
                        TIX FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
                                       
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  
   General Questions 
          
          + [G.1] What does the "-disablecallback" option do?
          + [G.2] How do I set the width of the entry subwidget inside
            the tixControl widget?
          + [G.3] What is the "setslient" method?
          + [G.4] Is there a Tix interface builder in the works?
          + [G.5] Can you tell me about the syntax of tixForm
            
   
          
   Legal Issues 
          
          + [L.1] I am developing a commercial application, can I use Tix
            4.0?
          + [L.2] I am developing a commercial GUI builder, something
            like zApp, can I use Tix 4.0?
            
   
          
   [L.3] Can I use tixForm in my commercial app which is not a GUI
          builder.
          
   [L.4] I am writing a free GUI builder, can I use tixForm in it?
          
   [L.5] Will future versions of Tix be free?
          
   Porting from Tix 3.6 to Tix 4.0 
          
          + [P.1] What happened to the tixInit command?
          + [P.2] How do I set the schemes and fontsets in Tix 4.0?
            
   
          
   Question About Specific Platforms 
          
          + [S.1] Solaris 2.4: Filenames in FileSelectBox are chopped
            off.
            
   
          
   Trivia 
          
          + [T.1] How do you pronunce "Ioi"
          + [T.2] How on earth did you pick such a name
            
   
          
   
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  GENERAL QUESTIONS
  
   [G.1] What does the "-disablecallback" option do? 
          
          
          Many Tix widgets have both a -value option and a -command
          option. Any modification of the -value will cause the -command
          callback to be executed. Sometimes this is undesirable. For
          example, calling "config -value" inside the callback procedure
          will cause the callback to be re-entered and thus an infinite
          recursion.
          
          The -disablecallback can be used to advoid this problem. When
          this option is set, the -command callback will not be executed
          even if the -value of a widget is changed. Therefore, if you
          need to modify the -value of a widget inside its callback, do
          this:
          

    proc my_callback {w} {
        $w config -disablecallback true
        $w config value blah
        $w config -disablecallback false
    }


   If you find this too troublesome, you can call the command
          tixSetSilent:
          

    proc my_callback {w} {
        tixSetSilent $w blah
    }


   
          
   [G.2] How do I set the width of the entry subwidget inside the
          tixControl widget? 
          
          
          You can use the option database or the -options flag to set the
          configuration options of the subwidgets. E.g:
          


option add *TixControl*entry.width 10

   OR
          

tixControl .c -options {
   entry.width  10
}

   
          
   [G.3] What is the "setslient" method? 
          
          
          This is an obsolete method. You could use it to achieve the
          same effect as the -disablecallback option. selsilent used to
          be a widget command for the ComboBox, Control, etc. It has been
          removed since Tix 4.0a4 and replaced by the tixSetSilent
          command. Please note that tixSetSilent is not a widget command
          but an external procedure.
          
   [G.4] Is there a Tix interface builder in the works? 
          
          
          Yes. But I don't know when it will be finished. (probably in
          96).
          
   [G.5] Can you tell me about the syntax of tixForm 
          
          
          Please see the file man/Form.html or man/Form.n.
          
   
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  LEGAL ISSUES
  
   [L.1] I am developing a commercial application, can I use Tix 4.0? 
          
          
          Yes. The legal and copyright status of Tix is exactly the same
          as that of TK (with only one catch, see [2]). If you are bold
          enough to use TK in your commercial app, you should be able to
          use Tix for free.
          
   [L.2] I am developing a commercial GUI builder, something like zApp,
          can I use Tix 4.0?
          
          
          
          
          You can use every aspect of Tix except the tixForm geometry
          manager (please read the file LEGAL.html ). That means, for
          example, your product can include the TixComboBox and other
          widgets. However, TixForm, including the TCL command, the C
          library code or the documentation, cannot be included into your
          product at all. You are also explicitly prohibited form
          examining, imitating, copying, reverse-enrgineering or
          otherwise using the file tixForm.c.
          
   [L.3] Can I use tixForm in my commercial app which is not a GUI
          builder. 
          
          
          Yes.
          
   [L.4] I am writing a free GUI builder, can I use tixForm in it? 
          
          
          Yes, provided you distributed your GUI builder freely. That
          means it should be no less free than at least one of the
          following:
          
         1. GNU Public License
         2. "Berkeley" type license.
            
   
          
          
          
   [L.5] Will future versions of Tix be free? 
          
          
          I don't have much control over this. The availability of future
          versions (i.e., beyond the final release of Tix 4.0) can be
          affected by many reasons. However, Tix 4.0 will be kept freely
          distributed for its lifetime or mine, whichever is longer.
          
   
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  PORTING FROM TIX 3.6 TO TIX 4.0
  
   [P.1] What happened to the tixInit command? 
          
          
          You don't need to use it anymore. It is provided in Tix 4.0
          only for backward compatibility.
          
   [P.2] How do I set the schemes and fontsets in Tix 4.0? 
          
          
          You can set the color schemes and fontsets using the standard X
          resource database (.Xdefaults file). You can add these two
          lines in the user's .Xdefaults file:
          


        *TixScheme:   Gray
        *TixFontSet:  14Point

   If you want to switch color schemes and fontsets during run time, you
          can issue the following commands:
          

        tix config -scheme Gray -fontset 14Point


   Please read the tix manual page for more details
          
   
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  QUESTION ABOUT SPECIFIC PLATFORMS
  
   [S.1] Solaris 2.4: Filenames in FileSelectBox are chopped off. 
          
          
          Problem:
          
     With Tix4.0a7 (and also with Tix4.0a6) on Solaris 2.4, when running
     the widget demo, in tixFileSelectBox, in the two scolling lists (for
     Files an Directories), some of the file and directory names have
     their first 2 letters chopped off. And some files are repeated.
     
   Solution: tixwish has some conflicts with /usr/ucblib/libucb.so.1 and
          you should not linke it tixwish (you don't need it). Here is a
          solution provided by Charles L Ditzel
          (charles@hanami.cyberspace.com):
          
     To fix the problem I was having, all I did was:

   unsetenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH
   set my PATH to something basic like:
     /usr/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:/bin:/usr/openwin/bin:/opt/SUNWspro/bin
   removed config.cache
   ./configure
   make clean
   make


     and now it works!! Must have been something in my old PATH or
     LD_LIBRARY_PATH that was causing it to pick up
     /usr/ucblib/libucb.so.
     
   
          
   
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  TRIVIA
  
   [T.1] How do you pronunce "Ioi" 
          
          
          You take the first "I" as a "Y" : so it goes like "Yoi"
          
   [T.2] How on earth did you pick such a name 
          
          
          Well, I didn't pick it myself. Nor did my parents. I was born
          in China and then my family moved to Macao , which was under a
          Portugese government. So they made a transliteration of my
          Chinese name into Portugese. And since there isn't the
          character "Y" in Portugese, they were forced name me using a
          symmetrical binary string.
          
   
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   Last modified Jul 20 09:31 --- Serial 806247071
