NAME
tixBalloon - Create and manipulate tixBalloon widgets
SYNOPSIS
tixBalloon pathName ?options?
SUPER-CLASS
The tixBalloon class is derived from the TixShell class and inherits
all the commands, options and subwidgets of its super-class.
STANDARD OPTIONS
The Balloon widget supports all the standard options of a frame widget.
See the options(n) manual entry for details on the standard options.
WIDGET-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
In milliseconds. Specifies how long the balloon should wait before
popping up in a widget. Specifies the which help message to display
when the mouse pointer enters a widget associated with this balloon.
Valid options are both: display both the balloon message and the status
bar message, balloon: display only the balloon message, status: display
only the status bar message and none: display no messages. Specifies
the widget to use as the status bar of this balloon. This widget must
have a "-text" option. Usually a label widget is used.
SUBWIDGETS
Name: label
Class: Label
The label widget that shows the little arrow bitmap in the pop-
up balloon window.
Name: message
Class: Label
The message widget that shows the descriptive message in the the
pop-up balloon window.
DESCRIPTION
The tixBalloon command creates a new window (given by the pathName
argument) and makes it into a Balloon widget. Additional options,
described above, may be specified on the command line or in the option
database to configure aspects of the Balloon widget such as its cursor
and relief.
The Balloon widget can be used to show popped-up messages that describe
the functions of the widgets in an application. A Balloon widget can be
bound to a number of widgets. When the user moves the cursor inside a
widget to which a Balloon widget has been bound, a small pop-up window
with a descriptive message will be shown on the screen.
WIDGET COMMANDS
The tixBalloon command creates a new Tcl command whose name is the same
as the path name of the Balloon widget’s window. This command may be
used to invoke various operations on the widget. It has the following
general form:
pathName option ?arg arg ...?
PathName is the name of the command, which is the same as the Balloon
widget’s path name. Option and the args determine the exact behavior of
the command. The following commands are possible for Balloon widgets:
pathName bind widget ?option value ... ?
Binds the Balloon widget to the widget. The messages to be shown
can be passed as extra arguments to this command in option value
pairs. Possible options: -balloonmsg specifies the string to
show on the pop-up balloon window; -statusmsg specifies the
string to show on the status bar; -msg specifies a string to
show on both the balloon window and the stats bar window. When
used together, the -msg option has a lower precedence than the
-balloonmsg and -statusmsg options.
The bind command can also be used to change the messages after
the initial bindings were set. Example:
button .b
tixBalloon .bal
# Add balloon binding
.bal bind .b -msg "This is a button"
...
# Change the balloon binding
.bal bind .b -msg "This is a useful button"
pathName cget option
Returns the current value of the configuration option given by
option. Option may have any of the values accepted by the
tixBalloon command.
pathName configure ?option? ?value option value ...?
Query or modify the configuration options of the widget. If no
option is specified, returns a list describing all of the
available options for pathName (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for
information on the format of this list). If option is specified
with no value, then the command returns a list describing the
one named option (this list will be identical to the
corresponding sublist of the value returned if no option is
specified). If one or more option-value pairs are specified,
then the command modifies the given widget option(s) to have the
given value(s); in this case the command returns an empty
string. Option may have any of the values accepted by the
tixBalloon command.
pathName unbind widget
Cancels the Balloon widget’s binding with widget.
pathName subwidget name ?args?
When no options are given, this command returns the pathname of
the subwidget of the specified name.
When options are given, the widget command of the specified
subwidget will be called with these options.
BINDINGS
After a widget has be bound to a Balloon widget, when the user moves
the cursor into this widget, the Balloon widget is activated: if the
-balloonmsg option of this widget is set, the balloon window pops up;
if the -statusmsg option of this widget is set, the message will be
displayed in the status bar widget.
When the user moves the cursor out of the widget, the Balloon widget is
de-activated: the balloon window is withdrawn and the status-bar
message removed.
KEYWORDS
Tix(n)