From: Hidetoshi NAGAI <nagai@...>
Date: 2004-04-08T12:03:53+09:00
Subject: Re: Assorted Ruby/Tk Questions/Comments

Hi, 

From: dejaspam@batkins.com (Bill Atkins)
Subject: Assorted Ruby/Tk Questions/Comments
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 05:24:18 +0900
Message-ID: <e6056acc.0404071223.16e17aab@posting.google.com>
> The block is being called twice.  This can be prevented with the
   (snip)
> This looks like a bug to me.

Yes. It's a bug. Thank you for your report. 
This problem will be fixed by the following patch. 

--- tk.rb.orig  2004-04-08 11:49:48.000000000 +0900
+++ tk.rb       2004-04-08 11:50:01.000000000 +0900
@@ -4532,7 +4532,7 @@
   def TkRoot.new(keys=nil, &b)
     unless TkCore::INTERP.tk_windows['.']
       TkCore::INTERP.tk_windows['.'] = 
-       super(:without_creating=>true, :widgetname=>'.')
+       super(:without_creating=>true, :widgetname=>'.'){}
     end
     root = TkCore::INTERP.tk_windows['.']
     if keys  # wm commands


> 2.  Do I have to install Tcl on *NIX boxes to use Ruby/Tk?  I know I
> can just redistribute the DLL's on Windows, but how does this work on
> NIX?  Does Ruby/Tk come with everything it needs to run right out of
> the box?

Yes. You must install Tcl/Tk libraries. 
Ruby/Tk calls functions of Tcl/Tk library. 

The Ancient Ruby/Tk used interp process communication 
between Ruby and Wish. It's too slow!!
But current Ruby/Tk loads Tcl/Tk libraries into Ruby. 

It's an important difference between Ruby/Tk and Perl/Tk. 
Because of controlling pure Tcl/Tk libraries, 
Ruby/Tk can use almost all of Tcl/Tk extentions.
Of course, before using a extention from Ruby, 
you must make your Tcl/Tk can use the extention. 

However, to control Tcl/Tk extentions conveniently, 
you will define classes and methods for the extentions. 
The 'tcltk-ext' library creates the base of definition automatically. 

> 3.  How can I use TkTree?  It looks like it's in the tcltk-ext
> package, but I'm not sure how to use this on Windows.  Or Linux for
> that matter.  Does this also require Tcl to be installed?

Do you say about TixTree?
If you want to use TixTree class, your Tcl/Tk must be able to use 
Tix extention. 

> 4.  pack doesn't accept a block, even though Programming Ruby implies
> that this is so.  I've written the following code to allow pack to
> accept a block.  It's hackish, so maybe someone more familiar with the
> Ruby/Tk internals can improve it:
    (snip)
> Then you can do things like
> 
> label.pack do
>     expand 1
>     fill "both"
> end
> 
> which is kind of useful to me.

Hmmm... Do you want the feature strongly?
Cannot a Hash parameter satisfy you? 
(e.g label.pack(:expand=>true, :fill=>'both') )
-- 
                                  Hidetoshi NAGAI (nagai@ai.kyutech.ac.jp)