README
1/*
2 * This is a port of the tcl/tk Tktable Widget version 2.8 to perl/tk
3 */
4
5 *************************************
6 The Tk::TableMatrix Widget
7 *************************************
8
9INTRODUCTION
10
11Tk::TableMatrix is a table/matrix widget extension to perl/tk
12for displaying data in a table (or spreadsheet) format.
13The basic features of the widget are:
14
15 * multi-line cells
16 * support for embedded windows (one per cell)
17 * row & column spanning
18 * variable width columns / height rows (interactively resizable)
19 * row and column titles
20 * multiple data sources ((perl hash|| perl callback) &| internal caching)
21 * supports standard Tk reliefs, fonts, colors, etc.
22 * x/y scrollbar support
23 * 'tag' styles per row, column or cell to change visual appearance
24 * in-cell editing - returns value back to data source
25 * support for disabled (read-only) tables or cells (via tags)
26 * multiple selection modes, with "active" cell
27 * multiple drawing modes to get optimal performance for larger tables
28 * optional 'flashes' when things update
29 * cell validation support
30 * Works everywhere Tk does (including Windows and Mac!)
31 (Note perltk version has only been tested on Solaris, Linux,
32 win98/NT/mingw32 as of 11/12/02)
33
34FINDING THE WIDGET
35
36The Section TBD
37
38
39BUILDING AND INSTALLING THE WIDGET
40
411. Uncompress and unpack the distribution
42
43 ON UNIX:
44 gzip -d Tk-TableMatrix<version>.tar.gz
45 tar -xf Tk-TableMatrix<version>.tar
46
47 ON WINDOWS:
48 use something like WinZip to unpack the archive.
49
50
51 This will create a subdirectory TableMatrix<version> with all the files in it.
52
532. Build/Test
54
55 perl Makefile.PL
56 make
57 make test
58
59 There are also some demos in the demo directory:
60 perl -Mblib demos/TableMatrixTest
61 perl -Mblib demos/spreadsheet
62 .
63 .
64 etc.
65
663. Install
67 make install
68
694. Read the documentation
70
71 The tcl/tk html documentation has been translated to TableMatrix.pod. You can
72 read it using the standard 'perldoc Tk::TableMatrix' command.
73
74THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR
75
76Packing
77 The table tries not to allocate huge chunks of screen real estate if
78 you ask it for a lot of rows and columns. You can always stretch out
79 the frame or explicitly tell it how big it can be. If you want to
80 stretch the table, remember to pack it with fill both and expand on,
81 or with grid, give it -sticky news and configure the grid row and column
82 for some weighting.
83
84Array
85 The array (actually a perl hash in the perltk implementation) elements
86 for the table are of the form $array{"2,3"} etc. Make
87 sure there are no spaces around the ','. Negative indices are allowed.
88
89Editing
90 If you can't edit, remember that the focus model in tk is explicit, so
91 you need to click on the table or give it the focus command. Just
92 having a selected cell is not the same thing as being able to edit.
93 You also need the editing cursor. If you can't get the cursor, make
94 sure that you actually have a variable assigned to the table, and that
95 the "state" of the cell is not disabled.
96
97COMMENTS, BUGS, etc.
98
99* Please can you send comments and bug reports to the current maintainer
100 and their best will be done to address them.
101
102* If you find a bug, a short piece of Perl Code that exercises it would be very
103 useful, or even better, compile with debugging and specify where it
104 crashed in that short piece of Code.
105