I needed to disable a whole group of widgets:
# gui::recursivestate --
#
# Set state for a window and its children, recursively.
proc gui::recursivestate {w newstate} {
variable widgetstates
set clist [$w configure]
set idx [lsearch $clist [list -state *]]
if { $idx > -1 } {
set slist [lindex $clist $idx]
set currentstate [lindex $slist 4]
set widgetstates($w) $currentstate
$w configure -state $newstate
}
foreach c [winfo children $w] {
gui::recursivestate $c $newstate
}
}
# gui::restorestate --
#
# Restore widgets previously affected by recursivestate to their
# native state.
proc gui::restorestate {} {
variable widgetstates
foreach {w oldstate} [array get widgetstates] {
$w configure -state $oldstate
}
array set widgetstates {}