Gnocl -the Tcl/Gtk Bindings

The following contains a summary of the modifications to the main module code.  All updates available from the SourceForge in the nightly build. 2017-02:     gnocl::dial         o added options -value, -variable, -digits         o added commands get, set, cget     -foreground and -background option can now take 2 values, namely state and color,         where state is one of "normal", "active", "prelight", "selected" or "insensitive".         If only the colour is specified, then the default state of "normal" is assumed.         e.g. -background [list insensitive black]     gnocl::text         o fixed memory allocation problem with lorem sub-command.     gnocl::eventBox         o added -insensitiveColor option, all...

The existing dial widget is a straight implementation from the Gtk tutorial docs. Whilst it was possible to create an instance using the gnocl::dial command it wasn't  much use. Apart from wiggling the mouse pointer around it didn't offer any way of setting or getting a value within a script, nor did it enable the user to set a variable trace. Added to this, the graphics were pretty grim as it relied upon gtk paint operations. Over the weekend I took a look at what could be done with the existing code. After a bit of work it offers much more. The graphics are rendered in Cairo and so look good and the displayed value can be set and retrieved. Not all the changes have been in the gnocl dial sources, some tweaking has taken place in the GtkDial.c source too. The next step is to provide some controls over the colouration of the widget, and setting the range limits much like those of the scale command.

The past month has seen focus placed upon tidying up some features working around GdkPixbuf support, work which I expect will continue well into February. The functionality examined seeks to address the creation of  graphics for use in applications documentation so that, for instance, in developing documentation for Gnocl itself, the interpreter will return lists of widget options and sub-commands along with screenshots of widget and windows in operation. As can also seen from the change list below, a new file option '~' has been implemented. When Tcl scripts are 'wrapped' using FreeWrap or TclKit, Gtk api calls cannot directly access files within the VFS (which is transparent to Tcl itself). This functionality is achieved by first extracting files to the /tmp directory a location outside the VFS, from where they then can be accessed. 2017-01:     gnocl::pixBuf         o new commands paste, snapshot, windowshot.     ...