[Richard Suchenwirth] -- Here's some helper routines that extract menu implementations, including cascaded radios (R), separators(-- --), checkbuttons(x), initially disabled items (-) etc., from a pretty simple specification that might look like this:
 menu:create . {
    File {
	Open.. {puts open}
	New..  {puts new}
	-- --
	"x Check me" {puts $Check_me}
	Exit   exit
    }
    Edit {
	Cut    {puts cut; menu:enable . Edit Paste}
	Copy   {puts copy}
	-Paste {puts paste}
    }
    Radio {
	"R Band" {
	    band FM
	    FM {}
	    AM {}
	    SW {}
	}
    }
    Help {
	About {puts about}
    }
 }
For each menu item, you may specify the associated command to be called when the menu is selected. ''NB: It is recommended and more efficient to call a handler proc there, which has all the details and will be compiled!''
Checkbuttons toggle a global variable (in whose name, spaces are replaced by underscores, e.g. "x Check me" toggles ::Check_me). Radios set the specified variable ("band" in the example) to the selected value, initially to the specified default (here: FM).

After the initial specification, you may add new top or lower items, delete, disable or enable lower items by the appropriate procedures (see below).
 menu:add . Help {More {puts "sorry, no more"}}
And here's the code (absolutely no warranty, but it worked in my killer app for years now. Enjoy!):
 proc menu:create {w menulist} {
    if {$w=="."} {set w2 ""} else {set w2 $w}
    menu $w2.menubar; $w config -menu $w2.menubar
    foreach {hdr items} $menulist {menu:add $w $hdr $items}
 }
 proc menu:add {w top descr} {
    if {$w=="."} {set w ""}
    set it $w.menubar.m$top
    if {![winfo exists $it]} {
	menu $it
	$w.menubar add cascade -label $top -menu $it -underline 0
    }
    foreach {label cmd} $descr {
	if {$label=="--"} {$it add separator; continue}
	if {[regexp {^-(.+)} $label -> label]} {
	    set state disabled
	} else {set state normal}
	if ![catch {$it index $label}] continue ;# label was there
	if {[regexp {^x (.+)} $label -> label]} {
	    regsub -all " " $label "_" xlabel
	    $it add check -label $label -state $state\
		    -variable ::$xlabel -command $cmd
	} elseif {[regexp {^R (.+)} $label -> label]} {
	    catch {$it add cascade -label $label -menu $it.r$label}
	    set radi [menu $it.r$label -tearoff 0]
	    foreach {varname default} $cmd break
	    global $varname
	    set $varname $default
	    foreach {txt cmd} [lrange $cmd 2 end] {
		$radi add radio -label $txt -variable $varname -command $cmd
	    }
	} else {
	    $it add command -label $label -state $state -command $cmd
	}
    }
 }
 proc menu:delete {w top label} {
    if {$w=="."} {set w ""}
    set it $w.menubar.m$top
    catch {$it delete [$it index $label]}
 }
 proc menu:disable {w top args} {
    if {$w=="."} {set w ""}
    foreach a $args {
	catch {$w.menubar.m$top entryconfigure $a -state disabled}
    }
 }
 proc menu:enable {w top args} {
    if {$w=="."} {set w ""}
    foreach a $args {
	catch {$w.menubar.m$top entryconfigure $a -state normal}
    }
 }


There was a dollar sign missing on ::xlabel in the checkbox routine.  I changed it to ::$xlabel.  It works now.  Friday, May 03, 2002 -- [Ro]


You might also check out: [Menus Even Easier] -- Larry Smith