Fr

Tkinter is the built-in GUI package that comes with standard

Python distributions. It is a cross-platform package, which
means you build once and deploy everywhere. It is simple
to use and intuitive in nature, making it suitable for
programmers and non-programmers alike.
This book will help you master the art of GUI programming.
It delivers the bigger picture of GUI programming by building
real-world, productive, and fun applications such as a text
editor, drum machine, game of chess, media player, drawing
application, chat application, screen saver, port scanner,
and many more. In every project, you will build on the skills
acquired in the previous project and gain more expertise.

What you will learn from this book

Get to know the basic concepts of GUI
programming, such as Tkinter top-level
widgets, geometry management, event
handling, using callbacks, custom styling,
and dialogs
Create apps that can be scaled in size or
complexity without breaking down the core
Write your own GUI framework for maximum
code reuse
Build apps using both procedural and OOP
styles, understanding the strengths and
limitations of both styles

You will learn to write multithreaded programs, network

programs, database driven programs and more. You will
also get to know the modern best practices involved in
writing GUI apps. With its rich source of sample code, you
can build upon the knowledge gained with this book and
use it in your own projects in the discipline of your choice.

Learn to structure and build large GUI

applications based on Model-View-Controller
(MVC) architecture

Who this book is written for

Learn basics of 2D and 3D animation in GUI

applications

Create apps that leverage resources from

the network

Develop apps that can persist application

data with object serialization and tools such
as configparser

$ 44.99 US
28.99 UK

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P U B L I S H I N G

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Visit www.PacktPub.com for books, eBooks,

code, downloads, and PacktLib.

Bhaskar Chaudhary

Software developers, scientists, researcher, engineers,

student or programming hobbyists with a basic familiarity
with Python will find this book interesting and informative.
No GUI programming experience is expected.

Build multithreaded and database-driven apps

Tkinter GUI Application Development Blueprints

Tkinter GUI Application

Development Blueprints

ee

Sa
m

pl

C o m m u n i t y

E x p e r i e n c e

D i s t i l l e d

Tkinter GUI Application

Development Blueprints
Master GUI programming in Tkinter as you design, implement,
and deliver ten real-world applications from start to finish

Bhaskar Chaudhary

In this package, you will find:

The author biography

A preview chapter from the book, Chapter 1 'Meet Tkinter'
A synopsis of the books content
More information on Tkinter GUI Application Development Blueprints

About the Author

Bhaskar Chaudhary is a professional programmer and information architect.

He has an experience of almost 9 years in consulting, contracting, and educating in

the field of software development. He has worked with a large set of programming
languages on various platforms over the years.
He is an electronics hobbyist and a musician in his free time.

Preface

Preface
Tkinter GUI Application Development Blueprints will walk you through the process
of developing real-world graphical applications using Python and Tkinter, the
built-in GUI module of Python.
This book attempts to highlight the features and capabilities of Tkinter while
demonstrating best practices involved in writing GUI programs, irrespective of the
library that you choose to build your application with. Here, you will learn how
to use Tkinter to develop exciting, fun, and useful GUI applications with Tkinter
and Python.
We hope to take you on a fun journey through more than 10 projects from
different problem domains. As we develop new applications in each project,
the book also builds up a catalog of some commonly used strategies to develop
real-world applications.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Meet Tkinter, begins from scratch, providing an overview of Tkinter and
covering details of how to create root windows, add widgets to a root window,
handle layout with geometry managers, and work with events.
Chapter 2, Make a Text Editor, develops a text editor in the procedural style of
programming. It gives readers their first taste of several features of Tkinter and
what it is like to develop a real application.

Preface

Chapter 3, Programmable Drum Machine, uses object-oriented programming to develop

a drum machine that is capable of playing user-composed rhythms. The application
can also save compositions and later edit or replay them. Here, you will learn the
techniques of designing a GUI application using a model-first philosophy and how
to write multithreaded GUI applications.
Chapter 4, A Game of Chess, introduces key aspects of structuring a GUI application
using the model-view-controller (MVC) architecture. It also teaches the art of taking
a real-world object (chess) and modeling it in the notations that your program can
manipulate. It also introduces readers to the power of the Tkinter Canvas widget.
Chapter 5, Building an Audio Player, introduces the concepts of working with external
libraries while showing you how to work with many different Tkinter widgets. Most
importantly, it shows how to make your own Tkinter widgets, thereby extending the
capabilities of the Tkinter manifold.
Chapter 6, Paint Application, looks at the Tkinter Canvas widget in detail. As you will
see, the Canvas widget is truly a highlight of Tkinter. The chapter also introduces
the concept of the GUI framework, thereby creating reusable code for all your future
programs.
Chapter 7, Multiple Fun Projects, works through a series of small but functional
projects, demonstrating problems from different domains such as animation,
network programming, socket programming, database programming, making
graphs, and multithreaded programming.
Chapter 8, Miscellaneous Tips, discusses some vital aspects of GUI programming
that, though not covered in the previous chapters, form a common theme in many
GUI programs.

Meet Tkinter
Welcome to the exciting world of GUI programming with Tkinter. This chapter aims
at getting you acquainted with Tkinter, the built-in graphical user interface (GUI)
library for all standard Python distributions.
Tkinter (pronounced tea-kay-inter) is the Python interface to Tk, the GUI toolkit
for Tcl/Tk.
Tcl (short for Tool Command Language and pronounced as tickle) is a popular
scripting language in the domains of embedded applications, testing, prototyping,
and GUI development. On the other hand, Tk is an open source, multi-platform
widget toolkit that is used by many different languages to build GUI programs.
The Tkinter interface is implemented as a Python moduleTkinter.py in
Python 2.x versions and tkinter/__init__.py in Python 3.x versions. If you
look at the source code, Tkinter is just a wrapper around a C extension that uses
the Tcl/Tk libraries.
Tkinter is suitable for application to a wide variety of areas, ranging from small
desktop applications to use in scientific modeling and research endeavors across
various disciplines.
When a person learning Python needs to graduate to GUI programming, Tkinter
seems to be the easiest and fastest way to get the work done.
Tkinter is a great tool for the programming of GUI applications in Python.
The features that make Tkinter a great choice for GUI programming include
the following:

It is simple to learn (simpler than any other GUI package for Python)

Relatively little code can produce powerful GUI applications

Layered design ensures that it is easy to grasp

[1]

Meet Tkinter

It is portable across all operating systems

It is easily accessible, as it comes pre-installed with the standard

Python distribution

None of the other Python GUI toolkits have all of these features at the same time.

Objectives of this chapter

The purpose of this chapter is to make you comfortable with Tkinter. It aims at
introducing you to the various components of GUI programming with Tkinter.
By the end of this chapter, you will have developed several partly-functional dummy
applications, such as the one shown in the following screenshot:

We believe that the concepts that you will develop here will enable you to apply and
develop GUI applications in your area of interest.
The key aspects that we want you to learn from this chapter include the following:

Understanding the concept of a root window and a main loop

Understanding widgetsthe building blocks of programs

Getting acquainted with a list of available widgets

[2]

Chapter 1

Developing layouts by using different geometry managers

Applying events and callbacks to make a program functional

Styling widgets by using styling options and configuring the root widget

Installing Python and Tkinter

To work on the projects in this chapter, you must have a working copy of Python
3.4.0 installed on your computer.
The Python download package and instructions for downloading for different
platforms are available at https://www.python.org/downloads/release/
python-340/.
The installer binaries for Mac OS X and the Windows platform are available
at the aforementioned link. Python 3.4 is installed by default on Ubuntu 14.04.
Unfortunately, Ubuntu 14.04 does not ship with Tkinter. You have to install it
manually. Other Linux users can also install the Python Interpreter (v3.4) package
from the official repository or build it directly from the source link provided in the
aforementioned link.
We will develop our application on the Ubuntu platform. However, since Tkinter is
cross-platform, you can follow along with the instructions in this book on Windows,
Mac, or any other Linux distribution, without making any modifications to the code.
After installing Python, open the Python 3.4 interactive shell and type in the
following command:
>>> import tkinter

This shell command should be executed without an error.

If there are no error messages, the Tkinter module is installed on your Python
distribution. When working with examples from this book, we do not support any
Python version except for Python 3.4.0, which comes bundled with Tkinter Tcl/Tk
Version 8.6. However, most of the examples should work out-of-the-box on other
minor Python 3 versions.
To check whether you have the correct Tkinter version on your Python installation,
type the following commands in your IDLE or interactive shell:
>>> import tkinter
>>> tkinter._test()

[3]

Meet Tkinter

This should make a window pop up. The first line in the window reads This is
Tcl/Tk version 8.6. Make sure that it is not 8.5 or any earlier version, as Version 8.6
is a vast improvement over its previous versions.
You are ready to code Tkinter GUI applications if your version test confirms it as
Tcl/Tk version 8.6.
Let's get started!

Importing Tkinter
This section describes the different styles of importing Tkinter modules. In the
preceding example, we imported Tkinter by using the following command:
from tkinter import *

This method of importing eases the handling of methods defined in the module.
That is to say, you can simply access the methods directly. Generally, it is considered
bad practice to import all (*) the methods of a module like we did here. This is so
because this style of importing leads to memory flooding, namespace confusion,
and difficulty in bug tracking and/or reviewing code. Importing into the global
namespace can also lead to an accidental overwriting of methods from other
libraries in the global namespace.
There are several ways to import Tkinter in which this overlapping can be avoided,
with a common way being the following one:
import tkinter

This style of importing does not pollute the namespace with a list of all the methods
defined within Tkinter. However, every method within Tkinter will now have
to be called by using the tkinter.some_method format instead of directly calling
the method.
Another commonly used import style is as follows:
import tkinter as tk

Here too, you do not pollute the current namespace with all the Tkinter methods.
Now, you can access methods such as tk.some_method. The tk alias is convenient
and easy to type. It is commonly used by many developers to import Tkinter.

[4]

Chapter 1

GUI programming the big picture

As a GUI programmer, you will generally be responsible for deciding the following
three aspects of your program:

Which components should appear on the screen? This involves choosing the
components that make the user interface. Typical components include things
such as buttons, entry fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, scroll bars, and the
like. In Tkinter, the components that you add to your GUI are called widgets.
Widgets (short for window gadgets) are the graphical components that make
up your application's frontend.

Where should the components go? This includes deciding the position and
the structural layout of various components. In Tkinter, this is referred to as
geometry management.

How do components interact and behave? This involves adding functionality

to each component. Each component or widget does some work. For example,
a button, when clicked on, does something in response. A scrollbar handles
scrolling, and checkboxes and radio buttons enable users to make some
choices. In Tkinter, the functionality of various widgets is managed by the
command binding or the event binding using callback functions.

The following figure shows the three components of GUI programming:

Let's delve deeper into each of these three components in the context of Tkinter.

[5]

Meet Tkinter

The root window your drawing board

GUI programming is an art, and like all art, you need a drawing board to capture
your ideas. The drawing board that you will use is called the root window. Our first
goal is to get the root window ready.
The following screenshot depicts the root window that we are going to create:

Drawing the root window is easy. You just need the following three lines of code:
from tkinter import *
root = Tk()
root.mainloop()

Save this with the .py file extension or check out the 1.01.py code. Open it in the
IDLE window and run the program from the Run menu (F5 in IDLE). Running
this program should generate a blank root window, as shown in the preceding
screenshot. This window is equipped with the functional minimize, maximize,
and close buttons, and a blank frame.
Downloading the example code
You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have
purchased from your account at http://www.packtpub.com. If you
purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.
com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.

[6]

Chapter 1

The following is a description of the preceding code:

The first line imported all (*) the classes, attributes, and methods of Tkinter
into the current workspace.

The second line created an instance of the tkinter.Tk class. This created
what is called the "root" window, which is shown in the preceding
screenshot. According to the conventions, the root window in Tkinter is
usually called "root", but you are free to call it by any other name.

The third line executed the mainloop (that is, the event loop) method of the
root object. The mainloop method is what keeps the root window visible.
If you remove the third line, the window created in line 2 will disappear
immediately as soon as the script stops running. This will happen so fast that
you will not even see the window appearing on your screen. Keeping the
mainloop method running also lets you keep the program running until you
press the close button, which exits the main loop.

Tkinter also exposed the mainloop method as tkinter.mainloop(). So, you

can even call mainloop() directly instead of calling root.mainloop().

Congratulations! You have completed your first objective, which was to draw the
root window. You have now prepared your drawing board (root window). Now, get
ready to paint it with your imagination!
Commit the three lines of code (shown in code 1.01.py) to memory.
These three lines generate your root window, which will accommodate
all the other graphical components. These lines form the skeleton of any
GUI application that you will develop in Tkinter. The entire code that will
make your GUI application functional will go between line 2 (new object
creation) and line 3 (mainloop) of this code.

Widgets the building blocks of GUI

programs
Now that we have our top level or the root window ready, it is time to think over a
questionwhich components should appear in the window? In Tkinter jargon, these
components are called widgets.

[7]

Meet Tkinter

The syntax that is used to add a widget is as follows:

my_widget = Widget-name (its container window, ** its
configuration options)

In the following example (1.02.py), we will add two widgets, a label, and a button
to the root frame. Note how all the widgets are added between the skeleton code that
we defined in the first example:
from tkinter import *
root = Tk()
label = Label(root, text="I am a label widget")
button = Button(root, text="I am a button")
label.pack()
button.pack()
root.mainloop()

The following is a description of the preceding code:

This code added a new instance named label for the Label widget. The first
parameter defined root as its parent or container. The second parameter
configured its text option as I am a label widget.

Similarly, we defined an instance of a Button widget. This is also bound

to the root window as its parent.

We used the pack() method, which is essentially required to position the label
and button widgets within the window. We will discuss the pack() method
and several other related concepts when exploring the geometry management
task. However, you must note that some sort of geometry specification is
essential for the widgets to be displayed within the top-level window.

Running the preceding code will generate a window with a label and a button
widget, as shown in the following screenshot:

[8]

Chapter 1

Some important widget features

Note the following few important features that are common to all widgets:

All widgets are actually objects derived from their respective widget classes.
So, a statement such as button = Button(its_parent) actually creates a
button instance from the Button class.

Each widget has a set of options that decides its behavior and appearance.
This includes attributes such as text labels, colors, and font size. For example,
the Button widget has attributes to manage its label, control its size, change
its foreground and background colors, change the size of the border, and
so on.

To set these attributes, you can set the values directly at the time of creating
the widget, as demonstrated in the preceding example. Alternatively, you
can later set or change the options of the widget by using the .config()
or .configure() method. Note that the .config() or .configure()
methods are interchangeable and provide the same functionality. In fact,
the .config() method is simply an alias of the .configure() method.

Ways to create widgets

There are two ways to create widgets in Tkinter.
The first way involves creating a widget in one line and then adding the pack()
method (or other geometry managers) in the next line, as follows:
my_label = Label(root, text="I am a label widget")
my_label.pack()

Alternatively, you can write both the lines together, as follows:

Label(root, text="I am a label widget").pack()

You can either save a reference to the widget created (my_label, as in the first
example), or create a widget without keeping any reference to it (as demonstrated
in the second example).
You should ideally keep a reference to the widget in case the widget has to be accessed
later on in the program. For instance, this is useful in case you need to call one of its
internal methods or for its content modification. If the widget state is supposed to
remain static after its creation, you need not keep a reference to the widget.

[9]

Meet Tkinter

Note that calls to pack() (or other geometry managers) always return
None. So, consider a situation where you create a widget, save a reference
to it, and add a geometry manager (say, pack()) on the same line, as
follows:
my_label = Label(...).pack()

In this case, you are actually not creating a reference to the widget.
Instead, you are creating a None type object for the my_label variable.
So, when you later try to modify the widget through the reference, you
get an error because you are actually trying to work on a None type
object.
If you need a reference to a widget, you must create it on one line and
then specify its geometry (like pack()) on the second line, as follows:
my_label = Label(...)
my_label.pack()

This is one of the most common errors committed by beginners.

Getting to know the core Tkinter widgets

Now, you will get to know all the core Tkinter widgets. You have already seen two
of them in the previous examplethe Label and Button widgets. Now, let's see all
the other core Tkinter widgets.
Tkinter includes 21 core widgets, which are as follows:
Toplevel widget

Label widget

Button widget

Canvas widget

Checkbutton widget

Entry widget

Frame widget

LabelFrame widget

Listbox widget

Menu widget

Menubutton widget

Message widget

OptionMenu widget

PanedWindow widget

Radiobutton widget

Scale widget

Scrollbar widget

Spinbox widget

Text widget

Bitmap Class widget

Image Class widget

Let's write a program to display all of these widgets in the root window.

[ 10 ]

Chapter 1

Adding widgets to a parent window

The format used to add widgets is the same as the one that we discussed in the
previous task. To give you an idea about how it's done, here's some sample code
that adds some common widgets:
Label(parent, text="Enter your Password:")
Button(parent, text="Search")
Checkbutton(parent, text="Remember Me", variable=v, value=True)
Entry(parent, width=30)
Radiobutton(parent, text="Male", variable=v, value=1)
Radiobutton(parent, text="Female", variable=v, value=2)
OptionMenu(parent, var, "Select Country", "USA", "UK", "India",
"Others")
Scrollbar(parent, orient=VERTICAL, command= text.yview)

Can you spot the pattern that is common to each widget? Can you spot the
differences?
As a reminder, the syntax for adding a widget is as follows:
Widget-name(its_parent, **its_configuration_options)

Using the same pattern, let's add all the 21 core Tkinter widgets into a dummy
application (the 1.03.py code). We do not produce the entire code here. A
summarized code description for 1.03.py is as follows:

We create a top-level window and a main loop, as shown in the earlier

examples.

We add a Frame widget and name it menu_bar. Note that Frame widgets
are just holder widgets that hold other widgets. Frame widgets are great for
grouping widgets together. The syntax for adding a frame is the same as that
of all the other widgets:
frame = Frame(root)
frame.pack()

Keeping the menu_bar frame as the container, we add two widgets to it:

Menubutton

Menu

[ 11 ]

Meet Tkinter

We create another Frame widget and name it frame. Keeping frame as the
container/parent widget, we add the following seven widgets to it:

Label

Entry

Button

Checkbutton

Radiobutton

OptionMenu

Bitmap Class

We then proceed to create another Frame widget. We add six more widgets
to the frame:

Image Class

Listbox

Spinbox

Scale

LabelFrame

Message

We then create another Frame widget. We add two more widgets to

the frame:

Text

Scrollbar

We create another Frame widget and add two more widgets to it:

Canvas

PanedWindow

All of these widgets constitute the 21 core widgets of Tkinter.

Now that you have had a glimpse of all the widgets, let's discuss how to specify the
location of these widgets using geometry managers.

[ 12 ]

Chapter 1

The Tkinter geometry manager

You may recall that we used the pack() method to add widgets to the dummy
application that we developed in the previous section. The pack() method is an
example of geometry management in Tkinter.
The pack() method is not the only way of managing the geometry in your interface.
In fact, there are three geometry managers in Tkinter that let you specify the position
of widgets inside a top-level or parent window.
The three geometry managers are as follows:

pack: This is the one that we have used so far. It is simple to use for simpler
layouts, but it may get very complex for slightly complex layouts.

grid: This is the most commonly used geometry manager that provides a

table-like layout of management features for easy layout management.

place: This is the least popular, but it provides the best control for the

absolute positioning of widgets.

Now, let's have a look at some examples of all the three geometry managers
in action.

The pack geometry manager

The pack manager can be a bit tricky to explain in words, and it can best be
understood by playing with the code base. Fredrik Lundh, the author of Tkinter, asks
us to imagine the root as an elastic sheet with a small opening at the center. The pack
geometry manager makes a hole in the elastic sheet that is just large enough to hold
the widget. The widget is placed along a given inner edge of the gap (the default
is the top edge). It then repeats the process till all the widgets are accommodated.
Finally, when all the widgets have been packed in the elastic sheet, the geometry
manager calculates the bounding box for all the widgets. It then makes the parent
widget large enough to hold all the child widgets.
When packing the child widgets, the pack manager distinguishes between the
following three kinds of space:

The unclaimed space

The claimed but unused space

The claimed and used space

[ 13 ]

Meet Tkinter

The most commonly used options in pack include the following:

side: LEFT, TOP, RIGHT, and BOTTOM (these decide the alignment of

fill: X, Y, BOTH, and NONE (these decide whether the widget can grow in size)

expand: Boolean values such as tkinter.YES/tkinter.NO, 1/0, True/

False

anchor: NW, N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, and CENTER (corresponding to the

Internal padding (ipadx and ipady) for the padding inside widgets and
external padding (padx and pady), which all default to a value of zero

the widget)

cardinal directions)

Let's take a look at a demo code that illustrates some of the pack features.
Two of the most commonly used pack options are fill and expand.
Here's the code snippet (code 1.04.py) that will generate a GUI like the one shown
in following screenshot:

The following is the code (1.04.py) that generates the preceding GUI:
from tkinter import *
root = Tk()
frame = Frame(root)
# demo of side and fill options
Label(frame, text="Pack Demo of side and fill").pack()
Button(frame, text="A").pack(side=LEFT, fill=Y)
Button(frame, text="B").pack(side=TOP, fill=X)
Button(frame, text="C").pack(side=RIGHT, fill=NONE)
Button(frame, text="D").pack(side=TOP, fill=BOTH)
[ 14 ]

Chapter 1
frame.pack()
# note the top frame does not expand nor does it fill in
# X or Y directions
# demo of expand options - best understood by expanding the root
widget and seeing the effect on all the three buttons below.
Label (root, text="Pack Demo of expand").pack()
Button(root, text="I do not expand").pack()
Button(root, text="I do not fill x but I expand").pack(expand = 1)
Button(root, text="I fill x and expand").pack(fill=X, expand=1)
root.mainloop()

The following is a description of the preceding code:

When you insert the A button in the root frame, it captures the leftmost area
of the frame, expands, and fills the Y dimension. Because the fill option
is specified as fill=Y, it claims all the area that it wants and fills the Y
dimension of its frame container frame.

Because frame is itself packed with a plain pack() method with no mention
of a pack option, it takes the minimum space required to accommodate all of
its child widgets.

If you increase the size of the root window by pulling it down or sideways,
you will see that the all the buttons within frame do not fill or expand with
the root window.

The positioning of the B, C, and D buttons occurs on the basis of the side
and fill options specified for each of them.

The next three buttons (after B, C, and D) demonstrate the use of the expand
option. A value of expand=1 means that the button moves its place on
resizing the window. Buttons with no explicit expand options stay at their
place and do not respond to changes in the size of their parent container
(the root window in this case).

The best way to study this piece of code would be to resize the root window
to see the effect that it has on various buttons.

The anchor attribute (not used in the preceding code) provides a means to
position a widget relative to a reference point. If the anchor attribute is not
specified, the pack manager places the widget at the center of the available
space or the packing box. The other options that are allowed include the four
cardinal directions (N, S, E, and W) and a combination of any two directions.
Therefore, valid values for the anchor attribute are CENTER (the default
value), N, S, E, W, NW, NE, SW, and SE.

[ 15 ]

Meet Tkinter

The value for most of the Tkinter geometry manager attributes can
either be specified in capital letters without quotes (such as side=TOP,
anchor=SE) or in small letters within quotes (such as side='top',
anchor='se').

We will use the pack geometry manager in some of our projects. Therefore, it will be
worthwhile to get acquainted with pack and its options.
The pack manager is ideally suited for the following two kinds of situation:

Placing widgets in a top-down manner

Placing widgets side by side

Code 1.05.py shows an example of both of these scenarios:

parent = Frame(root)
# placing widgets top-down
Button(parent, text='ALL IS WELL').pack(fill=X)
Button(parent, text='BACK TO BASICS').pack(fill=X)
Button(parent, text='CATCH ME IF U CAN').pack(fill=X)
# placing widgets side by side
Button(parent, text='LEFT').pack(side=LEFT)
Button(parent, text='CENTER').pack(side=LEFT)
Button(parent, text='RIGHT').pack(side=LEFT)
parent.pack()

The preceding code produces a GUI, as shown in the following screenshot:

For a complete pack reference, type the following command in the Python shell:
>>> import tkinter
>>> help(tkinter.Pack)

[ 16 ]

Chapter 1

Where should you use the pack() geometry manager ?

Using the pack manager is somewhat complicated as compared to the
grid method, which will be discussed next, but it is a great choice in
situations such as the following ones:

Having a widget fill the complete container frame.

Placing several widgets on top of each other or side by side (as

shown in the preceding screenshot). See code 1.05.py.

Although you can create complicated layouts by nesting widgets in multiple

frames, you will find the grid geometry manager more suitable for most of
the complex layouts.

The grid geometry manager

The grid geometry manager is easy to understand and perhaps the most useful
geometry manager in Tkinter. The central idea of the grid geometry manager is to
organize the container frame into a two-dimensional table, which is divided into a
number of rows and columns. Each cell in the table can then be targeted to hold a
widget. In this context, a cell is an intersection of imaginary rows and columns. Note
that in the grid method, each cell can hold only one widget. However, widgets can
be made to span multiple cells.
Within each cell, you can further align the position of the widget using the sticky
option. The sticky option decides how the widget is expanded. If its container cell is
larger than the size of the widget that it contains, the sticky option can be specified
using one or more of the N, S, E, and W options or the NW, NE, SW, and SE options.
Not specifying stickiness defaults to stickiness to the center of the widget in the cell.
Let's have a look at a demo code that illustrates some of the features of the grid
geometry manager. The code in 1.06.py generates a GUI, as shown in the
following screenshot:

[ 17 ]

Meet Tkinter

The following is the code (1.06.py) that generates the preceding GUI:
from tkinter import *
root = Tk()
Label(root, text="Username").grid(row=0, sticky=W)
Label(root, text="Password").grid(row=1, sticky=W)
Entry(root).grid(row=0, column=1, sticky=E)
Entry(root).grid(row=1, column=1, sticky=E)
Button(root, text="Login").grid(row=2, column=1, sticky=E)
root.mainloop()

The following is a description of the preceding code:

Take a look at the grid position defined in terms of the row and column
positions for an imaginary grid table spanning the entire frame. See how the
use of sticky=W on both the labels makes them stick on the left-hand side,
thus resulting in a clean layout.

The width of each column (or the height of each row) is automatically
decided by the height or width of the widgets in the cell. Therefore, you
need not worry about specifying the row or column width as equal. You can
specify the width for widgets if you need that extra bit of control.

You can use the sticky=NSEW argument to make the widget expandable and
fill the entire cell of the grid.

In a more complex scenario, your widgets may span across multiple cells in the grid.
To make a grid to span multiple cells, the grid method offers handy options such as
rowspan and columnspan.
Furthermore, you may often need to provide some padding between cells in the
grid. The grid manager provides the padx and pady options to provide padding
that needs to be placed around a widget.
Similarly, the ipadx and ipady options are used for internal padding. These options
add padding within the widget itself. The default value of an external and internal
padding is 0.
Let's have a look at an example of the grid manager, where we use most of the
common arguments to the grid method, such as row, column, padx, pady, rowspan,
and columnspan.

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Chapter 1

Code 1.07.py produces a GUI, as shown in the following screenshot, to demonstrate

how to use the grid geometry manager options:

The following is the code (1.07.py) that generates the preceding GUI:
from tkinter import *
parent = Tk()
parent.title('Find & Replace')
Label(parent, text="Find:").grid(row=0, column=0, sticky='e')
Entry(parent, width=60).grid(row=0, column=1,
padx=2, pady=2, sticky='we', columnspan=9)
Label(parent, text="Replace:").grid(row=1, column=0, sticky='e')
Entry(parent).grid(row=1, column=1, padx=2, pady=2, sticky='we',
columnspan=9)
Button(parent, text="Find").grid(
row=0, column=10, sticky='e' + 'w', padx=2, pady=2)
Button(parent, text="Find All").grid(
row=1, column=10, sticky='e' + 'w', padx=2)
Button(parent, text="Replace").grid(row=2, column=10, sticky='e' +
'w', padx=2)
Button(parent, text="Replace All").grid(
row=3, column=10, sticky='e' + 'w', padx=2)
Checkbutton(parent, text='Match whole word only').grid(
row=2, column=1, columnspan=4, sticky='w')
Checkbutton(parent, text='Match Case').grid(
row=3, column=1, columnspan=4, sticky='w')
Checkbutton(parent, text='Wrap around').grid(
row=4, column=1, columnspan=4, sticky='w')
Label(parent, text="Direction:").grid(row=2, column=6, sticky='w')
Radiobutton(parent, text='Up', value=1).grid(
row=3, column=6, columnspan=6, sticky='w')
Radiobutton(parent, text='Down', value=2).grid(
row=3, column=7, columnspan=2, sticky='e')
parent.mainloop()
[ 19 ]

Meet Tkinter

Note how just 14 lines of the core grid manager code generate a complex layout
such as the one shown in the preceding screenshot. On the contrary, developing
this with the pack manager would have been much more tedious.
Another grid option that you can sometimes use is the widget.grid_forget()
method. This method can be used to hide a widget from the screen. When you use
this option, the widget still exists at its former location, but it becomes invisible.
The hidden widget may be made visible again, but the grid options that you had
originally assigned to the widget will be lost.
Similarly, there is a widget.grid_remove() method that removes the widget, except
that in this case, when you make the widget visible again, all of its grid options will
be restored.
For a complete grid reference, type the following command in the Python shell:
>>> import tkinter
>>> help(tkinter.Grid)

Where should you use the grid geometry manager?

The grid manager is a great tool for the development of complex layouts.
Complex structures can be easily achieved by breaking the container
widget into grids of rows and columns and then placing the widgets
in grids where they are wanted. It is also commonly used to develop
different kinds of dialog boxes.

Now, we will delve into configuring a grid's column and row sizes.
Different widgets have different heights and widths. So, when you specify the
position of a widget in terms of rows and columns, the cell automatically expands
to accommodate the widget.
Normally, the height of all the grid rows is automatically adjusted to be the height of
its tallest cell. Similarly, the width of all the grid columns is adjusted to be equal to
the width of the widest widget cell.
If you then want a smaller widget to fill a larger cell or to stay at any one side of the
cell, you can use the sticky attribute on the widget to control this aspect.
However, you can override this automatic sizing of columns and rows by using the
following code:
w.columnconfigure(n, option=value, ...)
w.rowconfigure(N, option=value, ...)

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AND

Chapter 1

Use these to configure the options for a given widget, w, in either the nth column or
the nth row, specifying values for the options, minsize, pad, and weight. Note that
the numbering of rows begins from 0 and not 1.
The options available are as follows:
Options
minsize

Description
This is the minimum size of a column or row in pixels. If there is no
widget in a given column or row, the cell does not appear in spite of this
minsize specification.

pad

This is the external padding in pixels that will be added to the specified
column or row over the size of the largest cell.

weight

This specifies the relative weight of a row or column and then

distributes the extra space. This enables making the row or column
stretchable.
For example, the following code distributes two-fifths of the extra space
to the first column and three-fifths to the second column:
w.columnconfigure(0, weight=2)
w.columnconfigure(1, weight=3)

The columnconfigure() and rowconfigure() methods are often used to implement

the dynamic resizing of widgets, especially on resizing the root window.
You cannot use the grid and pack methods together in the same
container window. If you try doing that, your program will raise
a _tkinter.TclError error.

The place geometry manager

The place geometry manager is the most rarely used geometry manager in Tkinter.
Nevertheless, it has its uses in that it lets you precisely position widgets within its
parent frame by using the (x,y) coordinate system.
The place manager can be accessed by using the place() method on all the
standard widgets.
The important options for place geometry include the following:

Absolute positioning (specified in terms of x=N or y=N)

Relative positioning (the key options include relx, rely, relwidth,

and relheight)

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Meet Tkinter

The other options that are commonly used with place include width and anchor
(the default is NW). Refer to the code in 1.08.py for a demonstration of the common
place options:
from tkinter import *
root = Tk()
# Absolute positioning
Button(root, text="Absolute Placement").place(x=20, y=10)
# Relative positioning
Button(root, text="Relative").place(
relx=0.8, rely=0.2, relwidth=0.5, width=10, anchor=NE)
root.mainloop()

You may not see much of a difference between the absolute and relative positions
simply by looking at the code or the window frame. However, if you try resizing the
window, you will observe that the button placed does not change its coordinates,
while the relative button changes its coordinates and size to accommodate the new
size of the root window.

For a complete place reference, type the following command in the Python shell:
>>> import tkinter
>>> help(tkinter.Place)

When should you use the place manager?

The place manager is useful in situations where you have to implement
the custom geometry managers, where the widget placement is decided
by the end user.
While the pack and grid managers cannot be used together in the same
frame, the place manager can be used with any geometry manager
within the same container frame.
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Chapter 1

The place manager is rarely used because, if you use it, you have to worry about
the exact coordinates. If you make a minor change to a widget, it is very likely that
you will have to change the X-Y values for other widgets as well, which can be
very cumbersome.
We will not use the place manager in our projects. However, knowing that options
for coordinate-based placement exist can be helpful in certain situations.
This concludes our discussion on geometry management in Tkinter.
In this section, you had a look at how to implement the pack, grid, and place
geometry managers. You also understood the strengths and weaknesses of each
geometry manager.
You learned that pack is suitable for a simple side-wise or top-down widget
placement. You also learned that the grid manager is best suited for the handling of
complex layouts. You saw examples of the place geometry manager and explored
the reasons behind why it is rarely used.
You should now be able to plan and execute different layouts for your programs
using these Tkinter geometry managers.

Events and callbacks adding life to

programs
Now that you have learned how to add widgets to a screen and position them where
you want, let's turn our attention to the third component of GUI programming.
This addresses the question of how to make widgets functional.
Making widgets functional involves making them responsive to events such as the
pressing of buttons, the pressing of keys on a keyboard, mouse clicks, and the like.
This requires associating callbacks with specific events.
Callbacks are normally associated with specific widget events using the command
binding rules, which is discussed in the following section.

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Meet Tkinter

Command binding
The simplest way to add functionality to a button is called command binding,
whereby a callback function is mentioned in the form of command = some_callback
in the widget option. Note that the command option is available only for a few
selected widgets.
Take a look at the following sample code:
def my_callback ():
# do something when button is clicked

After defining the above callback we can connect it to, say, a button with the command
option referring to the callback, as follows:
Button(root, text="Click me", command=my_callback)

A callback is a function memory reference (my_callback in the preceding example)

that is called by another function (which is Button in the preceding example), which
takes the first function as a parameter. Put simply, a callback is a function that you
provide to another function so that it can call it.
Note that my_callback is passed without parentheses () from within the widget
command option, because when the callback functions are set, it is necessary to pass
a reference to a function rather than actually call it.
If you add parentheses () like you do for any normal function, it would be called
as soon as the program runs. In contrast, the callback is called only when an event
occurs (the pressing of a button in this case).

Passing arguments to callbacks

If a callback does not take any argument, it can be handled with a simple function,
such as the one shown in the preceding code. However, if a callback needs to take
arguments, we can use the lambda function, as shown in the following code snippet:
def my_callback (argument)
#do something with argument

Then, somewhere else in the code, we define a button with a command callback
that takes some arguments, as follows:
Button(root,text="Click", command=lambda: my_callback
('some argument'))

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Chapter 1

Python borrows syntax from functional programming called the lambda function.
The lambda function lets you define a single-line, nameless function on the fly.
The format for using lambda is as follows:
lambda arg: #do something with arg in a single line

Here's an example:
square = lambda x: x**2

Now, we can call the square method, as follows:

>>> print(square(5)) ## prints 25 to the console

Limitations of the command option

The command option that is available with the Button widget and a few other widgets
is a function that can make the programming of a click-of-a-button event easy. Many
other widgets do not provide an equivalent command binding option.
By default, the command button binds to the left-click and the space bar. It does not
bind to the return key. Therefore, if you bind a button by using the command function,
it will react to the space bar and not the return key. This is counter-intuitive for many
users. What's worse is that you cannot change the binding of the command function
easily. The moral is that the command binding, though a very handy tool,
is not flexible enough when it comes to deciding your own bindings.

Event binding
Fortunately, Tkinter provides an alternative form of an event binding mechanism
called bind() to let you deal with different events. The standard syntax used to
bind an event is as follows:
widget.bind(event, handler, add=None)

When an event corresponding to the event description occurs in the widget, it calls
not only the associated handler that passes an instance of the event object as the
argument, but also the details of the event. If there already exists a binding for that
event for this widget, the old callback is usually replaced with the new handler, but
you can trigger both the callbacks by passing add='+' as the last argument.

[ 25 ]

Meet Tkinter

Let's look at an example of the bind() method (refer to the 1.09.py code file):
from tkinter import *
root = Tk()
Label(root, text='Click at different\n locations in the frame
below').pack()
def callback(event):
print dir(event)
print "you clicked at", event.x, event.y
frame = Frame(root, bg='khaki', width=130, height=80)
frame.bind("<Button-1>", callback)
frame.pack()
root.mainloop()

The following is a description of the preceding code:

We bind the Frame widget to the <Button-1> event, which corresponds to

the left-click. When this event occurs, it calls the callback function, passing
an object instance as its argument.

We define the callback(event) function. Note that it takes the event object
generated by the event as an argument.

We inspect the event object by using dir(event), which returns a sorted

list of attribute names for the event object passed to it. This prints the
following list:
['__doc__', '__module__', 'char', 'delta', 'height', 'keycode',
'keysym', 'keysym_num', 'num', 'send_event', 'serial', 'state',
'time', 'type', 'widget', 'width', 'x', 'x_root', 'y', 'y_root']

From the attributes list generated by the object, we use two attributes,

event.x and event.y, to print the coordinates of the point of click.

When you run the preceding code (code 1.09.py), it produces a window, as shown
in following screenshot:

[ 26 ]

Chapter 1

When you left-click anywhere in the yellow-colored frame within the root window,
it outputs messages to the console. A sample message passed to the console is
as follows:
['__doc__', '__module__', 'char', 'delta', 'height', 'keycode',
'keysym', 'keysym_num', 'num', 'send_event', 'serial', 'state',
'time', 'type', 'widget', 'width', 'x', 'x_root', 'y', 'y_root']
You clicked at 63 36.

Event patterns
In the previous example, you learned how to use the <Button-1> event to denote a
left-click. This is a built-in pattern in Tkinter that maps it to a left-click event. Tkinter
has an exhaustive mapping scheme that perfectly identifies events such as this one.
Here are some examples to give you an idea of event patterns:
The event pattern
<Button-1>

The associated event

Left-click of the mouse

<KeyPress-B>

A keyboard press of the B key

<Alt-Control-KeyPress- KP_Delete>

A keyboard press of Alt + Ctrl + Delete

In general, the mapping pattern takes the following form:

<[event modifier-]...event type [-event detail]>

Typically, an event pattern will comprise the following:

An event type: Some common event types include Button, ButtonRelease,

KeyRelease, Keypress, FocusIn, FocusOut, Leave (when the mouse leaves
the widget), and MouseWheel. For a complete list of event types, refer to the
The event types section at http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.6/TkCmd/bind.
htm#M7.

An event modifier (optional): Some common event modifiers include Alt,

Any (used like <Any-KeyPress>), Control, Double (used like <DoubleButton-1> to denote a double-click of the left mouse button), Lock, and
Shift. For a complete list of event modifiers, refer to the The event modifiers
section at http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.6/TkCmd/bind.htm#M6.

[ 27 ]

Meet Tkinter

The event detail (optional): The mouse event detail is captured by the
number 1 for a left-click and the number 2 for a right-click. Similarly,
each key press on the keyboard is either represented by the key letter itself
(say, B in <KeyPress-B>) or by using a key symbol abbreviated as keysym.
For example, the up arrow key on the keyboard is represented by the keysym
value of KP_Up. For a complete keysym mapping, refer to https://www.tcl.
tk/man/tcl8.6/TkCmd/bind.htm.

Let's take a look at a practical example of the event binding on widgets (refer to code

1.10.py for the complete working example).

The following is a modified snippet of code; it will give you an idea of the commonly
used event bindings:
widget.bind("<Button-1>", callback) #bind widget to left mouse
click
widget.bind("<Button-2>", callback) # bind to right mouse click
widget.bind("<Return>", callback)# bind to Return(Enter) Key
widget.bind("<FocusIn>", callback) #bind to Focus in Event
widget.bind("<KeyPress-A>", callback)# bind to keypress A
widget.bind("<KeyPress-Caps_Lock>", callback)# bind to CapsLock
keysym
widget.bind("<KeyPress-F1>", callback)# bind widget to F1 keysym
widget.bind("<KeyPress-KP_5>", callback)# bind to keypad number 5
widget.bind("<Motion>", callback) # bind to motion over widget
widget.bind("<Any-KeyPress>", callback) # bind to any keypress

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Chapter 1

Rather than binding an event to a particular widget, you can also bind it to the top,
level window. The syntax remains the same except that now you call it on the root
instance of the root window like root.bind().

The levels of binding

In the previous section, you had a look at how to bind an event to an instance of a
widget. This can be called an instance-level binding.
However, there may be times when you need to bind events to an entire application.
At times, you may want to bind an event to a particular class of widget. Tkinter
provides the following levels of binding options for this:

Application-level binding: Application-level bindings let you use the same

binding across all windows and widgets of an application as long as any one
window of the application is in focus.
The syntax for application-level bindings is as follows:
widget.bind(event, callback, add=None)

The typical usage pattern is as follows:

root.bind_all('<F1>', show_help)

An application-level binding here means that irrespective of the widget

that is currently under focus, pressing the F1 key will always trigger the
show_help callback as long as the application is in focus.

Class-level binding: You can also bind events at a particular class level.
This is normally used to set the same behavior for all instances of a particular
widget class.
The syntax for class-level binding is as follows:
w.bind_class(class_name, event, callback, add=None)

The typical usage pattern is as follows:

my_entry.bind_class('Entry', '<Control-V>', paste)

In the preceding example, all the entry widgets will be bound to the <Control-V>
event, which will call a method named paste (event).

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Meet Tkinter

Event propagation
Most keyboard and mouse events occur at the operating system level.
It propagates hierarchically upwards from the source of the event
until it finds a window that has the corresponding binding. The event
propagation does not stop there. It propagates itself upwards, looking for
other bindings from other widgets, until it reaches the root window. If
it does reach the root window and no bindings are discovered by it, the
event is disregarded.

Handling widget-specific variables

You need variables with a wide variety of widgets. You likely need a string variable
to track what the user enters into the entry widget or text widget. You most probably
need Boolean variables to track whether the user has checked off the Checkbox
widget. You need integer variables to track the value entered in a Spinbox or
Slider widget.
In order to respond to changes in widget-specific variables, Tkinter offers its own
variable class. The variable that you can use to track widget-specific values must
be subclassed from this Tkinter variable class. Tkinter offers some commonly used
predefined variables. They are StringVar, IntVar, BooleanVar, and DoubleVar.
You can use these variables to capture and play with the changes in the values of
variables from within your callback functions. You can also define your own variable
type, if required.
Creating a Tkinter variable is simple. You simply have to call the constructor:
my_string = StringVar()
ticked_yes = BooleanVar()
group_choice = IntVar()
volume = DoubleVar()

Once the variable is created, you can use it as a widget option, as follows:
Entry(root, textvariable=my_string)
Checkbutton(root, text="Remember Me", variable=ticked_yes)
Radiobutton(root, text="Option1", variable=group_choice,
value="option1") #radiobutton
Scale(root, label="Volume Control", variable=volume, from =0,
to=10) # slider

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Chapter 1

Additionally, Tkinter provides access to the values of variables via the set() and
get() methods, as follows:
my_var.set("FooBar") # setting value of variable
my_var.get() # Assessing the value of variable from say a callback

A demonstration of the Tkinter variable class is available in the 1.11.py code file.
The code generates a window, as shown in the following screenshot:

This concludes our brief discussion on events and callbacks. Here's a brief summary
of the things that we discussed:

The command binding, which is used to bind simple widgets to

certain functions

The use of the lambda function in case you need to process arguments

Event binding using the widget.bind(event, callback, add=None)

method to bind keyboard and mouse events to your widgets and invoke
callbacks when certain events occur

The passing of extra arguments to a callback

The binding of events to an entire application or to a particular class of

widget by using bind_all() and bind_class()

Using the Tkinter variable class to set and get the values of widget-specific
variables

In short, you now know how to make your GUI program responsive to
end-user requests!

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Meet Tkinter

Event unbinding and virtual events

In addition to the bind method that you previously saw, you might find the
following two event-related options useful in certain cases:

unbind: Tkinter provides the unbind option to undo the effect of an earlier
binding. The syntax is as follows:
widget.unbind(event)

The following are some examples of its usage:

entry.unbind('<Alt-Shift-5>')
root.unbind_all('<F1>')
root.unbind_class('Entry', '<KeyPress-Del>')

Virtual events: Tkinter also lets you create your own events. You can give
these virtual events any name that you want.
For example, let's suppose that you want to create a new event called

<<commit>>, which is triggered by the F9 key. To create this virtual

event on a given widget, use the following syntax:

widget.event_add('<<commit>>', '<KeyRelease-F9>')

You can then bind <<commit>> to a callback by using a normal bind()

method, as follows:
widget.bind('<<commit>>', callback)

Other event-related methods can be accessed by typing the following line in the
Python terminal:
>>> import tkinter
>>> help(tkinter.Event)

Now that you are ready to dive into real application development with Tkinter, let's
spend some time exploring a few custom styling options that Tkinter offers. We will
also have a look at some of the configuration options that are commonly used with
the root window.

Doing it in style
So far, we have relied on Tkinter to provide specific platform-based styling for our
widgets. However, you can specify your own styling of widgets, such as their color,
font size, border width, and relief. A brief introduction of styling features that are
available in Tkinter is covered in the following section.
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Chapter 1

You may recall that we can specify the widget options at the time of its instantiation,
as follows:
my_button = Button(parent, **configuration options)

Alternatively, you can specify the widget options by using configure () in the
following way:
my_button.configure(**options)

The styling options are also specified as options to the widgets either at the time of
creating the widgets, or later by using the configure option.

Specifying styles
Under the purview of styling, we will cover how to apply different colors, fonts,
border widths, reliefs, cursors, and bitmap icons to widgets.
First, let's see how to specify the color options for a widget. You can specify the
following two types of color for most widgets:

The background color

The foreground color

You can specify the color by using hexadecimal color codes for the proportion of red,
green, and blue. The commonly used representations are #rgb (4 bits), #rrggbb (8
bits), and #rrrgggbbb (12 bits).
For example, #fff is white, #000000 is black, #f00 is red (R=0xf, G=0x0, B=0x0),
#00ff00 is green (R=0x00, G=0xff, B=0x00), and #000000fff is blue (R=0x000,
G=0x000, B=0xfff).
Alternatively, Tkinter provides mapping for standard color names. For a list of
predefined named colors, visit http://wiki.tcl.tk/37701 or http://wiki.tcl.
tk/16166.
Next, let's have a look at how to specify fonts for our widgets. A font can be
represented as a string by using the following string signature:
{font family} fontsize fontstyle

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Meet Tkinter

The elements of the preceding syntax can be explained as follows:

font family: This is the complete font family long name. It should
preferably be in lowercase, such as font="{nimbus roman} 36 bold
italic".

fontsize: This is in a printer's point unit (pt) or pixel unit (px).

fontstyle: This is a mix of normal/bold/italic and underline/

overstrike.

The following are the examples that illustrate the method of specifying fonts:
widget.configure (font='Times 8')
widget.configure(font='Helvetica 24 bold italic')

If you set a Tkinter dimension in a plain integer, the measurements take place in
pixel units. Alternatively, Tkinter accepts four other measurement units, which are
m (millimeters), c (centimeters), i (inches), and p (printer's points, which are about
1/72").
For instance, if you want to specify the wrap length of a button in terms of a printer's
point, you can specify it as follows:
button.configure(wraplength="36p")

The default border width for most Tkinter widgets is 2 px. You can change the border
width of the widgets by specifying it explicitly, as shown in the following line:
button.configure(borderwidth=5)

The relief style of a widget refers to the difference between the highest and lowest
elevations in a widget. Tkinter offers six possible relief stylesflat, raised, sunken,
groove, solid, and ridge:
button.configure(relief='raised')

Tkinter lets you change the style of the mouse cursor when you hover over a
particular widget. This is done by using the option cursor, as follows:
button.configure(cursor='cross')

For a complete list of available cursors, refer to https://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.6/

TkCmd/cursors.htm.

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Chapter 1

Though you can specify the styling options at each widget level, sometimes it may
be cumbersome to do so individually for each widget. Widget-specific styling has
the following disadvantages:

It mixes logic and presentation into one file, making the code bulky and
difficult to manage

Any change in styling has to be applied to each widget individually

It violates the don't repeat yourself (DRY) principle of effective coding,

as you keep specifying the same style for a large number of widgets

Fortunately, Tkinter now offers a way to separate presentation from logic and specify
styles in what is called the external option database. This is nothing but a text file
where you can specify the common styling options.
A typical option database text file looks like this:
*background: AntiqueWhite1
*Text*background: #454545
*Button*foreground: gray55
*Button*relief: raised
*Button*width: 3

In its simplest use, the asterisk (*) symbol here means that the particular style is
applied to all the instances of the given widget. For a more complex usage of the
asterisk in styling, refer to http://infohost.nmt.edu/tcc/help/pubs/tkinter/
web/resource-lines.html.
These entries are placed in an external text (.txt) file. To apply this styling to a
particular piece of code, you can simply call it by using the option_readfile()
call early in your code, as shown here:
root.option_readfile('optionDB.txt')

Let's have a look at an example (see code 1.12.py) of using this external styling text
file in a program:
from tkinter import *
root = Tk()
root.configure(background='#4D4D4D')#top level styling
# connecting to the external styling optionDB.txt
root.option_readfile('optionDB.txt')
#widget specific styling
mytext = Text(root, background='#101010', foreground="#D6D6D6",
borderwidth=18, relief='sunken',width=17, height=5)
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Meet Tkinter
mytext.insert(END, "Style is knowing who you are, what you want to
say, and not giving a damn.")
mytext.grid(row=0, column=0, columnspan=6, padx=5, pady=5)
# all the below widgets derive their styling from optionDB.txt
file
Button(root, text='*').grid(row=1, column=1)
Button(root, text='^').grid(row=1, column=2)
Button(root, text='#').grid(row=1, column=3)
Button(root, text='<').grid(row=2, column=1)
Button(root, text='OK', cursor='target').grid(row=2,
column=2)#changing cursor style
Button(root, text='>').grid(row=2, column=3)
Button(root, text='+').grid(row=3, column=1)
Button(root, text='v').grid(row=3, column=2)
Button(root, text='-').grid(row=3, column=3)
for i in range(9):
Button(root, text=str(i+1)).grid(row=4+i//3, column=1+i%3)
root.mainloop()

The following is a description of the preceding code:

The code connects to an external styling file called optionDB.txt that

defines common styling for the widgets.

The next segment of code creates a Text widget and specifies styling on the
widget level.

The next segment of code has several buttons, all of which derive their
styling from the centralized optionDB.txt file. One of the buttons also
defines a custom cursor.

Specifying attributes such as font sizes, the border width, the widget width, the
widget height, and padding in absolute numbers, as we have done in the preceding
example, can cause some display variations between different operating systems such
as Ubuntu, Windows, and Mac respectively, as shown in the following screenshot.
This is due to differences in the rendering engines of different operating systems.

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Chapter 1

Left: Ubuntu, Middle: Microsoft Windows, Right: Mac OS X

When deploying cross-platform, it is better to avoid specifying attribute

sizes in absolute numbers. It is often the best choice to let the platform
handle the attribute sizes.

Some common root window options

Now that we are done discussing styling options, let's wrap up with a discussion on
some commonly used options for the root window:
Method
*root.
geometry('142x280+150+200')
** self.root.wm_
iconbitmap('mynewicon.ico')

Description
You can specify the size and location of
a root window by using a string of the
widthxheight + xoffset + yoffset form.
This changes the title bar icon to something
that is different from the default Tk icon.

or
self.root.
iconbitmap('mynewicon.ico ')

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Meet Tkinter

Method
root.overrideredirect(1)

Description
This removes the root border frame. It
hides the frame that contains the minimize,
maximize, and close buttons.

Let's explain these styling options in more detail:

root.geometry('142x280+150+200'): Specifying the geometry of the root

self.root.wm_iconbitmap('my_icon.ico') or self.root.
iconbitmap('my_icon.ico '): This option is only applicable to Windows.

window limits the launch size of the root window. If the widgets do not fit in
the specified size, the widgets get clipped from the window. It is often better
not to specify this and let Tkinter decide this for you.

Unix-based operating systems do not display the title bar icon.

Getting interactive help

This section is true not only for Tkinter, but also for a Python object for which you
may need help.
Let's say that you need a reference to the Tkinter pack geometry manager. You can
get interactive help in your Python interactive shell by using the help command,
as shown in the following command lines:
>>> import tkinter
>>> help(tkinter.Pack)

This provides a detailed help documentation of all the methods defined under the
Pack class in Tkinter.
You can similarly receive help for all the other individual widgets. For instance, you
can check the comprehensive and authoritative help documentation for the Label
widget in the interactive shell by typing the following command:
>>>help(tkinter.Label)

This provides a list of the following:

All the methods defined in the Label class

All the standard and widget-specific options for the Label widget

All the methods inherited from other classes

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Chapter 1

Finally, when in doubt regarding a method, look into the source code of Tkinter,
which is located at <location-of-python-installation>\lib\ directory. For
instance, the Tkinter source code is located in the /usr/lib/python3.4/tkinter
directory on my Ubuntu 14.04 operating system.
You might also find it useful to look at the source code implementation of
various other modules, such as the color chooser, file dialogs, ttk module,
and the other modules located in the aforementioned directory.

You can also find an excellent documentation of Tkinter at http://infohost.nmt.

edu/tcc/help/pubs/tkinter/web/index.html.

Summary
This brings us to end of Chapter 1, Meet Tkinter. This chapter is aimed to provide
a high-level overview of Tkinter. We worked our way through all the important
concepts that drive a Tkinter program.
You now know what a root window is and how to set it up. You also know the
21 core Tkinter widgets and how to set them up. We also had a look at how to lay
out our programs by using the pack, grid, and place geometry managers, and make
our programs functional by using events and callbacks. Finally, you saw how to
apply custom styles to GUI programs.
To summarize, we can now start thinking of making interesting, functional, and
stylish GUI programs with Tkinter!

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Get more information Tkinter GUI Application Development Blueprints

Where to buy this book

You can buy Tkinter GUI Application Development Blueprints from the
Packt Publishing website.
Alternatively, you can buy the book from Amazon, BN.com, Computer Manuals and most internet
book retailers.
Click here for ordering and shipping details.

www.PacktPub.com

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