two_mdi(n) manual page

two_mdi - Multiple document interface widget

Synopsis

package require twoMdi ?1.0?
two_mdi pathName ?options?

two_mdi is an implementation of the MDI widget known from Windows. An MDI is like a windowmanager in another window: you can open an arbitrary number of slave windows, move, resize, maximize and minimize them, and sure enough close them. There are window menus and a root menu.

Creating a new two_mdi gives you a master widget which serves as a container for slave widgets. Handling of slave windows is a bit weird with MDI. It doesn't work like a TK geometry manager, and this the slave widgets are no direct children of the master widget. There is a mdi command to create new slaves, which will return the path to the frame.

MIDs are not really the UNIX (Motif?) way of handling more than one document with one instance of an application. The most obvious disadvantage is the loss of freedom (you can't place slaves independant from the master). Yet there might be reasons to use this: you might want to run the Tcl/Tk application on Windows, or the average user might be used to MDIs from their windows applications and thus accept them even on UNIX, or you just like them fore any reason.

Commands

The two_mdi widget command takes the following commands (as the first argument):

pathName addSlave ?slaveoptions?

Add a slave widget. Returns path of the new slave widget (a frame widget). Destroying this widget will clean up things, but won't call the closecmd. Better use master delete slave.

pathName new ?slaveoptions?

Just an alias for addSlave.

pathName slaves

Returns a list of all slave widgets' pathnames.

pathName entryconfigure slavePathName ?options?

Configures options for the slave widget slavePathName.

pathName entrycget slavePathName ?option?

Returns configuration setting of option from slave widget slavePathName.

pathName active

Returns path to currently active child (or an empty string).

pathName tile

Tile the slave widgets (fill all space of the master with all slaves).

pathName cascade

Cascade the slave widgets (stack them with some displacement).

pathName show slavePathName

Show slave widget slavePathName, i.e. raise it, maybe restore from minimized state, and set the focus.

pathName delete slavePathName

Delete slave widget denoted by slavePathName.

pathName maximize

Maximize all slave widgets.

pathName minimize ?slavePathName...?

Minimize all given slave widgets slavePathName. If no slaves are given: minimize all.

pathName restore ?slavePathName...?

Restore the original size of all maximized or minimized widgets from the given list of slave widgets slavePathName. If no slaves are given: restore all.

Slave Options

You can apply the following options to the addSlave, entryconfigure and entrycget commands:

-title string

Set title of slave widget.

-closecmd command

Invoke this command when slave widget is to be deleted. The actual command will be command slave , i.e. the name of the current slave will be appended. The widget will only be destroyed if this command returns TRUE (or no command is given).

Options

The two_mdi command takes all options of the TK frame widget plus to following options:

-slavebg color

Background color of slave window.

-slavebd color

Border width of slave window's frame.

-font font

Font of title of slave window.

-titlebg color

Background color of an inactive slave's title.

-titlefg color

Foreground color of an inactive slave's title.

-activebg color

Background color of an active title.

-activefg color

Foreground color of an active title.

-xscrollcommand command

Specifies the command to be called on x-scroll. Should almost always be something like .xscrollbar set.

-yscrollcommand command

Specifies the command to be called on y-scroll. Should almost always be something like .yscrollbar set.

-arrangeicons TCL_BOOLEAN

If set to 1, then resizing the master and minimizing/restoring the slaves will lead to a recalculation of all icon positions. Defaults to 1.

-style style

Set the style of the MDI: unix for a more UNIX (KDE) like look or windows for a look like on windows.

Virtual Events

The two_mdi master widget may generate the following virtual event:

<<ActiveOn>> and <<ActiveOff>>

There is an active slave (On) oder not (Off). This event is triggered as well whenever the focus is set to another slave.

The TwoMdiSlave slave widgets may generate the following virtual event:

<<Closeing>>

when they are destroyed.

Elements

A two_mdi widget is built up with a rather complex widget hierarchy. The master widget is a frame (class: TwoMdiMaster). Its children are the two popup menus (root menu and window/icon menu).

The slave widgets' hierarchy starts with a frame widget serving as border (class: TwoMdi). This contains another frame widget (class again TwoMdi) which provides the space (by padding) for further content. This frame contains another three frames for title (class: TwoMdiTitle), spaceing (class once more TwoMdi) and the slave container returned to the user (class TwoMdiSlave).

The title bar of the slaves is built with two labels (the window icon and the title text) and three buttons (minimize/restor, maximize/restore and close).

Author

Frank J. Leitner
frank@fjl.de