#include <tk.h> Tk_OptionTable Tk_CreateOptionTable(interp, templatePtr) Tk_DeleteOptionTable(optionTable) int Tk_InitOptions(interp, recordPtr, optionTable, tkwin) int Tk_SetOptions(interp, recordPtr, optionTable, objc, objv, tkwin, savePtr, maskPtr) Tk_FreeSavedOptions(savedPtr) Tk_RestoreSavedOptions(savedPtr) Tcl_Obj * Tk_GetOptionValue(interp, recordPtr, optionTable, namePtr, tkwin) Tcl_Obj * Tk_GetOptionInfo(interp, recordPtr, optionTable, namePtr, tkwin) Tk_FreeConfigOptions(recordPtr, optionTable, tkwin) int Tk_Offset(type, field)
These procedures handle most of the details of parsing configuration options such as those for Tk widgets. Given a description of what options are supported, these procedures handle all the details of parsing options and storing their values into a C structure associated with the widget or object. The procedures were designed primarily for widgets in Tk, but they can also be used for other kinds of objects that have configuration options. In the rest of this manual page ``widget'' will be used to refer to the object whose options are being managed; in practice the object may not actually be a widget. The term ``widget record'' is used to refer to the C-level structure in which information about a particular widget or object is stored.
Note: the easiest way to learn how to use these procedures is to look at a working example. In Tk, the simplest example is the code that implements the button family of widgets, which is in tkButton.c. Other examples are in tkSquare.c and tkMenu.c.
In order to use these procedures, the code that implements the widget must contain a static array of Tk_OptionSpec structures. This is a template that describes the various options supported by that class of widget; there is a separate template for each kind of widget. The template contains information such as the name of each option, its type, its default value, and where the value of the option is stored in the widget record. See TEMPLATES below for more detail.
In order to process configuration options efficiently, the static template must be augmented with additional information that is available only at runtime. The procedure Tk_CreateOptionTable creates this dynamic information from the template and returns a Tk_OptionTable token that describes both the static and dynamic information. All of the other procedures, such as Tk_SetOptions, take a Tk_OptionTable token as argument. Typically, Tk_CreateOptionTable is called the first time that a widget of a particular class is created and the resulting Tk_OptionTable is used in the future for all widgets of that class. A Tk_OptionTable may be used only in a single interpreter, given by the interp argument to Tk_CreateOptionTable. When an option table is no longer needed Tk_DeleteOptionTable should be called to free all of its resources. All of the option tables for a Tcl interpreter are freed automatically if the interpreter is deleted.
Tk_InitOptions is invoked when a new widget is created to set the default values for all of the widget's configuration options. Tk_InitOptions is passed a token for an option table (optionTable) and a pointer to a widget record (recordPtr), which is the C structure that holds information about this widget. Tk_InitOptions uses the information in the option table to choose an appropriate default for each option, then it stores the default value directly into the widget record, overwriting any information that was already present in the widget record. Tk_InitOptions normally returns TCL_OK. If an error occurred while setting the default values (e.g., because a default value was erroneous) then TCL_ERROR is returned and an error message is left in interp's result if interp is not NULL.
Tk_SetOptions is invoked to modify configuration options based on information specified in a Tcl command. The command might be one that creates a new widget, or a command that modifies options on an existing widget. The objc and objv arguments describe the values of the arguments from the Tcl command. Objv must contain an even number of objects: the first object of each pair gives the name of an option and the second object gives the new value for that option. Tk_SetOptions looks up each name in optionTable, checks that the new value of the option conforms to the type in optionTable, and stores the value of the option into the widget record given by recordPtr. Tk_SetOptions normally returns TCL_OK. If an error occurred (such as an unknown option name or an illegal option value) then TCL_ERROR is returned and an error message is left in interp's result if interp is not NULL.
Tk_SetOptions has two additional features. First, if the maskPtr argument is not NULL then it points to an integer value that is filled in with information about the options that were modified. For each option in the template passed to Tk_CreateOptionTable there is a typeMask field. The bits of this field are defined by the code that implements the widget; for example, each bit might correspond to a particular configuration option. Alternatively, bits might be used functionally. For example, one bit might be used for redisplay: all options that affect the widget's display, such that changing the option requires the widget to be redisplayed, might have that bit set. Another bit might indicate that the geometry of the widget must be recomputed, and so on. Tk_SetOptions OR's together the typeMask fields from all the options that were modified and returns this value at *maskPtr; the caller can then use this information to optimize itself so that, for example, it does not redisplay the widget if the modified options do not affect the widget's appearance.
The second additional feature of Tk_SetOptions has to do with error recovery. If an error occurs while processing configuration options, this feature makes it possible to restore all the configuration options to their previous values. Errors can occur either while processing options in Tk_SetOptions or later in the caller. In many cases the caller does additional processing after Tk_SetOptions returns; for example, it might use an option value to set a trace on a variable and may detect an error if the variable is an array instead of a scalar. Error recovery is enabled by passing in a non-NULL value for the savePtr argument to Tk_SetOptions; this should be a pointer to an uninitialized Tk_SavedOptions structure on the caller's stack. Tk_SetOptions overwrites the structure pointed to by savePtr with information about the old values of any options modified by the procedure. If Tk_SetOptions returns successfully, the caller uses the structure in one of two ways. If the caller completes its processing of the new options without any errors, then it must pass the structure to Tk_FreeSavedOptions so that the old values can be freed. If the caller detects an error in its processing of the new options, then it should pass the structure to Tk_RestoreSavedOptions, which will copy the old values back into the widget record and free the new values. If Tk_SetOptions detects an error then it automatically restores any options that had already been modified and leaves *savePtr in an empty state: the caller need not call either Tk_FreeSavedOptions or Tk_RestoreSavedOptions. If the savePtr argument to Tk_SetOptions is NULL then Tk_SetOptions frees each old option value immediately when it sets a new value for the option. In this case, if an error occurs in the third option, the old values for the first two options cannot be restored.
Tk_GetOptionValue returns the current value of a configuration option for a particular widget. The namePtr argument contains the name of an option; Tk_GetOptionValue uses optionTable to lookup the option and extract its value from the widget record pointed to by recordPtr, then it returns an object containing that value. If an error occurs (e.g., because namePtr contains an unknown option name) then NULL is returned and an error message is left in interp's result unless interp is NULL.
Tk_GetOptionInfo returns information about configuration options in a form suitable for configure widget commands. If the namePtr argument is not NULL, it points to an object that gives the name of a configuration option; Tk_GetOptionInfo returns an object containing a list with five elements, which are the name of the option, the name and class used for the option in the option database, the default value for the option, and the current value for the option. If the namePtr argument is NULL, then Tk_GetOptionInfo returns information about all options in the form of a list of lists; each sublist describes one option. Synonym options are handled differently depending on whether namePtr is NULL: if namePtr is NULL then the sublist for each synonym option has only two elements, which are the name of the option and the name of the other option that it refers to; if namePtr is non-NULL and names a synonym option then the object returned is the five-element list for the other option that the synonym refers to. If an error occurs (e.g., because namePtr contains an unknown option name) then NULL is returned and an error message is left in interp's result unless interp is NULL.
Tk_FreeConfigOptions must be invoked when a widget is deleted. It frees all of the resources associated with any of the configuration options defined in recordPtr by optionTable.
The Tk_Offset macro is provided as a safe way of generating the objOffset and internalOffset values for entries in Tk_OptionSpec structures. It takes two arguments: the name of a type of record, and the name of a field in that record. It returns the byte offset of the named field in records of the given type.
The array of Tk_OptionSpec structures passed to Tk_CreateOptionTable via its templatePtr argument describes the configuration options supported by a particular class of widgets. Each structure specifies one configuration option and has the following fields:
typedef struct {
Tk_OptionType type;
const char *optionName;
const char *dbName;
const char *dbClass;
const char *defValue;
int objOffset;
int internalOffset;
int flags;
ClientData clientData;
int typeMask;
} Tk_OptionSpec;
When Tk_InitOptions and Tk_SetOptions store the value of an option into the widget record, they can do it in either of two ways. If the objOffset field of the Tk_OptionSpec is greater than or equal to zero, then the value of the option is stored as a (Tcl_Obj *) at the location in the widget record given by objOffset. If the internalOffset field of the Tk_OptionSpec is greater than or equal to zero, then the value of the option is stored in a type-specific internal form at the location in the widget record given by internalOffset. For example, if the option's type is TK_OPTION_INT then the internal form is an integer. If the objOffset or internalOffset field is negative then the value is not stored in that form. At least one of the offsets must be greater than or equal to zero.
The flags field consists of one or more bits ORed together. At present only a single flag is supported: TK_OPTION_NULL_OK. If this bit is set for an option then an empty string will be accepted as the value for the option and the resulting internal form will be a NULL pointer, a zero value, or None, depending on the type of the option. If the flag is not set then empty strings will result in errors. TK_OPTION_NULL_OK is typically used to allow a feature to be turned off entirely, e.g. set a cursor value to None so that a window simply inherits its parent's cursor. Not all option types support the TK_OPTION_NULL_OK flag; for those that do, there is an explicit indication of that fact in the descriptions below.
The type field of each Tk_OptionSpec structure determines how to parse the value of that configuration option. The legal value for type, and the corresponding actions, are described below. If the type requires a tkwin value to be passed into procedures like Tk_SetOptions, or if it uses the clientData field of the Tk_OptionSpec, then it is indicated explicitly; if not mentioned, the type requires neither tkwin nor clientData.
If a field of a widget record has its offset stored in the objOffset or internalOffset field of a Tk_OptionSpec structure then the procedures described here will handle all of the storage allocation and resource management issues associated with the field. When the value of an option is changed, Tk_SetOptions (or Tk_FreeSavedOptions) will automatically free any resources associated with the old value, such as Tk_Fonts for TK_OPTION_FONT options or dynamically allocated memory for TK_OPTION_STRING options. For an option stored as an object using the objOffset field of a Tk_OptionSpec, the widget record shares the object pointed to by the objv value from the call to Tk_SetOptions. The reference count for this object is incremented when a pointer to it is stored in the widget record and decremented when the option is modified. When the widget is deleted Tk_FreeConfigOptions should be invoked; it will free the resources associated with all options and decrement reference counts for any objects.
However, the widget code is responsible for storing NULL or None in all pointer and token fields before invoking Tk_InitOptions. This is needed to allow proper cleanup in the rare case where an error occurs in Tk_InitOptions.
In most cases it is simplest to use the internalOffset field of a Tk_OptionSpec structure and not the objOffset field. This makes the internal form of the value immediately available to the widget code so the value does not have to be extracted from an object each time it is used. However, there are two cases where the objOffset field is useful. The first case is for TK_OPTION_PIXELS options. In this case, the internal form is an integer pixel value that is valid only for a particular screen. If the value of the option is retrieved, it will be returned as a simple number. For example, after the command .b configure -borderwidth 2m, the command .b configure -borderwidth might return 7, which is the integer pixel value corresponding to 2m. Unfortunately, this loses the original screen-independent value. Thus for TK_OPTION_PIXELS options it is better to use the objOffset field. In this case the original value of the option is retained in the object and can be returned when the option is retrieved. In most cases it is convenient to use the internalOffset field as well, so that the integer value is immediately available for use in the widget code (alternatively, Tk_GetPixelsFromObj can be used to extract the integer value from the object whenever it is needed). Note: the problem of losing information on retrievals exists only for TK_OPTION_PIXELS options.
The second reason to use the objOffset field is in order to implement new types of options not supported by these procedures. To implement a new type of option, you can use TK_OPTION_STRING as the type in the Tk_OptionSpec structure and set the objOffset field but not the internalOffset field. Then, after calling Tk_SetOptions, convert the object to internal form yourself.
Applications can extend the built-in configuration types with additional configuration types by writing procedures to parse, print, free, and restore saved copies of the type and creating a structure pointing to those procedures:
typedef struct Tk_ObjCustomOption {
char *name;
Tk_CustomOptionSetProc *setProc;
Tk_CustomOptionGetProc *getProc;
Tk_CustomOptionRestoreProc *restoreProc;
Tk_CustomOptionFreeProc *freeProc;
ClientData clientData;
} Tk_ObjCustomOption;
typedef int Tk_CustomOptionSetProc(
ClientData clientData,
Tcl_Interp *interp,
Tk_Window tkwin,
Tcl_Obj **valuePtr,
char *recordPtr,
int internalOffset,
char *saveInternalPtr,
int flags);
typedef Tcl_Obj *Tk_CustomOptionGetProc(
ClientData clientData,
Tk_Window tkwin,
char *recordPtr,
int internalOffset);
typedef void Tk_CustomOptionRestoreProc(
ClientData clientData,
Tk_Window tkwin,
char *internalPtr,
char *saveInternalPtr);
typedef void Tk_CustomOptionFreeProc(
ClientData clientData,
Tk_Window tkwin,
char *internalPtr);
The Tk_ObjCustomOption structure contains six fields: a name for the custom option type; pointers to the four procedures; and a clientData value to be passed to those procedures when they are invoked. The clientData value typically points to a structure containing information that is needed by the procedures when they are parsing and printing options. RestoreProc and freeProc may be NULL, indicating that no function should be called for those operations.
The setProc procedure is invoked by Tk_SetOptions to convert a Tcl_Obj into an internal representation and store the resulting value in the widget record. The arguments are:
SetProc returns a standard Tcl result: TCL_OK to indicate successful processing, or TCL_ERROR to indicate a failure of any kind. An error message may be left in the Tcl interpreter given by interp in the case of an error.
The getProc procedure is invoked by Tk_GetOptionValue and Tk_GetOptionInfo to retrieve a Tcl_Obj representation of the internal representation of an option. The clientData argument is a copy of the clientData field in the Tk_ObjCustomOption structure. Tkwin is a copy of the tkwin argument to Tk_GetOptionValue or Tk_GetOptionInfo. RecordPtr is a pointer to the beginning of the widget record to query. InternalOffset is the offset in bytes from the beginning of the widget record to the location where the internal representation of the option value is stored. GetProc must return a pointer to a Tcl_Obj representing the value of the option.
The restoreProc procedure is invoked by Tk_RestoreSavedOptions to restore a previously saved internal representation of a custom option value. The clientData argument is a copy of the clientData field in the Tk_ObjCustomOption structure. Tkwin is a copy of the tkwin argument to Tk_GetOptionValue or Tk_GetOptionInfo. InternalPtr is a pointer to the location where internal representation of the option value is stored. SaveInternalPtr is a pointer to the saved value. RestoreProc must copy the value from saveInternalPtr to internalPtr to restore the value. RestoreProc need not free any memory associated with either internalPtr or saveInternalPtr; freeProc will be invoked to free that memory if necessary. RestoreProc has no return value.
The freeProc procedure is invoked by Tk_SetOptions and Tk_FreeSavedOptions to free any storage allocated for the internal representation of a custom option. The clientData argument is a copy of the clientData field in the Tk_ObjCustomOption structure. Tkwin is a copy of the tkwin argument to Tk_GetOptionValue or Tk_GetOptionInfo. InternalPtr is a pointer to the location where the internal representation of the option value is stored. The freeProc must free any storage associated with the option. FreeProc has no return value.