DN581955743

Subject: ANNOUNCE: Multi-entry widget package Mentry 1.1 - DN [1]

Csaba Nemethi <csaba.nemethi@t-online.de> - 05 Feb 2000 - comp.lang.tcl

 I am pleased to announce Version 1.1 of the multi-entry widget package
 Mentry.

 What is new in Mentry 1.1?
 --------------------------

 1. The tutorial and the mentry widget reference page now contain
    hyperlinks to the Wcb command reference, which has been included in
    the documentation.

 2. Minor improvements in the code and documentation.

 What is Mentry?
 ---------------

 Mentry is a library package for Tcl/Tk version 8.0 or higher, written in
 pure Tcl/Tk code.  It contains:

   - the implementation of the multi-entry mega-widget "mentry";
   - procedures that facilitate the use of multi-entry widgets for
     displaying and editing date and time in a great variety of formats,
     real numbers in fixed-point format, as well as IP addresses;
   - two richly commented demo scripts containing the typical steps
     needed to create and handle a mentry widget for a particular
     purpose;
   - a demo script that shows how to use the date- and time-related
     procedures;
   - a tutorial in HTML format;
   - reference pages in HTML format.

 A multi-entry widget consists of any number of entry widgets separated
 by labels, all embedded in a frame.  Appropriately chosen configuration
 options make this conglomerate look like one single entry containing
 preinserted text pieces having invariant positions within the widget.
 The initial width of an entry child also determines the maximal number
 sof characters that can be inserted into it; when reaching this limit in
 an entry having the input focus, the latter is set automatically to the
 next enabled entry child.  The same action is triggered by typing a
 character contained in the label following the current entry.

 Within a mentry widget, the Left, Right, Home, End, and BackSpace keys
 work across entry boundaries, while Control-Left and Control-Right play
 the same role as Tab and Shift-Tab in the case of ordinary entries.

 Some of the above features are implemented with the aid of the widget
 callback package Wcb, written in pure Tcl/Tk code as well.  The Mentry
 package requires version 2.0 or higher of Wcb, whose download location
 is

     http://www.nemethi.de

 It is very easy to create a multi-entry widget.  For example, the
 command

     mentry::mentry .me -body {3 - 3 - 4}

 will create a mentry widget consisting of two entries of width 3 and one
 of width 4, separated by "-" characters.  With the command

     foreach w [.me entries] {
         wcb::cbappend $w before insert wcb::checkStrForNum
     }

 you can make sure that the three entries will only accept numeric input,
 thus providing a comfortable and safe user interface for editing
 10-digit phone numbers.

 How to get it?
 --------------

 Mentry is available for free download from the same URL as Wcb.  The
 distribution file is "mentry1.1.tar.gz" for UNIX and "mentry1_1.zip"
 for Windows 95/98/NT.  These files contain the same information, except
 for the additional carriage return character preceding the linefeed at
 the end of each line in the text files for Windows.

 How to install it?
 ------------------

 Install the package as a subdirectory of one of the directories given
 by the "auto_path" variable.  For example, you can install it as a
 directory at the same level as the Tcl and Tk script libraries.  The
 locations of these library directories are given by the "tcl_library"
 and "tk_library" variables, respectively.

 To install Mentry on UNIX, "cd" to the desired directory and unpack the
 distribution file "mentry1.1.tar.gz":

     gunzip -c mentry1.1.tar.gz | tar -xf -

 This command will create a directory named "mentry1.1", with the
 subdirectories "demos", "doc", and "scripts".

 On Windows 95/98/NT, use WinZip or some other program capable of
 unpacking the distribution file "mentry1_1.zip" into the directory
 "mentry1.1", with the subdirectories "demos", "doc", and "scripts".

 How to use it?
 --------------

 To be able to use the commands and variables implemented in the package
 Mentry, your scripts must contain one of the lines

     package require Mentry
     package require mentry

 Since the package Mentry is implemented in its own namespace called
 "mentry", you must either import the procedures you need, or use
 qualified names like "mentry::mentry".

 For a detailed description of the commands and variables provided by
 Mentry and of the examples contained in the "demos" directory, see the
 tutorial "mentry.html" and the reference pages, all located in the "doc"
 directory.

 --
 Csaba Nemethi   http://www.nemethi.de   mailto:csaba.nemethi@t-online.de