The bartabs Tcl/Tk package provides a bar widget containing tabs that are

• scrollable
• markable
• moveable
• closeable
• disabled and enabled
• static and changeable
• selectable and multi-selectable
• configureable
• enhanceable with popup menu

The bartabs defines three TclOO classes: - Tab deals with tabs - Bar deals with a bar of tabs - Bars deals with bars of tabs

However, only the Bars class is used to create bars along with tabs. It can be also used to deal with any bars and tabs, providing all necessary interface.

The Bar does not create a real TclOO object, rather it provides syntax sugar for a convenient access to the bar methods.

The Tab does not create a real TclOO object as well. It serves actually for structuring bartabs code as for tab methods. Thus, its methods are accessible through the Bars ("real" TclOO) and Bar ("sugar") objects.

Work flow

A common work flow with bartabs looks like this:

Firstly, we create a Bars object, e.g.

bartabs::Bars create NS::bars

Then we create a Bar object, e.g.

NS::bars create NS::bar $barOptions

If a tab of the bar should be displayed (with its possible contents), we show the bar and select the current tab:

set TID [NS::bar tabID "tab label"] ;# get the tab's ID by its label

NS::bar $TID show ;# show the bar and select the tab

or just draw the bar without mind-breaking about a tab:

NS::bar draw ;# show the bar without selecting a tab

The rest actions include:

• responses to a selection of tab (through -csel command option of Bar object)
• responses to a deletion of tab (through -cdel command option of Bar object)
• responses to a reorganization of bar (through -cmov command option of Bar object)
• inserting and renaming tabs
• disabling and enabling tabs
• marking tabs with colors or icons
• processing the marked tabs
• processing multiple tabs selected with Ctrl+click
• scrolling tabs to left/right through key bindings
• calling other handlers through key bindings and bartabs menu
• using cget and configure methods to change the bar/tab appearance
• redrawing bars at some events
• removing and creating as much bars as required

Tab class

The methods of Tab class are called from Bars or Bar object and are passed: tab ID (TID), method name, arguments. Syntax:

OBJECT TID method arguments

For example: NS::bars $TID close or NS::bar $TID show false

Bar class

The methods of Bar class are called from Bar object or (more wordy) from Bars object. Syntax:

BAR_OBJECT method arguments

BARS_OBJECT BID method arguments

For example: NS::bar popList $X $Y or NS::bars $BID popList $X $Y

Bars class

The methods of Bars class need no TID nor BID, though not protesting them passed before method name. Syntax:

BARS_OBJECT method arguments

For example:

NS::bars drawAll ;# good boy

NS::bars tab11 drawAll ;# bad boy uses the useless tab11 (TID)

NS::bars bar1 drawAll ;# bad boy's BID is useless as well

Virtual methods

There are three "virtual" methods:

• NS::bar create NS::tab $label creates a tab object NS::tab for a tab labeled $label to access the tab methods, e.g. NS::tab show

• NS::tab cget $option gets an option of tab, e.g. NS::tab cget -text

• NS::tab configure $option $value sets an option of tab, e.g. NS::tab configure -text "new label"

BID and TID

Few words about BID and TID mentioned throughout the bartabs.

These are identifiers of bars and tabs, of form bar<index> and tab<index> where <index> is integer increased from 0 in order of bar/tab creation. The bars and the tabs of all bars have unique IDs.

You can use these literals freely, along with BIDs and TIDs gotten from bartabs methods. For example, if you know that "some tab" was created third, you can show it straightforward:

NS::bar tab2 show ;# show the 3rd tab (TID=tab2)

instead of

NS::bar [NS::bar tabID "some tab"] show ;# find and show the tab by its name

Links

Documentation

Reference on bartabs

Reference on baltip (package used by bartabs)