jmore.tcl
The
jmore.tcl library provides procedures for displaying (potentially long)
text, such as the contents of a file or the output of a command.
(For short notices,
j:alert from the
jalert.tcl library may be more appropriate.)
The
jmore.tcl library is distributed as part of the
jstools package.
This document describes
jmore.tcl version 4.1/4.4.
Accessing the Library
In order to use the
jmore.tcl library, it (and any other libraries it depends on) must be
in your Tcl
auto_path, described in
tclvars(n). Information about how to arrange that, and other conventions
common to
the
jstools libraries, is in
the
Usage section of
The jstools Libraries.
Author
Jay Sekora
js@aq.org
http://www.aq.org/~js/
Thanks
The code to scroll up and down a page at a time under Tk3.6 is
based on code by Paul Raines
<raines@bohr.physics.upenn.edu>.
Copyright
The library is copyright © 1992-1995 by Jay Sekora, but may be
freely redistributed under the conditions at the top of the file.
Procedures
j:more - display text in window
j:more:pagedown - scroll
j:more window down
j:more:pageup - scroll
j:more window up
j:more:print - prompt to print the content of a
j:more window
j:more:save - prompt to save the content of a
j:more window
Usage
j:more
[options]
Options
-title
title
(localisable, default
{})
-text
text
(default
{} - not really optional)
-annotation
annotation
(default
{})
-height
h
(default
24)
-width
w
(default
80)
-wrap
wrap
(default `char')
-font
font
(default `default')
-class
class
(default `More')
Example
set helpFile [open "help.doc"]
j:more -title "Application Help" -text [read $helpFile]
close $helpFile
Description
This procedure creates a new nonmodal toplevel window with a
text widget containing
text, a scrollbar, and a set of buttons. The toplevel will have
the title
title, and the window class
class, which can be used for specifying X resources or windowmanager
behaviour. The text widget will be
h lines tall and
w characters wide, and its contents will be displayed in the
font
font. (If font is `default', then the X Windows default font for the
j:more text widget will be used.) Its lines will be wrapped according
to
wrap, which can be
line,
char, or
none.
If
annotation is specified (and is nonnull), it is annotation (tags and
marks) to be applied to
text, in the format implemented by the
jtexttags.tcl library and created by
jedit's
richtext mode, and it will be displayed with appropriate formatting. (Note
that you may want
wrap to be
word in this case.)
The text widget will be disabled, so the user can't alter its
contents. (Unfortunately, this also means that an insertion
point won't be displayed, which can make navigating and using
the Find panel a little confusing.)
Pressing
Space,
Next or
PageDown, or
Control-v will scroll the text down, and pressing
b,
Prior or
PageUp, or
Escape-v will scroll the text up.
Four buttons will appear at the bottom of the window, labelled
`Find...', `Print', `Save', and `Close'.
Close
`Close' is the default button (i.e.,
Return will invoke it), and it destroys the window.
Save
`Save' lets the user save the contents of the window into a file.
Print
`Print' displays a confirmation panel, and, if the user clicks
OK, prints the contents of the
j:more window to the printer named by the global variable
J_PREFS(printer) (or
lp if
J_PREFS(printer) is not set), using the
lpr command.
Find...
`Find...' brings up a Find panel that lets you search for a string
in the text.
The
j:more procedure returns the pathname of the text widget, in case
the caller wants to further configure it or manipulate its contents.
The
text argument is not looked up in the naturallanguage database;
if you want to localise
text, you must do so explicitly.
Usage
j:more:pagedown
t
This procedure scrolls the
j:more text widget
t down one windowful. It's used internally by the
j:more procedure and isn't likely to be otherwise useful. It's
based on code by Paul Raines
<raines@bohr.physics.upenn.edu>.
Usage
j:more:pagedown
t
Description
This procedure scrolls the
j:more text widget
t up one windowful. It's used internally by the
j:more procedure and isn't likely to be otherwise useful. It's
based on code by Paul Raines
<raines@bohr.physics.upenn.edu>.
Usage
j:more:print
t
Description
This procedure lets the user print the contents of a
j:more panel. It always asks for confirmation before printing,
and uses the printer specified by the global variable
J_PREFS(printer), or
lp if
J_PREFS(printer) is not specified. It's used internally by the
j:more procedure and isn't likely to be otherwise useful.
Usage:
j:more:save
t
Description
This procedure prompts the user for a filename and saves the contents
of the
j:more text widget t to the specified file. It's used internally
by the
j:more procedure and isn't likely to be otherwise useful.
Bugs and Limitations
* Handling of the focus is clumsy; because I wanted the
j:more window to be able to to take the focus (so you can use the
Next and
Prior keys and hit
Return to close the window), but I didn't want it to be modal.
This should be much smoother when I'm writing for Tk 4.0.
* Using the Find Panel is clumsy under Tk 3, because the insert
point isn't visible.
Future Directions
* There should be a way to specify which buttons you want on a
j:more panel, and to add applicationspecific buttons.
* There should be independent global preferences for the size,
font, and colour of
j:more text widgets.
* Interaction with the find panel should be made more intuitive.
* There needs to be error checking in
j:more:print and
j:more:save.