| Csaba Nemethi 2004-10-26, 3:59 pm |
| I am pleased to announce Version 3.6 of the multi-column listbox
package Tablelist.
What is new in Tablelist 3.6?
-----------------------------
1. Support for embedded windows, with the aid of the new cell
configuration option "-window" (thanks to Wolf Grossi, Glenn
Herteg, Takeshi Sakamoto, and Keesang Song for proposing this
option).
2. New demo script "embeddedWindows.tcl" illustrating the use of
embedded windows in tablelist widgets; this is discussed in a new
section of the tutorial "tablelist.html".
3. Significantly improved and optimized the handling of embedded
images.
4. Simplified the support for user-defined binding scripts with the
aid of the new commands "tablelist::getTablelistPath" and
"tablelist::convEventFields", as well as of a new binding tag whose
name is returned by the new "bodytag" subcommand (which is now used
in the demo script "browse.tcl").
5. Support for the new virtual events <<TablelistRowMoved>>,
<<TablelistColumnMoved>>, <<TablelistColumnSorted>> and
<<TablelistCellUpdated>> (thanks to John Vidolich for his
proposal). In addition, the new virtual event <<TablelistSelect>>
can now be used instead of <<ListboxSelect>> (which is supported
for compatibility reasons).
6. New subcommand "itemlistvar", for accessing the tablelist widget's
internal list (thanks to Patrick Fradin for his valuable input).
7. Fixed a bug related to the "-listvariable" option, introduced in
the previous Tablelist release (thanks to Torsten Reincke for his
bug report).
8. Fixed two bugs related to the "cellselection" subcommand (thanks to
John Vidolich for his bug report).
9. Fixed a few typos and minor bugs in the default binding scripts
(thanks to Patrick Fradin, Tore Morkemo, and Torsten Reincke for
their bug reports).
10. Numerous further improvements and minor bug fixes.
What is Tablelist?
------------------
Tablelist is a library package for Tcl/Tk version 8.0 or higher,
written in pure Tcl/Tk code. It contains:
- the implementation of the "tablelist" mega-widget, including a
general utility module for mega-widgets;
- a demo script containing a useful procedure that displays the
configuration options of an arbitrary widget in a tablelist and
enables you to edit their values interactively;
- a second demo script, implementing a simple widget browser based on
a tablelist;
- a third demo script, showing several ways to improve the appearance
of a tablelist widget;
- three further demo scripts, illustrating the interactive cell
editing with the aid of various widgets from the Tk core and from
the packages BWidget, Iwidgets, combobox (by Bryan Oakley), and
Mentry;
- one further demo script, with a tablelist widget containing
embedded windows;
- a tutorial in HTML format;
- reference pages in HTML format.
A tablelist widget is a multi-column listbox. The width of each column
can be dynamic (i.e., just large enough to hold all its elements,
including the header) or static (specified in characters or pixels).
The columns are, per default, resizable. The alignment of each column
can be specified as "left", "right", or "center".
The columns, rows, and cells can be configured individually. Several
of the global and column-specific options refer to the headers,
implemented as label widgets. For instance, the "-labelcommand" option
specifies a Tcl command to be invoked when mouse button 1 is released
over a label. The most common value of this option is
"tablelist::sortByColumn", which sorts the items based on the
respective column.
Interactive editing of the elements of a tablelist widget can be
enabled for individual cells and for entire columns. A great variety
of widgets from the Tk core and from the packages BWidget, Iwidgets,
combobox, and Mentry is supported for being used as embedded edit
window. In addition, a rich set of keyboard bindings is provided for a
comfortable navigation between the editable cells.
The Tcl command corresponding to a tablelist widget is very similar to
the one associated with a normal listbox. There are column-, row-, and
cell-specific counterparts of the "configure" and "cget" subcommands
("columnconfigure", "rowconfigure", "cellconfigure", ...). They can be
used, among others, to insert images into the cells and the header
labels, or to insert embedded windows into the cells. The "index",
"nearest", and "see" command options refer to the rows, but similar
subcommands are provided for the columns and cells ("columnindex",
"cellindex", ...). The items can be sorted with the "sort" and
"sortbycolumn" command options.
The bindings defined for the body of a tablelist widget make it behave
just like a normal listbox. This includes the support for the virtual
event <<ListboxSelect>> (which is equivalent to <<TablelistSelect>> ).
In addition, version 2.3 or higher of the widget callback package Wcb
(written in pure Tcl/Tk code as well) can be used to define callbacks
for the "activate", "selection set", and "selection clear" commands,
and Wcb version 3.0 or higher also supports callbacks for the
"activatecell", "cellselection set", and "cellselection clear"
commands. The download location of Wcb is
http://www.nemethi.de
How to get it?
--------------
Tablelist is available for free download from the same URL as Wcb. The
distribution file is "tablelist3.6.tar.gz" for UNIX and
"tablelist3_6.zip" for Windows. These files contain the same
information, except for the additional carriage return character
preceding the linefeed at the end of each line in the text files for
Windows.
How to install it?
------------------
Install the package as a subdirectory of one of the directories given
by the "auto_path" variable. For example, you can install it as a
directory at the same level as the Tcl and Tk script libraries. The
locations of these library directories are given by the "tcl_library"
and "tk_library" variables, respectively.
To install Tablelist on UNIX, "cd" to the desired directory and unpack
the distribution file "tablelist3.6.tar.gz":
gunzip -c tablelist3.6.tar.gz | tar -xf -
This command will create a directory named "tablelist3.6", with the
subdirectories "demos", "doc", "images", and "scripts".
On Windows, use WinZip or some other program capable of unpacking the
distribution file "tablelist3_6.zip" into the directory "tablelist3.6",
with the subdirectories "demos", "doc", "images", and "scripts".
Note that the directory "images" and the file "tablelistEdit.tcl" in
the "scripts" directory are only needed for applications making use of
interactive cell editing. Similarly, the file "tablelistMove.tcl" in
the same directory is only needed for applications invoking the "move"
or "movecolumn" tablelist command.
Next, you should check the exact version number of your Tcl/Tk
distribution, given by the "tcl_patchLevel" and "tk_patchLevel"
variables. If you are using Tcl/Tk version 8.2.X, 8.3.0 - 8.3.2, or
8.4a1, then you should proceed as described in the "How to install it?"
section of the file "tablelist.html", located in the "doc" directory.
How to use it?
--------------
To be able to use the commands and variables implemented in the package
Tablelist, your scripts must contain one of the lines
package require Tablelist
package require tablelist
Since the package Tablelist is implemented in its own namespace called
"tablelist", you must either import the procedures you need, or use
qualified names like "tablelist::tablelist".
For a detailed description of the commands and variables provided by
Tablelist and of the examples contained in the "demos" directory, see
the tutorial "tablelist.html" and the reference pages, all located in
the "doc" directory.
--
Csaba Nemethi http://www.nemethi.de mailto:csaba.nemethi@t-online.de
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