flexmenu
Last update: 2021-1-17 version 1.52
Sourceforge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/tcl-flexmenu/
bll 2018-9-20: An alternative menu system.
2018-9-21: There seems to be a little interest in this. I wrote it for a couple of rather minor reasons (one of which I'm not sure is valid). Though I do really like having real checkbuttons and radiobuttons in the menu, and I like the -keepopen option.
bll 2019-12-7: In production as of 2019-11-25.
1.52 2021-1-17
Mac OS: Fix menu colors for 8.6.11.
Mac OS: Fix menu relief.
1.51 2020-12-15
Get menu -relief setting from standard menus.
1.50 2020-10-26
Fix another crash checking for -keepopen item.
1.49 2020-10-24
Fix a possible crash.
Fix crash checking for -keepopen item.
1.48 2020-9-25
Added a -keepopen on a per item basis.
1.47 2020-8-28
Missing mousewheel binding for scrolling areas.
Fixed scrollbar arrow buttons not working.
1.46 2020-6-9
allow index arithmetic
add 'invoked' menu index to return invoked item.
1.45 2020-5-1
fix configure
1.44 2020-4-30
fix change of background color
1.43 2020-4-9
popup menus: fix bug: would immediately close after initial open.
1.41 2020-2-25
fix bugs with cascades introduced in 1.40
(-precommand, -yalign, -xalign)
1.40 2020-2-24
popup menus: fix bug: would immediately close after initial open.
styling issue: fix bug with non-unique styles.
clone command is now working.
The widget entry type cannot be cloned.
Added tearoff entry type.
It is a standard label, the text or image can be configured.
The -tearoff option automatically adds a tearoff item
(backwards compatibility).
-tearoffcommand is available.
-title is available. Default title is empty.
I expect this is not fully backwards compatible.
tearoff command : create your own interface to tear off menus.
1.39 2020-1-10
Prevent a outofrange crash in updownhandler.
1.38 2019-12-25
Fixed a bug in the delete() method.
Fixed a typo bug in _unpostMenu.
Fixed a bug in invokeitem setting the wrong state.
1.37 2019-12-3
Add appearance/isdark call back in using a temporary toplevel.
1.36 2019-10-31
Remove appearance/isdark call. Only works on existing windows.
1.35 2019-10-17
Fixed close check handling.
Fixed combobox click completely outside of menu window.
Added -clicktoopen option.
1.34 2019-10-17
Fixed mouse handling issues with overlapping menus.
1.33 2019-10-15
Fix a bug in delete.
1.32 2019-9-29
Fix a bug in deactivateitem, when the item is not present.
1.31 2019-9-29
Fix a bug win movement check when there was no prior movement.
1.30 2019-9-25
More MacOS color fixes.
Fix color/styling issues.
1.29 2019-9-18
Change -relief default to always be raised.
Fix bug deleting items when the layout is not set up.
Fix per-menu configuration handling for
-font, -background, -foreground.
More MacOS color fixes.
Protect grab calls.
1.28 2019-9-16
Fix gap on delete.
Fix reconfigure on insert or delete.
1.27 2019-9-16
Fix column weight issues.
MacOS: toplevels are ok for 10.14+
MacOS: revert to old dark mode test for 10.14.
1.26 2019-9-10
Internal cleanup.
Fix sizing issues.
1.25
Change color defaults for Mac OS.
1.24
Mac OS dark mode colors.
1.23
Fixed cascade unpost.
1.22
Handle change of item selection on insert/add/delete.
1.21 2018-12-03
Fix grab handling issue.
Fix close check handling.
1.20 2018-12-03
Resolve issues with menu display and configuration.
1.19 2018-12-02
Added -bindaccelerators option.
Added -stickycascade option.
Fixed display when moving off of active item in certain cases.
Fixed initial display of menu.
1.18 2018-12-02
Mac OS X: Force -mode frame, as toplevels cannot be supported
at this time.
1.17 2018-11-29
Change manual invoke processing to work when the menu is inactive.
This matches the original menu function. May create some odd
states if run on a sub-cascade.
Fixed overlapping menu handling.
1.16 2018-11-29
Allow vertical separators in menubar.
Add new -gap option for items.
1.15 2018-10-25
Fix mac os x: enter/leave processing does not work properly.
1.14 2018-10-22
Fix various bugs with user 'invoke' method.
1.13 2018-10-22
Turn off mouse activation of menus in the wait state so that
overlapping menus work (changed in 1.12).
-xalign and -yalign can have tag[+-]offset
Fix menutop/menuleft display (call postprocess).
1.12 2018-10-21
Initialize styles once only.
Fix x and y offsets.
Fix borderwidth and relief on menubar/menuleft menus.
Fix placement of active frame in scrolling window.
Fix enter/leave handling.
Fix accelerator keys.
Fix F10.
Fix left arrow item positioning.
1.11 2018-10-1
Fix mistake.
1.10 2018-10-1
Rewrite styling and active state handling (pass 1).
Some option cleanup.
1.9 2018-10-1
Fix incorrect default for -borderwidth.
Fix bad copy/paste in enterLeaveHandler.
Fix column spans with -hidemargin.
Fix non-global grab.
Fix enter/leave handling.
Fix press handler/menu.enter/grab.
Fix column weighting with -hidemargin.
1.8 2018-10-1
Fix crash when window closed.
1.7 2018-10-1
Remove tailcall.
Rewrite grab handling.
Rewrite enter/leave handling.
Fix invoke of item when -keepopen is false.
1.6 2018-9-30
Set menu colors from the current theme.
Fix -font handling.
Fix menus not closing on checkbutton select.
Button press will activate the menu and item.
1.5 2018-9-30
Fixed -borderwidth and -relief options for items.
Added -mode {toplevel|frame} option.
Cleaned up some stacking order issues
(fixes the activeframe covering menu items).
1.4 2018-9-29
Added -precommand for cascades.
Added -yalign for cascades.
Added -xalign for cascades.
Fixed bug in entrycget.
Fixed 'delete' operation to match 'menu'.
Fixed bug where the width was lost on a redisplay.
Fixed display when initial number of items did not exceed -maxheight.
Fixed various bugs with empty menus.
1.3 2018-9-22
Fixed initialization to only execute on mac os x.
Fixed incorrect state for menus after invoking an item.
Brought state table documentation up to date.
1.2 2018-9-21 (broken for non mac os x)
Fixed -padx/-pady so they will work for the main menubar
Set the -acceleratorprefix to \u2318 for Mac OS X.
This is converted to 'Meta' (hope that's right).
Changed default -acceleratorprefix to 'Alt-' (due to mac os x changes).
Fixed the colors on mac os x. Dark mode and graphite themes
are supported.
Documentation
1.1 2018-9-20
Fixed active highlight for scrolled menus
1.0 2018-9-20
initial releaseDisadvantages:
- Does not work with .toplevel configure -menu .mymenu. Tk uses the internal menu API to attach menus. flexmenu cannot work with the -menu option.
- Must use pack or grid (or place) to attach the menu. Converting an existing program to use flexmenu could be quite painful.
- The main menu must be created with either -type menubar or -type menuleft.
- It has not been tested much.
Advantages:
- Allows multiple menus to be active at the same time. You can have a main menu, a couple of toolbars and a side menu active all at the same time.
- Easier to create toolbars.
Features:
- Checkbuttons and Radiobuttons are ttk widgets.
- Supports left side menus (-type menuleft).
- Scrolling menus (-maxheight).
- Configure -columnbreak <value> at the menu level to automatically break every <value> items.
- -keepopen option will leave the menu open after invoking an item.
- -acceleratorfont, -acceleratorforeground and -acceleratoractiveforeground options.
- -activerelief option.
- -hidearrows option.
- -hideaccelerators option.
- -acceleratorprefix option to set the default accelerator prefix.
- -padx, -pady options to change the padding for menu items.
- -bindaccelerators option.
- -stickycascade option.
- -clicktoopen option.
- -mode option to select the use of frames or toplevels. (Mac OS X is forced to use -mode frame prior to version 10.14).
- Is a little more dynamic than the standard menu. Many things can be reconfigured and the changes will be picked up.
- Cascades: -precommand option. Useful for dynamic menu generation.
Item Features:
- Any widget can be put into the menu (.mymenu add widget -widget .mymenu.mycombobox).
- tearoff item type. (The -tearoff 1 option will automatically add a tearoff item). The tearoff item is a label and the text and image may be configured.
- Margin images (-marginimage). It is quite common nowadays to use small icons on the left margin of the menu as an aid for the user.
- Accelerator labels are automatically generated based on either an & prefix in the label, the -underline option, or the -accelerator option.
- Accelerator bindings are automatically generated.
- -activerelief option.
- -gap option.
- -keepopen option.
- Cascades: -yalign, -xalign options to change cascade alignment.
Notes:
- Ignored: -bitmap, -selectcolor.
- -hidemargin works properly on a per-entry basis. menu seems to treat it as a menu option even though it is specified per entry. I think -hidemargin would be better off as a menu option rather than an item option, but backwards compatibility is an issue.
- Mac OS X prior to 10.14: -mode toplevel is not supported. Mac OS X is forced into -mode frame.
Problems:
- May be overeager in generating accelerator labels. The user may not want accelerator labels displayed for every item.
- Has not been tested much.
- At this time, flexmenu does not check to see if the entire menu is visible, and does not do any relocation of the menu.
- Could use better documentation.
Known Issues:
Fixed in 1.18: Mac OS X is not working at this time (2018-10-22). Mac OS X works, but only with -mode frame. -mode frame is forced for Mac OS X (2018-11-02). (-mode toplevel works with Mojave).
Fixed in 1.1: Active item highlighting for scrolling menus is not working right.
Fixed in 1.2: The accelerator key prefix is set to Alt. This needs to be set correctly for Mac OS X, but I do not recall which meta key the Mac sends.
Fixed in 1.41: The clone command has only a very basic implementation.
Flicker with -selectimage. Currently, the menu layout is reapplied when a -image is changed to a -selectimage. This is just in case the -selectimage is a different size. If the assumption can be made that the image sizes are identical, this redraw could be removed.