tixBalloon(n)
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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
Name: initWait
Class: InitWait
Switch: -initwait
In milliseconds. Specifies how long the balloon
should wait before popping up in a widget.
Name: state
Class: State
Switch: -state
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: dis-
play no messages.
Name: statusBar
Class: statusBar
Switch: -statusbar
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 mes-
sage in the the pop-up balloon window.
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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 applica-
tion. A Balloon widget can be bound to a number of wid-
gets. When the user moves the cursor inside a widget to
which a Balloon widget has been bound, a small pop-up win-
dow 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 opera-
tions 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 deter-
mine the exact behavior of the command. The following com-
mands are possible for Balloon widgets:
pathName bind widget ?option value ... ?
Binds the Balloon widget to the widget. The mes-
sages 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 speci-
fies 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 -bal-
loonmsg and -statusmsg options.
The bind command can also be used to change the
messages after the initial bindings were set. Exam-
ple:
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 path-
Name (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the
format of this list). If option is specified with
no value, then the command returns a list describ-
ing the one named option (this list will be identi-
cal 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 Bal-
loon widget is de-activated: the balloon window is with-
drawn and the status-bar message removed.
KEYWORDS
Tix(n)