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Tk_ConfigureWidget(3) Tk Library Procedures Tk_ConfigureWidget(3)
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NAME
Tk_ConfigureWidget, Tk_ConfigureInfo, Tk_ConfigureValue, Tk_FreeOptions
- process configuration options for widgets
SYNOPSIS
#include <tk.h>
int
Tk_ConfigureWidget(interp, tkwin, specs, argc, argv, widgRec, flags)
int
Tk_ConfigureInfo(interp, tkwin, specs, widgRec, argvName, flags)
int
Tk_ConfigureValue(interp, tkwin, specs, widgRec, argvName, flags)
Tk_FreeOptions(specs, widgRec, display, flags)
ARGUMENTS
Tcl_Interp *interp (in) Interpreter to use for returning error
messages.
Tk_Window tkwin (in) Window used to represent widget (needed to
set up X resources).
const Tk_ConfigSpec *specs (in)
Pointer to table specifying legal
configuration options for this widget.
int argc (in) Number of arguments in argv.
const char **argv (in) Command-line options for configuring
widget.
char *widgRec (in/out) Points to widget record structure. Fields
in this structure get modified by
Tk_ConfigureWidget to hold configuration
information.
int flags (in) If non-zero, then it specifies an OR-ed
combination of flags that control the
processing of configuration information.
TK_CONFIG_ARGV_ONLY causes the option
database and defaults to be ignored, and
flag bits TK_CONFIG_USER_BIT and higher are
used to selectively disable entries in
specs.
type name type (in) The name of the type of a widget record.
field name field (in) The name of a field in records of type
type.
const char *argvName (in) The name used on Tcl command lines to refer
to a particular option (e.g. when creating
a widget or invoking the configure widget
command). If non-NULL, then information is
returned only for this option. If NULL,
then information is returned for all
available options.
Display *display (in) Display containing widget whose record is
being freed; needed in order to free up
resources.
______________________________________________________________________________
DESCRIPTION
Note: Tk_ConfigureWidget should be replaced with the new Tcl_Obj based
API Tk_SetOptions. The old interface is retained for backward
compatibility.
Tk_ConfigureWidget is called to configure various aspects of a widget,
such as colors, fonts, border width, etc. It is intended as a
convenience procedure to reduce the amount of code that must be written
in individual widget managers to handle configuration information. It
is typically invoked when widgets are created, and again when the
configure command is invoked for a widget. Although intended primarily
for widgets, Tk_ConfigureWidget can be used in other situations where
argc-argv information is to be used to fill in a record structure, such
as configuring graphical elements for a canvas widget or entries of a
menu.
Tk_ConfigureWidget processes a table specifying the configuration
options that are supported (specs) and a collection of command-line
arguments (argc and argv) to fill in fields of a record (widgRec). It
uses the option database and defaults specified in specs to fill in
fields of widgRec that are not specified in argv. Tk_ConfigureWidget
normally returns the value TCL_OK; in this case it does not modify
interp. If an error occurs then TCL_ERROR is returned and
Tk_ConfigureWidget will leave an error message in interpreter interp's
result in the standard Tcl fashion. In the event of an error return,
some of the fields of widgRec could already have been set, if
configuration information for them was successfully processed before
the error occurred. The other fields will be set to reasonable initial
values so that Tk_FreeOptions can be called for cleanup.
The specs array specifies the kinds of configuration options expected
by the widget. Each of its entries specifies one configuration option
and has the following structure:
typedef struct {
int type;
const char *argvName;
const char *dbName;
const char *dbClass;
const char *defValue;
int offset;
int specFlags;
const Tk_CustomOption *customPtr;
} Tk_ConfigSpec;
The type field indicates what type of configuration option this is
(e.g. TK_CONFIG_COLOR for a color value, or TK_CONFIG_INT for an
integer value). The type field indicates how to use the value of the
option (more on this below). The argvName field is a string such as
"-font" or "-bg", which is compared with the values in argv (if
argvName is NULL it means this is a grouped entry; see GROUPED ENTRIES
below). The dbName and dbClass fields are used to look up a value for
this option in the option database. The defValue field specifies a
default value for this configuration option if no value is specified in
either argv or the option database. Offset indicates where in widgRec
to store information about this option, and specFlags contains
additional information to control the processing of this configuration
option (see FLAGS below). The last field, customPtr, is only used if
type is TK_CONFIG_CUSTOM; see CUSTOM OPTION TYPES below.
Tk_ConfigureWidget first processes argv to see which (if any)
configuration options are specified there. Argv must contain an even
number of fields; the first of each pair of fields must match the
argvName of some entry in specs (unique abbreviations are acceptable),
and the second field of the pair contains the value for that
configuration option. If there are entries in spec for which there
were no matching entries in argv, Tk_ConfigureWidget uses the dbName
and dbClass fields of the specs entry to probe the option database; if
a value is found, then it is used as the value for the option.
Finally, if no entry is found in the option database, the defValue
field of the specs entry is used as the value for the configuration
option. If the defValue is NULL, or if the TK_CONFIG_DONT_SET_DEFAULT
bit is set in flags, then there is no default value and this specs
entry will be ignored if no value is specified in argv or the option
database.
Once a string value has been determined for a configuration option,
Tk_ConfigureWidget translates the string value into a more useful form,
such as a color if type is TK_CONFIG_COLOR or an integer if type is
TK_CONFIG_INT. This value is then stored in the record pointed to by
widgRec. This record is assumed to contain information relevant to the
manager of the widget; its exact type is unknown to
Tk_ConfigureWidget. The offset field of each specs entry indicates
where in widgRec to store the information about this configuration
option. You should use the Tk_Offset macro to generate offset values
(see below for a description of Tk_Offset). The location indicated by
widgRec and offset will be referred to as the "target" in the
descriptions below.
The type field of each entry in specs determines what to do with the
string value of that configuration option. The legal values for type,
and the corresponding actions, are:
TK_CONFIG_ACTIVE_CURSOR
The value must be an ASCII string identifying a cursor in a form
suitable for passing to Tk_GetCursor. The value is converted to
a Tk_Cursor by calling Tk_GetCursor and the result is stored in
the target. In addition, the resulting cursor is made the
active cursor for tkwin by calling XDefineCursor. If
TK_CONFIG_NULL_OK is specified in specFlags then the value may
be an empty string, in which case the target and tkwin's active
cursor will be set to None. If the previous value of the target
was not None, then it is freed by passing it to Tk_FreeCursor.
TK_CONFIG_ANCHOR
The value must be an ASCII string identifying an anchor point in
one of the ways accepted by Tk_GetAnchor. The string is
converted to a Tk_Anchor by calling Tk_GetAnchor and the result
is stored in the target.
TK_CONFIG_BITMAP
The value must be an ASCII string identifying a bitmap in a form
suitable for passing to Tk_GetBitmap. The value is converted to
a Pixmap by calling Tk_GetBitmap and the result is stored in the
target. If TK_CONFIG_NULL_OK is specified in specFlags then the
value may be an empty string, in which case the target is set to
None. If the previous value of the target was not None, then it
is freed by passing it to Tk_FreeBitmap.
TK_CONFIG_BOOLEAN
The value must be an ASCII string specifying a boolean value.
Any of the values "true", "yes", "on", or "1", or an
abbreviation of one of these values, means true; any of the
values "false", "no", "off", or "0", or an abbreviation of one
of these values, means false. The target is expected to be an
integer; for true values it will be set to 1 and for false
values it will be set to 0.
TK_CONFIG_BORDER
The value must be an ASCII string identifying a border color in
a form suitable for passing to Tk_Get3DBorder. The value is
converted to a (Tk_3DBorder *) by calling Tk_Get3DBorder and the
result is stored in the target. If TK_CONFIG_NULL_OK is
specified in specFlags then the value may be an empty string, in
which case the target will be set to NULL. If the previous
value of the target was not NULL, then it is freed by passing it
to Tk_Free3DBorder.
TK_CONFIG_CAP_STYLE
The value must be an ASCII string identifying a cap style in one
of the ways accepted by Tk_GetCapStyle. The string is converted
to an integer value corresponding to the cap style by calling
Tk_GetCapStyle and the result is stored in the target.
TK_CONFIG_COLOR
The value must be an ASCII string identifying a color in a form
suitable for passing to Tk_GetColor. The value is converted to
an (XColor *) by calling Tk_GetColor and the result is stored in
the target. If TK_CONFIG_NULL_OK is specified in specFlags then
the value may be an empty string, in which case the target will
be set to None. If the previous value of the target was not
NULL, then it is freed by passing it to Tk_FreeColor.
TK_CONFIG_CURSOR
This option is identical to TK_CONFIG_ACTIVE_CURSOR except that
the new cursor is not made the active one for tkwin.
TK_CONFIG_CUSTOM
This option allows applications to define new option types. The
customPtr field of the entry points to a structure defining the
new option type. See the section CUSTOM OPTION TYPES below for
details.
TK_CONFIG_DOUBLE
The value must be an ASCII floating-point number in the format
accepted by strtol. The string is converted to a double value,
and the value is stored in the target.
TK_CONFIG_END
Marks the end of the table. The last entry in specs must have
this type; all of its other fields are ignored and it will
never match any arguments.
TK_CONFIG_FONT
The value must be an ASCII string identifying a font in a form
suitable for passing to Tk_GetFont. The value is converted to a
Tk_Font by calling Tk_GetFont and the result is stored in the
target. If TK_CONFIG_NULL_OK is specified in specFlags then the
value may be an empty string, in which case the target will be
set to NULL. If the previous value of the target was not NULL,
then it is freed by passing it to Tk_FreeFont.
TK_CONFIG_INT
The value must be an ASCII integer string in the format accepted
by strtol (e.g. "0" and "0x" prefixes may be used to specify
octal or hexadecimal numbers, respectively). The string is
converted to an integer value and the integer is stored in the
target.
TK_CONFIG_JOIN_STYLE
The value must be an ASCII string identifying a join style in
one of the ways accepted by Tk_GetJoinStyle. The string is
converted to an integer value corresponding to the join style by
calling Tk_GetJoinStyle and the result is stored in the target.
TK_CONFIG_JUSTIFY
The value must be an ASCII string identifying a justification
method in one of the ways accepted by Tk_GetJustify. The string
is converted to a Tk_Justify by calling Tk_GetJustify and the
result is stored in the target.
TK_CONFIG_MM
The value must specify a screen distance in one of the forms
acceptable to Tk_GetScreenMM. The string is converted to
double-precision floating-point distance in millimeters and the
value is stored in the target.
TK_CONFIG_PIXELS
The value must specify screen units in one of the forms
acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. The string is converted to an
integer distance in pixels and the value is stored in the
target.
TK_CONFIG_RELIEF
The value must be an ASCII string identifying a relief in a form
suitable for passing to Tk_GetRelief. The value is converted to
an integer relief value by calling Tk_GetRelief and the result
is stored in the target.
TK_CONFIG_STRING
A copy of the value is made by allocating memory space with
Tcl_Alloc and copying the value into the dynamically-allocated
space. A pointer to the new string is stored in the target. If
TK_CONFIG_NULL_OK is specified in specFlags then the value may
be an empty string, in which case the target will be set to
NULL. If the previous value of the target was not NULL, then it
is freed by passing it to Tcl_Free.
TK_CONFIG_SYNONYM
This type value identifies special entries in specs that are
synonyms for other entries. If an argv value matches the
argvName of a TK_CONFIG_SYNONYM entry, the entry is not used
directly. Instead, Tk_ConfigureWidget searches specs for another
entry whose argvName is the same as the dbName field in the
TK_CONFIG_SYNONYM entry; this new entry is used just as if its
argvName had matched the argv value. The synonym mechanism
allows multiple argv values to be used for a single
configuration option, such as "-background" and "-bg".
TK_CONFIG_UID
The value is translated to a Tk_Uid (by passing it to
Tk_GetUid). The resulting value is stored in the target. If
TK_CONFIG_NULL_OK is specified in specFlags and the value is an
empty string then the target will be set to NULL.
TK_CONFIG_WINDOW
The value must be a window path name. It is translated to a
Tk_Window token and the token is stored in the target.
GROUPED ENTRIES
In some cases it is useful to generate multiple resources from a single
configuration value. For example, a color name might be used both to
generate the background color for a widget (using TK_CONFIG_COLOR) and
to generate a 3-D border to draw around the widget (using
TK_CONFIG_BORDER). In cases like this it is possible to specify that
several consecutive entries in specs are to be treated as a group. The
first entry is used to determine a value (using its argvName, dbName,
dbClass, and defValue fields). The value will be processed several
times (one for each entry in the group), generating multiple different
resources and modifying multiple targets within widgRec. Each of the
entries after the first must have a NULL value in its argvName field;
this indicates that the entry is to be grouped with the entry that
precedes it. Only the type and offset fields are used from these
follow-on entries.
FLAGS
The flags argument passed to Tk_ConfigureWidget is used in conjunction
with the specFlags fields in the entries of specs to provide additional
control over the processing of configuration options. These values are
used in three different ways as described below.
First, if the flags argument to Tk_ConfigureWidget has the
TK_CONFIG_ARGV_ONLY bit set (i.e., flags | TK_CONFIG_ARGV_ONLY != 0),
then the option database and defValue fields are not used. In this
case, if an entry in specs does not match a field in argv then nothing
happens: the corresponding target is not modified. This feature is
useful when the goal is to modify certain configuration options while
leaving others in their current state, such as when a configure widget
command is being processed.
Second, the specFlags field of an entry in specs may be used to control
the processing of that entry. Each specFlags field may consists of an
OR-ed combination of the following values:
TK_CONFIG_COLOR_ONLY
If this bit is set then the entry will only be considered if the
display for tkwin has more than one bit plane. If the display
is monochromatic then this specs entry will be ignored.
TK_CONFIG_MONO_ONLY
If this bit is set then the entry will only be considered if the
display for tkwin has exactly one bit plane. If the display is
not monochromatic then this specs entry will be ignored.
TK_CONFIG_NULL_OK
This bit is only relevant for some types of entries (see the
descriptions of the various entry types above). If this bit is
set, it indicates that an empty string value for the field is
acceptable and if it occurs then the target should be set to
NULL or None, depending on the type of the target. This flag is
typically used to allow a feature to be turned off entirely,
e.g. set a cursor value to None so that a window simply inherits
its parent's cursor. If this bit is not set then empty strings
are processed as strings, which generally results in an error.
TK_CONFIG_DONT_SET_DEFAULT
If this bit is one, it means that the defValue field of the
entry should only be used for returning the default value in
Tk_ConfigureInfo. In calls to Tk_ConfigureWidget no default
will be supplied for entries with this flag set; it is assumed
that the caller has already supplied a default value in the
target location. This flag provides a performance optimization
where it is expensive to process the default string: the client
can compute the default once, save the value, and provide it
before calling Tk_ConfigureWidget.
TK_CONFIG_OPTION_SPECIFIED
This bit is deprecated. It used to be set and cleared by
Tk_ConfigureWidget so that callers could detect what entries
were specified in argv, but it was removed because it was
inherently thread-unsafe. Code that wishes to detect what
options were specified should use Tk_SetOptions instead.
The TK_CONFIG_MONO_ONLY and TK_CONFIG_COLOR_ONLY flags are typically
used to specify different default values for monochrome and color
displays. This is done by creating two entries in specs that are
identical except for their defValue and specFlags fields. One entry
should have the value TK_CONFIG_MONO_ONLY in its specFlags and the
default value for monochrome displays in its defValue; the other entry
should have the value TK_CONFIG_COLOR_ONLY in its specFlags and the
appropriate defValue for color displays.
Third, it is possible to use flags and specFlags together to
selectively disable some entries. This feature is not needed very
often. It is useful in cases where several similar kinds of widgets
are implemented in one place. It allows a single specs table to be
created with all the configuration options for all the widget types.
When processing a particular widget type, only entries relevant to that
type will be used. This effect is achieved by setting the high-order
bits (those in positions equal to or greater than TK_CONFIG_USER_BIT)
in specFlags values or in flags. In order for a particular entry in
specs to be used, its high-order bits must match exactly the high-order
bits of the flags value passed to Tk_ConfigureWidget. If a specs table
is being used for N different widget types, then N of the high-order
bits will be used. Each specs entry will have one of more of those
bits set in its specFlags field to indicate the widget types for which
this entry is valid. When calling Tk_ConfigureWidget, flags will have
a single one of these bits set to select the entries for the desired
widget type. For a working example of this feature, see the code in
tkButton.c.
TK_OFFSET
The Tk_Offset macro is provided as a safe way of generating the offset
values for entries in Tk_ConfigSpec structures. It takes two
arguments: the name of a type of record, and the name of a field in
that record. It returns the byte offset of the named field in records
of the given type.
TK_CONFIGUREINFO
The Tk_ConfigureInfo procedure may be used to obtain information about
one or all of the options for a given widget. Given a token for a
window (tkwin), a table describing the configuration options for a
class of widgets (specs), a pointer to a widget record containing the
current information for a widget (widgRec), and a NULL argvName
argument, Tk_ConfigureInfo generates a string describing all of the
configuration options for the window. The string is placed in
interpreter interp's result. Under normal circumstances it returns
TCL_OK; if an error occurs then it returns TCL_ERROR and the
interpreter's result will contain an error message.
If argvName is NULL, then the value left in the interpreter's result by
Tk_ConfigureInfo consists of a list of one or more entries, each of
which describes one configuration option (i.e. one entry in specs).
Each entry in the list will contain either two or five values. If the
corresponding entry in specs has type TK_CONFIG_SYNONYM, then the list
will contain two values: the argvName for the entry and the dbName
(synonym name). Otherwise the list will contain five values:
argvName, dbName, dbClass, defValue, and current value. The current
value is computed from the appropriate field of widgRec by calling
procedures like Tk_NameOfColor.
If the argvName argument to Tk_ConfigureInfo is non-NULL, then it
indicates a single option, and information is returned only for that
option. The string placed in the interpreter's result will be a list
containing two or five values as described above; this will be
identical to the corresponding sublist that would have been returned if
argvName had been NULL.
The flags argument to Tk_ConfigureInfo is used to restrict the specs
entries to consider, just as for Tk_ConfigureWidget.
TK_CONFIGUREVALUE
Tk_ConfigureValue takes arguments similar to Tk_ConfigureInfo; instead
of returning a list of values, it just returns the current value of the
option given by argvName (argvName must not be NULL). The value is
returned in interpreter interp's result and TCL_OK is normally returned
as the procedure's result. If an error occurs in Tk_ConfigureValue
(e.g., argvName is not a valid option name), TCL_ERROR is returned and
an error message is left in the interpreter's result. This procedure
is typically called to implement cget widget commands.
TK_FREEOPTIONS
The Tk_FreeOptions procedure may be invoked during widget cleanup to
release all of the resources associated with configuration options. It
scans through specs and for each entry corresponding to a resource that
must be explicitly freed (e.g. those with type TK_CONFIG_COLOR), it
frees the resource in the widget record. If the field in the widget
record does not refer to a resource (e.g. it contains a null pointer)
then no resource is freed for that entry. After freeing a resource,
Tk_FreeOptions sets the corresponding field of the widget record to
null.
CUSTOM OPTION TYPES
Applications can extend the built-in configuration types with
additional configuration types by writing procedures to parse and print
options of the a type and creating a structure pointing to those
procedures:
typedef struct Tk_CustomOption {
Tk_OptionParseProc *parseProc;
Tk_OptionPrintProc *printProc;
ClientData clientData;
} Tk_CustomOption;
typedef int Tk_OptionParseProc(
ClientData clientData,
Tcl_Interp *interp,
Tk_Window tkwin,
char *value,
char *widgRec,
int offset);
typedef const char *Tk_OptionPrintProc(
ClientData clientData,
Tk_Window tkwin,
char *widgRec,
int offset,
Tcl_FreeProc **freeProcPtr);
The Tk_CustomOption structure contains three fields, which are pointers
to the two procedures and a clientData value to be passed to those
procedures when they are invoked. The clientData value typically
points to a structure containing information that is needed by the
procedures when they are parsing and printing options.
The parseProc procedure is invoked by Tk_ConfigureWidget to parse a
string and store the resulting value in the widget record. The
clientData argument is a copy of the clientData field in the
Tk_CustomOption structure. The interp argument points to a Tcl
interpreter used for error reporting. Tkwin is a copy of the tkwin
argument to Tk_ConfigureWidget. The value argument is a string
describing the value for the option; it could have been specified
explicitly in the call to Tk_ConfigureWidget or it could come from the
option database or a default. Value will never be a null pointer but
it may point to an empty string. RecordPtr is the same as the widgRec
argument to Tk_ConfigureWidget; it points to the start of the widget
record to modify. The last argument, offset, gives the offset in bytes
from the start of the widget record to the location where the option
value is to be placed. The procedure should translate the string to
whatever form is appropriate for the option and store the value in the
widget record. It should normally return TCL_OK, but if an error
occurs in translating the string to a value then it should return
TCL_ERROR and store an error message in interpreter interp's result.
The printProc procedure is called by Tk_ConfigureInfo to produce a
string value describing an existing option. Its clientData, tkwin,
widgRec, and offset arguments all have the same meaning as for
Tk_OptionParseProc procedures. The printProc procedure should examine
the option whose value is stored at offset in widgRec, produce a string
describing that option, and return a pointer to the string. If the
string is stored in dynamically-allocated memory, then the procedure
must set *freeProcPtr to the address of a procedure to call to free the
string's memory; Tk_ConfigureInfo will call this procedure when it is
finished with the string. If the result string is stored in static
memory then printProc need not do anything with the freeProcPtr
argument.
Once parseProc and printProc have been defined and a Tk_CustomOption
structure has been created for them, options of this new type may be
manipulated with Tk_ConfigSpec entries whose type fields are
TK_CONFIG_CUSTOM and whose customPtr fields point to the
Tk_CustomOption structure.
EXAMPLES
Although the explanation of Tk_ConfigureWidget is fairly complicated,
its actual use is pretty straightforward. The easiest way to get
started is to copy the code from an existing widget. The library
implementation of frames (tkFrame.c) has a simple configuration table,
and the library implementation of buttons (tkButton.c) has a much more
complex table that uses many of the fancy specFlags mechanisms.
SEE ALSO
Tk_SetOptions(3)
KEYWORDS
anchor, bitmap, boolean, border, cap style, color, configuration
options, cursor, custom, double, font, integer, join style, justify,
millimeters, pixels, relief, synonym, uid
Tk 4.1 Tk_ConfigureWidget(3)