Ruby and Tk:- Menu's calling other widgets

What’s the best (and simplest) method of having a menu item produce
another widget (a menu for example)? So far I have code as shown below
which calls a simple button. I’d like to use the proc{foo} method so
that I can call another file. The idea is to have each type of widget
organised into many smaller files.

It the proc{require ‘another_widget’} way possible or recommended?

here’s a menu entry that calls another widget…

[['Blah', 0],
    ['command', proc {
      toplevelwindow = TkToplevel.new(root) {
        title "New window"
        #geometry("50x50+100+100")
        #configure('bg'=>"black")
      }

     toplevelbutton = TkButton.new(toplevelwindow) {
       text "Close"
       command proc { toplevelwindow.destroy }
     }.place('x'=>10, 'y'=>10)
   }],
   ],
[['Blah', 0],
    ['command', proc {
      toplevelwindow = TkToplevel.new(root) {
        title "New window"
        #geometry("50x50+100+100")
        #configure('bg'=>"black")
      }

     toplevelbutton = TkButton.new(toplevelwindow) {
       text "Close"
       command proc { toplevelwindow.destroy }
     }.place('x'=>10, 'y'=>10)
   }],
   ],

An example is in the ruby source distribution:
ruby-1.8.4/ext/tk/sample/demos-en/widget

best regards,
Gerald

If you only want buttons you might try:

require ‘tk’
#= windowmaker - create button array, each pops a window
#global $button[] holds buttons defined by this method
#parm root the frame which is to hold the button
#parm b_text the button text; also becomes toplevel title
#parm t_place String, “0x0+100+200”, toplevel window size, place
#parm init_color String, “#000000”, 2 hex digits for red, green, blue

def windowmaker(root,b_text,t_place,init_color="#000000")
toplevelwindow = -1
b = TkButton.new(root,
‘text’=>b_text,
‘command’=> proc {
toplevelwindow = TkToplevel.new(root, {
‘title’=> “#{b.text}”,
‘geometry’=>t_place,
‘bg’=>init_color
})
}
).pack(‘expand’=>‘yes’,‘fill’=>‘x’)
$buttons.push [b,toplevelwindow]
end

r = TkRoot.new
f = TkFrame.new®
$buttons = [] # each entry holds [button,toplevel]
windowmaker(f,“red”,“100x100”,"#ff0000")
windowmaker(f,“white”,“200x200”,"#ffffff")
windowmaker(f,“blue”,“300x300”,"#0000ff")
windowmaker(f,“0x400+100+100”,“dummy”) # re-configured:

show reconfiguration of the last button

$buttons[-1][0].configure(‘command’=>proc{r.destroy;
exit},‘text’=>“Quit”)
f.pack
Tk.mainloop

Thank you Chaps,

I’ve managed to get it going with proc{load ‘fo.rb’}. I know that it
may be “bad practice” but I’d like to cut my teeth into a certain
project.

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 11:16:34 +0900 Hidetoshi NAGAI

From: John M. [email protected]
Subject: ruby and Tk:- Menu’s calling other widgets
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 03:13:34 +0900
Message-ID: [email protected]

that I can call another file. The idea is to have each type of widget
organised into many smaller files.

It the proc{require ‘another_widget’} way possible or recommended?

It must be possible, but I don’t recommend it.
If your each type of widget is a class,
‘autoload’ may be a good solution.
Please see some libraries in ‘/tkextlib/’ directory
(e.g. ‘tkextlib/iwidgets.rb’ and files in ‘textlib/iwidgets/’).