a screen or display, rather than to a particular window.

To view the current settings, the common usage is:

import Tix
root = Tix.Tk()
print root.tix_configure()

.. method:: tixCommand.tix_configure(cnf=None **kw)

   Query or modify the configuration options of the Tix application context. If no
   option is specified, returns a dictionary all of the available options.  If
   option is specified with no value, then the method returns a list describing the
   one named option (this list will be identical to the corresponding sublist of
   the value returned if no option is specified).  If one or more option-value
   pairs are specified, then the method modifies the given option(s) to have the
   given value(s); in this case the method returns an empty string. Option may be
   any of the configuration options.

.. method:: tixCommand.tix_cget(option)

   Returns the current value of the configuration option given by *option*. Option
   may be any of the configuration options.

.. method:: tixCommand.tix_getbitmap(name)

   Locates a bitmap file of the name ``name.xpm`` or ``name`` in one of the bitmap
   directories (see the :meth:`tix_addbitmapdir` method).  By using
   :meth:`tix_getbitmap`, you can avoid hard coding the pathnames of the bitmap
   files in your application. When successful, it returns the complete pathname of
   the bitmap file, prefixed with the character ``@``.  The returned value can be
   used to configure the ``bitmap`` option of the Tk and Tix widgets.

.. method:: tixCommand.tix_addbitmapdir(directory)

   Tix maintains a list of directories under which the :meth:`tix_getimage` and
   :meth:`tix_getbitmap` methods will search for image files.  The standard bitmap
   directory is :file:`$TIX_LIBRARY/bitmaps`. The :meth:`tix_addbitmapdir` method
   adds *directory* into this list. By using this method, the image files of an
   applications can also be located using the :meth:`tix_getimage` or
   :meth:`tix_getbitmap` method.

.. method:: tixCommand.tix_filedialog([dlgclass])

   Returns the file selection dialog that may be shared among different calls from
   this application.  This method will create a file selection dialog widget when
   it is called the first time. This dialog will be returned by all subsequent
   calls to :meth:`tix_filedialog`.  An optional dlgclass parameter can be passed
   as a string to specified what type of file selection dialog widget is desired.
   Possible options are ``tix``, ``FileSelectDialog`` or ``tixExFileSelectDialog``.

.. method:: tixCommand.tix_getimage(self, name)

   Locates an image file of the name :file:`name.xpm`, :file:`name.xbm` or
   :file:`name.ppm` in one of the bitmap directories (see the
   :meth:`tix_addbitmapdir` method above). If more than one file with the same name
   (but different extensions) exist, then the image type is chosen according to the
   depth of the X display: xbm images are chosen on monochrome displays and color
   images are chosen on color displays. By using :meth:`tix_getimage`, you can
   avoid hard coding the pathnames of the image files in your application. When
   successful, this method returns the name of the newly created image, which can
   be used to configure the ``image`` option of the Tk and Tix widgets.

.. method:: tixCommand.tix_option_get(name)

   Gets the options maintained by the Tix scheme mechanism.

.. method:: tixCommand.tix_resetoptions(newScheme, newFontSet[, newScmPrio])

   Resets the scheme and fontset of the Tix application to *newScheme* and
   *newFontSet*, respectively.  This affects only those widgets created after this
   call.  Therefore, it is best to call the resetoptions method before the creation
   of any widgets in a Tix application.

   The optional parameter *newScmPrio* can be given to reset the priority level of
   the Tk options set by the Tix schemes.

   Because of the way Tk handles the X option database, after Tix has been has
   imported and inited, it is not possible to reset the color schemes and font sets
   using the :meth:`tix_config` method. Instead, the :meth:`tix_resetoptions`
   method must be used.