Title

jmore.tcl

Introduction

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 4.0/4.0.

Usage

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.

Credits and Copyright

Author

Jay Sekora

js@calumet.org

http://shore.net/~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.

Overview

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

j:more

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 `Done'.

Done

`Done' 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.

j:more:pagedown

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>.

j:more:pageup

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>.

j:more:print

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.

j:more:save

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.