Version 17 of Tix

Updated 2008-03-05 14:01:10 by LV

Purpose: to discuss this great looking interface, provide tips on using the toolkit, and hopefully deal objectively with the current Tix versions.

What is Tix?

Tix is an extension of Tcl/Tk that provides a variety of megawidgets for GUI development.

What megawidgets does it contain?

  • balloon
  • button box
  • check list
  • combo box
  • control
  • directory selection, list, and tree
  • file dialog, entry, and selection box
  • form geometry manager
  • grid geometry manager
  • hierarchical listbox
  • label
  • option
  • meter
  • notebook
  • paned window
  • popup menus
  • scrolled hierarchical, listbox, text and other windows
  • selection
  • specific data type entry fields
  • tabular listbox
  • tree
  • Tix also supports the display items and styles concepts, as well as a megawidget framework

How is it different from BLT/Bwidgets/etc.?

What can one do with Tix that can't be done elsewhere?

Is Tix still being maintained?

2006-12-12 - sure looks like it. http://tix.cvs.sourceforge.net/tix/tix/

* Does Tix work with Tk 8.4.14 and 8.5.1?


Ioi Lam originally created Tix. His major technical concern appears to be enhancement of Tix's functionality. His code is at http://tixlibrary.sf.net/ .

Mike Clarkson maintains the stable release at http://tix.sourceforge.net/ . The main focus is stability and portability to other interpreters like Python.


lv Would someone outline the differences between the two forks of Tix?


Python includes support for Tix along with Tkinter as part of recent releases (since 2.1), but you will need the version from http://tix.sourceforge.net/ .

It is documented in the stardard Python Library Reference: http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/module-Tix.html

This makes possible such projects as the Tixapps framework http://tix.sourceforge.net/Tixapps/ which is a library and suite of programs, including Tixinspect and TixDebug, which work as either Tcl or Tkinter applications.

Perl/Tk builds incorporates most of Tix; notice, for example, [L1 ].


jmn 2006-12-12 I can't get this to build on windows 2000 using MingW. (have tried earlier versions on WinNT and failed too) Any clues on what is causing the error below?

(output of 'make'in MSys window from the tix/win folder after doing: ../configure --enable-threads --prefix=l:/tcl --with-tcl=l:/tcl/lib --with-tclinclude=l:/tcl/include --with-tk=l:/tcl/lib )

 "     -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -Wall -Wno-implicit-int  -c `echo ../generic/tixWidget.c`
 ../generic/tixWidget.c: In function `Tix_CreateWidgetCmd':
 ../generic/tixWidget.c:234: error: `ERR_IN_PROGRESS' undeclared (first use in this function)
 ../generic/tixWidget.c:234: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
 ../generic/tixWidget.c:234: error: for each function it appears in.)
 make: *** [tixWidget.o] Error 1

Alternatively, are there any windows binaries available that don't depend on cygwin? The tixapps page suggests that binaries may be found at http://starship.python.net/crew/mike/ but this page is now missing its content.


See also TixDebug, Tixapps, Tixinfo, TixInspect, TixClips, TixXf,