Re: [Tcllib-devel] TBWidget Branch (please help on cvs organisation)

[Damon C. <da...@tc...>]

On Aug 7, 2009, at 12:59 PM, Jeff Hobbs wrote:

> On 07/08/2009 9:06 AM, Damon Courtney wrote:
>> What does tklib/widget currently support that is basically ripped  
>> from
>> BWidget?  What widgets from BWidget are actually worth saving?
>
> One thing lacking in tklib/widget is docs for most of the widgets, but
> let me expound a bit on that here and answer the above.  Note that
> tklib/widget uses Ttk where ever possible.
>
> Existing widgets in tklib/widget:
>
> * widget::dialog
>   A dialog shell, with auto-timeout and other features.  Similar to
> BWidget Dialog but with more features
> * widget::menuentry
>   Extends ttk::entry with a drop-down menu icon (e.g. for a search  
> box)
> * widget::calendar & dateentry
>   calendar is a nice little month widget for selecting dates, and
> dateentry extends ttk::entry to make a date-selection entry widget.
> * widget::panelframe & superframe
>   Extended frame styles that wrap up and extend the ones in BWidget.
> * widget::ruler & screenruler
>   Cute little ruler, as widget or special purpose toplevel
> * widget::scrolledwindow & scrolledtext
>   Improvement on BWidget scrolledwindow, and scrolledtext which is  
> more
> of an example widget that extends it
> * widget::statusbar & toolbar
>   Based on BWidget statusbar to start, these became a bit different.
> They could and should be rationalized to the same API, but I let
> statusbar and toolbar diverge a bit as I was playing with APIs that
> "felt right" in actual use.

 From what I have seen, most of the widgets in tklib/widget that  
replace a BWidget counterpart are far superior to the original.  Also,  
because they do use TTK wherever possible, they tend to have a more  
native feel.

> Note that I don't use any DnD stuff, and BWidget's dynamic help is
> inferior (IMO) to tklib/tooltip, so many widgets are pointless when  
> you
> take those "features" away.

The DnD stuff should be more generic to all Tk Widgets and should use  
a command (like tklib/tooltip) instead of embedding an option on every  
single widget to handle drag-and-drop.  A simple DnD package could be  
written that would just drop into any app and allow drag-and-drop  
between widgets in the app.

>     Button 	Deprecated by core

I always wanted a button that was a little more complete.   
Specifically, rather than a separate menubutton widget, why not a - 
menu option on the button?  Then you could have a -command option that  
says, "if the user clicks the button, do this" with a menu arrow on  
the right that could be clicked to drop down the menu (a la back  
buttons on most browsers).

>     LabelEntry 	bad UI
>     ComboBox 	Deprecated by core
>     SpinBox 	Deprecated by core
>     Tree 	Deprecated by core
>     ListBox 	prefer treectrl
>     MessageDlg 	tk_messageBox anyone?
>     ProgressDlg 	Use widget::toolbar with a ttk::progressbar
>     PasswdDlg 	meh
>     SelectFont 	not bad, but I always had to modify some bits
>     SelectColor 	should port this one

The only comment I would make here is that I think the ListBox and  
Tree widget are extremely useful, and the biggest thing that makes  
them so useful is their API.  Treectrl is immensely powerful but a  
real bitch to use if you just want to slap together a quick listbox  
with some icons.  On the other side of that coin, ttk::treeview is  
woefully inadequate for most jobs.

I would rather see a listbox and tree widget both built upon treectrl  
that simply wrap treectrl into the same APi that BWidget already  
uses.  The BWidget API for trees and listboxes is consistent and easy  
to grasp with just a quick look of the docs.  The same cannot be said  
of treectrl.

This would, of course, create a dependency on treectrl for any  
toolkit.  I don't know how anyone else feels about that, but I  
personally think treectrl should be a part of the core anyway.  I'm  
willing to require it as a dependency because I think you're silly to  
try and make any modern UI without it these days.  I just want it to  
be wrapped for when I just want to slap a little listbox in there.

D