# Theming Tk with tile **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [March 10, 2007, 1:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/theming-tk-with-tile/88363 "2007-03-10T01:31:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sy\_Ali](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/54ee81/32.png) [@Sy\_Ali](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Sy_Ali)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 1:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/theming-tk-with-tile/88363/1 "2007-03-10T01:31:36Z")
I have a dream: My own GUI applications looking like other applications. I went hunting around for theming for Tk, and bumped into Tile[1]. Tk being legendarily ugly, tile represents a great new hope that with tile it could be elevated to being barely adequate. I saw a reference that it was available in Ruby’s CVS from sometime in 2005, suggesting that there is support in the more recent versions of Ruby. I did some hunting, but I couldn’t find any references to how to get it going. Patching together some mailing list references, I think this is how I could do it: $ irb require ‘tk’ require ‘tkextlib/tile’ Tk::Tile. **Import\_Tile\_Widgets** The tile require fails since it’s not there. Presumably it’s not included with ruby or ruby-tk with my distribution. That’s expected. I see that there isn’t a gem for tile, or my guess at “gem install tile” isn’t right. I see that I could download tile [2] and built it from source, but somehow I doubt this would solve my require problem. I googled, and I searched the mailing lists, but I can’t find any concrete examples of installing or using tile (outside of home renovations), and I could use a bit of help… I would also accept answers of “go use toolkit x instead”, but I already intend to do that if I can’t get this going. Also, is tile something I’d have to package with my program or have a person install with my distributed software? How would that work? [1] tile tk theming [Tile: an improved themeing engine for Tk](http://tktable.sourceforge.net/tile/) [2] tile download [Download tile-0.7.8.tar.gz (TkTable / Tile / Vu)](http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=11464&use_mirror=internap&filename=tile-0.7.8.tar.gz&22159438) ---
**Author:** ![Sy\_Ali](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/54ee81/32.png) [@Sy\_Ali](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Sy_Ali)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2007, 3:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/theming-tk-with-tile/88363/2 "2007-03-11T15:40:52Z")
From: “Sy Ali” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) Subject: Theming Tk with tile Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2007 09:31:03 +0900 Message-ID: [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > I see that I could download tile [2] and built it from source, but > somehow I doubt this would solve my require problem. If your Tcl/Tk can load the tile libraries which you installed, Ruby/Tk will load them also. Please try to run “/tkextlib/pkg\_checker.rb”. When its output includes the line “Ready : tile.rb : require-\>{“tile”=\>“0.7.8”}”, your Ruby/Tk is ready for Tile extension. If not, probably it will be a kind of search path problem. If you feel a little difficult, please try to use the ActiveTcl binary package. ---
**Author:** ![Sy\_Ali](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/54ee81/32.png) [@Sy\_Ali](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Sy_Ali)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2007, 4:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/theming-tk-with-tile/88363/3 "2007-03-11T16:16:56Z")
On 3/11/07, Hidetoshi NAGAI [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Please try to run “/tkextlib/pkg\_checker.rb”. > When its output includes the line > “Ready : tile.rb : require-\>{“tile”=\>“0.7.8”}”, > your Ruby/Tk is ready for Tile extension. > If not, probably it will be a kind of search path problem. I think you’re right. pkg\_checker.rb gave me errors [1] I downloaded activetcl, and did ln -s /opt/ActiveTcl-8.4/lib/tcl8.4/ /usr/lib/ so that my pkg\_checker.rb could see its libraries. Now pkg\_checker runs, but gives me: \*LACK : tile.rb : require-\>{} FAIL-\>[[“tile”, :package]] Which is normal since I didn’t install tile yet. =) But, configuring tile gives me an error about “configuration definitions” [2] … where do I find these? Maybe something is wrong because I’m using a ruby-tk package from my distribution (pclinuxos 2007-test3). Isn’t there a gem for tile? =) –+ [1] errors with pkg\_checker: $ /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/tkextlib/pkg\_checker.rb /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/tk.rb:1102:in `initialize’: Can’t find a usable init.tcl in the following directories: (RuntimeError) /usr/lib/tcl8.4 /usr/lib/tcl8.4 /lib/tcl8.4 /usr/library /library /tcl8.4.13/library /usr/lib/tcl8.4 This probably means that Tcl wasn’t installed properly. from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/tk.rb:1102:in `new' from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/tk.rb:1102 from ./pkg_checker.rb:7:in `require’ from ./pkg\_checker.rb:7 –+ [2] configuring tile gives an error about “configuration definitions” $ ./configure --with-tcl=/opt/ActiveTcl-8.4/lib/ checking for correct TEA configuration… ok (TEA 3.5) checking for Tcl configuration… found /opt/ActiveTcl-8.4/lib/tclConfig.sh checking for existence of /opt/ActiveTcl-8.4/lib/tclConfig.sh… loading checking for Tk configuration… configure: WARNING: Can’t find Tk configuration definitions ---
**Author:** ![Sy\_Ali](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/54ee81/32.png) [@Sy\_Ali](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Sy_Ali)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2007, 4:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/theming-tk-with-tile/88363/4 "2007-03-11T16:30:57Z")
From: “Sy Ali” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) Subject: Re: Theming Tk with tile Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 00:16:14 +0900 Message-ID: [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > I downloaded activetcl, and did ln -s /opt/ActiveTcl-8.4/lib/tcl8.4/ > /usr/lib/ so that my pkg\_checker.rb could see its libraries. Now Then, possibly, your Ruby/Tk will expect that all Tcl/Tk extensions exist on /usr/lib. So, > pkg\_checker runs, but gives me: > > \*LACK : tile.rb : require-\>{} FAIL-\>[[“tile”, :package]] your Ruby/Tk cannot find Tile libraries. > Which is normal since I didn’t install tile yet. =) > > But, configuring tile gives me an error about “configuration > definitions” [2] … where do I find these? Please add “–with-tk=/opt/ActiveTcl-8.4/lib” option. However, if you already have tcltklib.so for Tcl/Tk8.4, please try to define “LD\_LIBRARY\_PATH=/opt/ActiveTcl-8.4/lib” env value. Then, probably, your Ruby/Tk will use ActiveTcl libraries.