Nicer Tkinter on UNIX?

[Mike Clarkson]

On 3 Oct 2001 10:59:05 -0500, claird at starbase.neosoft.com (Cameron
Laird) wrote:

>>On 3 Oct 2001 10:39:55 GMT, Artur Skura <arturs at iidea.pl> wrote:

You may want to look at Tix, the extensioon widgets for Tk and
Tkinter.  As of Python 2.1 the wrapper is in the standard library,
and if you are distributing a Tkinter application anyway, it doesn't
take that much more to add Tix.

>>>
>>>[It's not particularly Pythonish question, but I thought you might know]
>>> 
>>>I like Tkinter because it's standard. But there is a big but.
>>>While on Windows it looks great, on unices it makes kids laugh.
>>>Not that it's particularly ugly, but quite awkward and not up to the
>>>aesthetic standards people expect now.
>>>
>>>Is there a way to make Tkinter use KDE/GTK themes on unices? Or change the
>>>interface in any way? (I don't consider wx... stuff, as it forces users to
>>>install additional software).

Take at look at the lib/tix8.1/pref/WmDefault.* files in the Tix
Development Environment (http://tix.sourceforge.net/Tide).
They try to pick up the "style" from KDE/CDE/GNOME and Windows;
this works for any Tk or Tix application - Tix is supported but not
required. 

>Tk is unlikely to support themes (as that's currently under-
>stood) at all soon.  However, the topic is an active one
>among Tcl-ers, and the time is absolutely ripe for Tk to
>receive help from interested Pythoneers.  

I'll work on a Python wrapper so it can readily be called from
Tkinter, but if you know a little Tk, you should be able to
	root.tk.eval('package require wm_default')
	root.tk.eval('wm_default::setup')
	root.tk.eval('wm_default::addoptions')
	
for now.  This is still being worked on - when I get it fully
shaken down with a Tkinter wrapper I'll make a formal announcement.

Mike.