These are the commands you can use to communicate with the editor from the scripts you can write. With these commands you can, fron any script, for exmple, select any part of the document (making it easy to write a command for showing the balancing in html..), look from the insertion point forward, backward, the next char, word, etc, etc.....
TM needs all these to be able of solve many problems that are impossible with the TM scheme of calling external scripts.
¡TM needs a Ruby interpreter inside it!
Alpha Commands
help version: 8.1a8 created: 06/17/1994 {01:48:53 PM} last update: 12/11/2006 {05:32:43 PM}
In this list of routines, text between '<' and '>' is a placeholder for a required parameter, text between '[' and ']' is a placeholder for an optional parameter, and the '|' signifies a choice of two or more alternatives. A '+' signifies that the previous symbol can be present one or more times, while a '*" means zero or more times. Some commands have no parameters.
Where '-w <win>' is given as an optional window name, <win> can be any item from the lists given by '[winNames -f]', '[winNames]', '[win::CreationOrder]', '[win::StackOrder]', or it can be the current window '[win::Current]' (in fact that is the default). To translate from a file path to possible window names, use the command [file::hasOpenWindows $path]. Window names are case-sensitive. A window name may contain a trailing ' <n>' indicator to show it is a duplicate, and this cannot be omitted when referring to the window.
The following are Alpha-specific tcl routines, defined in the core of the binary. (In addition, of course, all the standard "Tcl 8.4 Commands" are available.) In Alpha8/X, most of these commands are implemented in C, while in Alphatk they are implemented entirely in Tcl/Tk (which are themselves implemented in C, and have seen some Alphatk-specific improvements).
In some cases these 'core' commands are now defined in AlphaTcl or Tcl, see the referenced source files for commands coloured magenta, or try to Command-Double-Click on their names for more information.
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= Table Of Contents
"# Basic insertion position queries" "# Basic insertion position movement" "# Basic text manipulation" "# Selection manipulation and creation" "# Pin manipulation and creation" "# Clipboard/scrap handling" "# Various textual manipulations" "# View/insertion interaction" "# Dialogs for querying the user" "# Search in a window" "# Using search dialog-equivalents from Tcl" "# Basic window creation and file-interaction" "# Window manager" "# Menu creation/manipulation" "# Inter-application communication" "# Keyboard bindings and codes" "# Status window" "# Filesystem" "# Debugging" "# Colours" "# Keyboard macros" "# Time related" "# Marks" "# Remaining commands" "# Uncommon/unused commands" "# Obsolete (and possibly buggy)"
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= Basic insertion position queries
In Alpha8/X, some of the commands in the 'pos' namespace are actually defined in the file "coreFixes.tcl" using global namespace building block commands.
• getPos [-w <win>] - return the current insertion point • pos::lineStart [-w <win>] <pos> - return the position of the start of the line 'pos' is on. • matchIt [-w <win>] <brace char> <pos> [<num>] - Return pos of matching brace. Recognizes parenthesis, square brackets, and curly braces. Optional third argument specifies how many characters to search. The brace char passed to this command should be the one whose partner you wish to find (not the one you want to search for). When searching backwards (i.e. when trying to match a right brace), 'pos' should be the last position which could be a successful match, and not the position of the right brace itself (i.e. it will usually be the position just before the right brace itself). For example if you have the text "abc ()" so that ')' is at position 5, then 'matchIt ) 5' will fail to match, but 'matchIt ) 4' will correctly return '4'. • minPos [-w <win>] - returns the first position in the current window. This will normally be '0' in Alpha 8/X, but for compatibility with Alphatk (in which it is 1.0) should not be so assumed. • maxPos [-w <win>] - returns the position of the last character in the front window. • pos::nextLineStart [-w <win>] <pos> - return the position of the start of the next line after position 'pos'. • pos::diff [-w <win>] <pos1> <pos2> returns the number of characters between the two positions in the window. This will be negative if pos1 is after pos2. • pos::math [-w <win>] <pos> ?+/- offset? ... returns that position which is given by moving the given number of characters backwards or forwards in the current window. Any number of offset arguments may be given, with or without spaces separating the arguments. For future compatibility pos::math should be used in preference to numerical addition: positions cannot be assumed to be simple integers. • pos::compare [-w <win>] <pos1> <comparison> <pos2> returns 1 or 0 depending on whether the given comparison is true or not. Valid comparisons include ==, !=, <, >, <=, >= etc. For future compatibility, pos::compare should be used in preference to a direct, numerical comparison. • pos::toRowCol [-w <win>] <pos> - converts from absolute position to row, col. • pos::toRowChar [-w <win>] <pos> - converts from absolute position to row, char. • pos::fromRowCol [-w <win>] <row> <col> - converts to absolute position. Accepts optional -w parameter that allows window to be specified. • pos::fromRowChar [-w <win>] <row> <char> - converts to absolute position. Accepts optional -w parameter that allows window to be specified.
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= Basic insertion position movement
• backwardChar [-w <win>] - moves insertion one char back • backwardWord [-w <win>] - moves insertion one word back • backwardWordSelect [-w <win>] - extend selection one word back • beginningOfBuffer [-w <win>] - move insertion to the beginning of the buffer • beginningOfLine [-w <win>] - move insertion to the beginning of the line • endOfBuffer [-w <win>] - move insertion to the end of the buffer • endOfLine [-w <win>] - move insertion to the end of the line • forwardChar [-w <win>] - move insertion one character forward • forwardWord [-w <win>] - move insertion one word forward • forwardWordSelect [-w <win>] - extend selection one word forward. • goto [-w <win>] <pos> - go to the position 'pos' in the current window. • gotoLine - prompt for a line in the current window and jump to it (used by clicking on line/row indicator in the status bar window). • gotoMark [-w <win>] mark - go to named mark, use 'mark' in macros. • gotoTMark [-w <win>] <name> - go to the temporary mark 'name'. • matchBrace [-w <win>] - moves the insertion point to the character that matches the character after the current insertion point • nextLine [-w <win>] - move insertion point to next line • nextSentence - go to next sentence ("textFill.tcl"). • previousLine [-w <win>] - move insertion point to the previous line • prevSentence - go to previous sentence ("textFill.tcl").
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= Basic text manipulation
• deleteText [-w <win>] <pos1> <pos2> - remove text between 'pos1' and 'pos2' • getText [-w <win>] <pos1> <pos2> - return the text between 'pos1' and 'pos2'. '-w' can be used to specify a window. • insertText [-w <win name>] <text>* - Insert 'text' at the current insertion point. Mark is unchanged. • lookAt [-w <name>] <pos> [<num>] - return the num characters at the 'pos'th position of the current file, or the file named by <name> if the '-w' option is specified. The value for num must be an integer between 1 and 10 (default value is 1). • replaceText [-w <win>] <pos1> <pos2> [text]+ - replaces the text between 'pos1' and 'pos2' with 'text', where 'text' can be any number of arguments. The insertion position and selection are unaffected by this operation, but 'the mark' is set to pos1.
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= Selection manipulation and creation
• balance [-w <win>] - selects smallest set of parens, braces, or brackets that encloses the current cursor position, i.e. (), {}, and [], but not <>. If there is initially a selection, [balance] operates on the position that starts the selection. Starting from the initial position it searches backward until it finds one of the enclosers: (, {, or [. It ignores any of these characters which is preceded by a backslash. When (if) it finds one then it looks in the other direction for the matching character, again ignoring escaped characters. An error is thrown if any of this fails, and the cursor is returned to the initial position. • backwardCharSelect [-w <win>] - extends selection one char back • beginningBufferSelect [-w <win>] - extend selection to the beginning of the buffer • beginningLineSelect [-w <win>] - extend selection to the beginning of the line • deleteSelection [-w <win>] - delete current position, don't save • endBufferSelect [-w <win>] - extend selection to the end of the buffer • endLineSelect [-w <win>] - extend selection to the end of line • forwardCharSelect [-w <win>] - extend selection one character forward • getSelect [-w <win>] - return the currently selected text, if any. • nextLineSelect [-w <win>] - extend selection to the next line • prevLineSelect [-w <win>] - extend selection to the previous line • selectText [-w <win>] <pos1> <pos2> - (formerly [select].) Selects the text between 'pos1' and 'pos2'. • selEnd [-w <win>] - returns the end of the hilited selection, or the current insertion point if no text is selected.
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= Pin manipulation and creation
• exchangePointAndPin [-w <win>] - exchange the current 'pin' w/ the current insertion point • getPin [-w <win>] - return the current pin. • hiliteToPin [-w <win>] - This is the 'Hilite' from the 'Edit' menu. If there is a currently hilited selection, the selection is unhilited, leaving the pin and the insertion point around the old selection. If there is not a selection, the region between the insertion point and the pin is selected. • rectangularHiliteToPin [-w <win>] - creates a rectangular selection between the pin and the insertion point. • setPin [-w <win>] - set the pin position to the insertion point
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= Clipboard/scrap handling
All of [copy] [cut] and [paste] and defined in AlphaTcl.
• alpha::copyRegion [-w <win>] - copy region • alpha::cutRegion [-w <win>] - deletes and saves region • alpha::pasteRegion [-w <win>] - insert the last chunk of text created by [alpha::cutRegion] or [alpha::copyRegion] • clear [-w <win>] - clear selected text. ("textManip.tcl") • getScrap - returns system TEXT scrap. • putScrap [<string>]+ - Concatenate strings together into the system scrap. The scrap can be appended to through calls of the form 'putScrap [getScrap] " another word"'.
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= Various textual manipulations Former core commands which are implemented in AlphaTcl are in "textManip.tcl" unless stated otherwise.
• backSpace [-w <win>] - delete selection, or a single char if no selection. • backwardDeleteWord [-w <win>] - deletes previous word • capitalizeRegion [-w <win>] - capitalize first word in selected region • capitalizeWord [-w <win>] - capitalize the character at the cursor location, and downcase the remaining text of the word to the right of the cursor, leaving the cursor at the end of the word. • deleteChar [-w <win>] - delete char AFTER cursor • deleteWord [-w <win>] - delete word after cursor • downcaseRegion [-w <win>] - changes all letters to lowercase in current region. Original region remains selected. • downcaseWord [-w <win>] - changes all letters to lowercase in current word from the cursor position to the end of the word, leaving the cursor at the end of the word. • fold [-w <win> (info|hide|show) ?args?] - queries or hides or shows blocks of text in the given window. This command is only available in Alphatk. • killLine [-w <win>] - kill text from insertion point to the end of the line. If the line has no text, delete the line and move succeeding lines up one. • oneSpace [-w <win>] - converts whitespace surrounding insertion into a single space. • openLine [-w <win>] - insert a new line following the current one and move the insertion point to it • redo [-w <win>] - redo the next action that has been undone but not redone • spacesToTabs [-w <win>] ?from to? - convert spaces in selection to tabs. • tab [-w <win>] - insert a tab • tabsToSpaces [-w <win>] ?from to? - convert tabs in selection to spaces. • undo [-w <win>] - undo the last action that has not been undone • upcaseRegion [-w <win>] - convert all letters to uppercase in the current region. Original region remains selected. • upcaseWord [-w <win>] - convert all letters to uppercase in the current word from the cursor position to the end of the word, leaving the cursor at the end of the word. • wrapText [-w <win>] <pos0> <pos1> - wrap each line found in the region between the two positions. (See "textFill.tcl") • yank [-w <win>] - insert the last piece of deleted text of less than 1k. Consecutive deletes are concatenated together. • zapNonPrintables [-w <win>] - removes chars < ascii 32, except for LF's and CR's.
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= View/insertion interaction
• alpha::blink [-w <win>] <pos> - blink cursor at 'pos' • centerRedraw [-w <win>] - redraw window with current line in the middle. • display [-w <win>] <pos> - move pos's line to top of screen. • insertToTop [-w <win>] - make the line that the insertion point is on the first line shown • moveInsertionHere [-w <win>] [-last] - move the insertion point to the first (or last) line displayed • pageBack [-w <win>] - display prev screenful, move the insertion point if 'moveInsertion' enabled • pageForward [-w <win>] - display next screenful, move the insertion point if 'moveInsertion' enabled • scrollDownLine [-w <win>] - same action as that which occurs when the down arrow in the vertical scrollbar is selected • scrollLeftCol [-w <win>] - same action as that which occurs when the left arrow in the horizontal scrollbar is selected • scrollRightCol [-w <win>] - same action as that which occurs when the right arrow in the horizontal scrollbar is selected • scrollUpLine [-w <win>] - same action as that which occurs when the up arrow in the vertical scrollbar is selected
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= Dialogs for querying the user
• alert [-t stop|caution|note|plain] [-k okText] [-c cancelText] [-o otherText] [-h] [-K ok|cancel|other|help] [-C ok|cancel|other|help| none] <error_string> [explanation_string] This command will display 'error_string' in a standard alert box. If present, 'explanation_string' will be displayed in the small System font. The dialog format will be determined by the flags: The '-t' flag specifies the icon that will be displayed with the dialog. The '-h' flag specifies that the Help button should be displayed. The '-k' flag specifies the text of the button in the OK position (default value is "OK"). '-c' flag specifies the text of the button in the Cancel position (default value is "Cancel"). '-o' flag specifies the text of the button in the leftmost position (default value is "Don't Save"). The '-K' flag specifies which button acts as the default button. The '-C' flag specifies which button acts as the Cancel button. If 'cancelText' or 'otherText' is an empty string, the corresponding button will be omitted. There must be a button in the OK position and there must be a default button (setting the default button to 'other' and an empty otherText will remove the default ring, but return or enter will still select the OK button). The command will return the name of the button that was pressed. • alertnote <args> - display a message in a standard OS alert box. If more than one argument is given, the first is displayed in boldface, and the remaining arguments are joined by " " and displayed in a smaller font below the first. Otherwise the entire message is in a smaller font. The only button in the alert box is "OK", and the return value is the empty string. • askyesno [-y <yesButton>] [-n <noButton>] [-c] [--] <prompt> - display 'prompt' in an OS alert box with the push buttons Yes and No. The command will return the string "yes" or "no". The '-c' flag specifies that a cancel button be used as well (with return value "cancel"). Optional arguments '-y name -n name' may be specified, which change the names of the yes/no buttons (but the return strings are unchanged). "--" indicates the end of switches. Note that Tcl's [if] will treat both "yes" and "true" as "1", while "no" and "false" are interpreted as "0". • buttonAlert <prompt> [<button>…] - create a dialog w/ the specified buttons, returning the one selected. • colorTriple [<prompt>] [<red> <green> <blue>] - prompts the user to choose color. If specified, the input RGB value is used as the initial color on the colorpicker. • dialog [<-w width>|<-h height>|<-b title l t r b>|<-c title val l t r b>| <-t text l t r b>|<-e text l t r b>|<-r text val l t r b>| ...
Create and display a dialog. '-w' and '-h' allow width and height of dialog window to be set. '-b', '-c', '-r', '-t', '-e' and '-p' allow buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, static text, and editable text to be created, respectively. All control types require specification of a title or text, together with left, top, right, and bottom coordinates. Checkboxes and radioboxes have an additional parameter, the default value. At least one button must be specified. The return value is a list containing resulting values for all buttons, radioboxes, checkboxes, and editable textboxes (static text is ignored). Buttons have value '1' if chosen, '0' otherwise. The dialog box exits at the first button press. The arguments listed above are the ones most commonly used, but section 2.1 of the "Dialogs Help" .pdf file has information about the most current set available, as well as the optional "-tag" "-action" etc. arguments that allow for scripts to be called when a control is selected.
The proc: dialog::make and the proc: dialog::make_paged make it much easier to create dialogs, avoiding the need to wrestle with the core 'dialog' command directly, as described in "Dialogs Help".
• findFile [<path>] - open a file in a new window. An optional path parameter specifies a default directory or file. • getControlInfo <id> <attribute> - returns the attribute value of the dialog control associated with <id>, where <id> has been returned by Alpha(tk)'s core. Valid values for 'attribute' are 'value', 'font', 'state' 'contents' or 'help'. (Available in Alphatk and AlphaX >= 8.1a1) • getControlValue <id> - returns the value of the dialog control associated with <id>, where <id> has been returned by Alpha(tk)'s core. (Available in Alphatk and AlphaX >= 8.1a1) • get_directory ?-p <prompt>? ?-openPackages <num>? \ ?-showInvisibleFiles <num>? [<default>] display a GetDirectory navigation dialog and request the user to select a folder. The command will return the selected folder's full path name, or an error if the Cancel button was selected. An optional path parameter specifies a default directory. The -p option specifies a prompt to display in the dialog. The other parameters have the same meaning as with the getfile command. • getfile ?-types <typeslist>? ?-openPackages <num>? \ ?-showInvisibleFiles <num>? [<prompt>] [<path>] display a GetFile navigation dialog and return the full path name of the selected file, or an error if Cancel button was selected. An optional path parameter specifies a default directory or file. On AlphaX, the -openPackages option specifies whether bundled applications should be seen as a folder (to make their contents accessible) or not and the -showInvisibleFiles option specifies whether invisible files should be listed in the dialog. • listpick [options…] <list> - Display a dialog with the list displayed in a List Manager list. If the user presses the Cancel button, an error is returned. If the user selects the OK button, or double clicks an item in the list, that item will be returned. Valid options include
-w <width> - the width of the dialog. -h <height> - the height of the dialog. -p <prompt> - the prompt text at the top of the dialog. -l - allow multiple items to be selected, return a list. -L <def list> - a list of default item(s) to be initially selected. if accompanied by -l, all items in the -L list will be specified, otherwise only the first item is selected. -indices - return a list of the <list> indices chosen -- - next arg is the list.
• prompt <prompt> <default> [<name> <menu item>*] - prompt dialog to the user with a prompt string and a default value. The prompt dialog can optionally include a popup menu specified by 'name' and the succeeding strings. Selection of the popup menu items inserts the item text into the editable dialog item. 'Prompt' returns the value of the editable item. If the 'Cancel' button is selected, the tcl returns an error and your script will be stopped unless you execute the command from 'catch'. • putfile <prompt> <original> - display an SFPutFile() and return the full path name of the selected file, or an empty string if CANCEL button was selected. Original is the default name displayed for the user. • setFontsTabs ?-w win? ?-font name? ?-fontsize size? ?-tabsize tab? - if none of the font/fontsize/tabsize attributes are given, then bring up a font and tab dialog for the specified window (or the current window if -w was not given). Otherwise set the appropriate attribute of the appropriate window to the values given. • setControlInfo <id> <attribute> <value> - set the attribute value of the dialog control associated with <id>, where <id> has been returned by Alpha(tk)'s core. Valid values for 'attribute' are 'value', 'font', 'state' 'contents' or 'help'. If the attribute is 'value' and if the value given will not fit in the available space, this command throws an error, the value of which is the available width, in pixels. (Available in Alphatk and AlphaX >= 8.1a1) • setControlValue <id> <value> - set the value of the dialog control associated with <id>, where <id> has been returned by Alpha (tk)'s core. If the value will not fit in the available space, this command throws an error, the value of which is the available width, in pixels. (Available in Alphatk and AlphaX >= 8.1a1) • setRGB <col> red green blue - define one of Alpha(tk)'s colours.
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= Search in a window
• search [-w <win>] [options…] <pattern> <pos> - search for 'pattern' from position 'pos'. Valid options include
-f <num> - go forward? -r <num> - regular expression? -i <num> - ignore case? -m <num> - match words? -all - return all matches (else just first match) -wrap - if the search reaches the end of the window wrap around to the beginning and continue searching (similarly when searching backwards, wrap from beginning to end). -n - failed search still returns TCL_OK, but null string. -l <limit> - limit on how search goes. -s - save previous search string and search flags (obsolete). -- - next arg is the pattern.
If the search succeeds, a list of two positions will be returned, unless '-all' was given, when the list will contain 2 positions for each correct match (note: it is a flat list). The first is the starting position of the match, the second is one past the last character. If no '-n', an error is thrown if no match was found. For the regular expression syntax which may be used, see "Regular Expressions".
To search from the beginning of the buffer, use 'search -s -f 1 ... [minPos]' and to search backwards from the end, use 'search -s -f 0 ... [maxPos]'. See also 'performSearch' which can be used for simulated interactive searching (where the search result is selected, for example).
'pos' is the first position at which a search may match (whether searching forwards or backwards). 'limit', if given, is the first position at which a search will not match.
Backwards searches: The interpretation of 'pos' is such that backwards searches may match immediately at 'pos', in which case the entire matched range will be outside the apparent [limit,pos] search region. This is a somewhat controversial behaviour which _may_ be adjusted in the future if steps can be taken to ensure none of the code in AlphaTcl breaks.
Also, for various reasons, backwards searches (particularly with regexps) are slower than forward searches.
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= Using search dialog-equivalents from Tcl
Implemented entirely in AlphaTcl, see the source files "supersearch.tcl" and "interactiveSearch.tcl".
• enterReplaceString - use current selection, if any, for future replacements (in search dialog). • enterSearchString - use current selection, if any, for future searches. • find - bring up the find dialog • findAgain - repeat search forward • findAgainBackward - repeat search backward • findInNextFile - search next file. • performSearch [options…] <pattern> <pos> - as for 'search' but also selects the range of characters which are found, and ensures Alpha's internal state is consistent for following replace/replaceAll/... commands. • replace - replace the current selection • replaceAll - replace all further occurrences in the current file or set of files. • replace&FindAgain - replace the current selection and find next occurrence. • replaceString [<str>] - specifies replacement string. Returns current replacement string if no arg. • searchString [<str>] - allows search string to be specified. Returns current searchstring if no arg. • quickFind - incremental search: searches w/o a dialog, searches as you type the search pattern. Does not do regular expression searches. 'matchWords' automatically set to false. • quickFindRegexp - incremental regexp search • reverseQuickFind - reverse incremental search, see 'quickFind'.
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= Basic window creation and file-interaction
• edit [-r] [-c] [-w] [-mode <val>] [-encoding <val>] [-tabsize <val>] [-g <l> <t> <w> <h>] [--] <name> - Open a file in new window. '-c' means don't prompt for duplicate win if file already open (just bring to already open window to the front). '-r' means open the file read-only. The '-g' option allows left and top coords to be specified, plus width, and height. All or none. '-w' allows you to bypass the "Wrap" dialog for files with long rows. This procedure may also be able to cope with <name> values which are not obviously files (e.g. remote files, .zip archives, etc) if appropriate hooks are activated, and may take a different action (e.g. run an installer) with some <name> values. To force Alpha to open <name> in a new window, the more fundamental command 'editDocument' could be used. However that is rarely required. The return value of this command is the name of the window which was opened (or the existing window if a duplicate was not wanted). Alphatk supports an additional [-tabbed <tabWinTitle>] argument which, if given, places the window as a tab inside the tabbed window which has title tabWinTitle. • editDocument <args> - ensure that initial window settings are in place. See fuller documentation in the file "coreImplementations.tcl". AlphaTcl code should only be calling the command: edit . • new [-g <l> <t> <w> <h>] [-tabsize <val>] [-mode <val>] [-dirty <val>] [-shell <val>] [-info <val>] [-n <name>] - opens an untitled window. Can optionally provide left and top coordinates, plus width and height. All or none. Alphatk supports an additional [-tabbed <tabWinTitle>] argument which, if given, places the window as a tab inside the tabbed window which has title tabWinTitle. If the "-info" argument is given, the window will be automatically locked, with "<val>" inserted as the text, and the cursor will be placed at the beginning of the new window. • revert [-w <win>] - revert the file to its last saved version • save ?<win>? - save current window, or given window. If the window has never been saved, then this will be re-routed, internally, to 'saveAs'. • saveAs ?-f? [def name] - save current window with new name. Optionally takes a default filename. Returns complete path of saved file, if ok hit, otherwise TCL_ERROR returned. If '-f' flag given, then we force the save without any standard-file dialog. • saveResources [win] - save resource information for current window, or given window. The window must not be read-only, or a shell window, and needs to have a file associated with it. The file's modification date and finder information will not be changed by saving the resource information. (Only available and relevant for Alpha 8/X).
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= Window manager
• bringToFront <winName> - Bring named window to front. • closeAll - close all windows • floatIcon [-n <window name>] <resID> [<resID> ...] - make a little floating window containing small icons with the specified resource IDs. • floatMenu <subcommand> [options] - manage floating palettes with commands from menus already created by the command: Menu . Subcommands include "create", "delete", "hide", "list", "move", "show", and "top". floating menu palettes. Complete documentation in the AlphaTcl Wiki at http://www.purl.org/net/alpha/Wiki/Commands/FloatMenuCommand. • getGeometry [-s] [win] - return a Tcl list containing the left, top, width, and height of the 'content rectangle' of the current or given window (this includes scrollbars and text editing areas, but excludes the window border and title). With the '-s' flag, returns the entire structure rectangle, including the window border and title. • getMainDevice - return a list containing the left, top, right, and bottom of the rectangle defining the main device. • getWinInfo [-w <win>] <arr> - Creates an array in current context containing info about either the current or a specified window. This array should be considered read-only. It has fields 'state', 'platform', 'read-only', 'tabsize', 'split' (if window is split, it is the percentage of the top pane, 0 otherwise), 'linesdisp' (num lines that can be seen in the window), 'currline' (first line displayed), and 'dirty', 'font', 'fontsize' and 'encoding'. Alphatk will also return a 'shell' entry if that is set. The proc: win::getInfo is the preferred interface to this information. Alpha 8/X may also provide the 'hasSpurious' (inconsistent line endings), 'needsWrap' (some lines are longer than the paragraph width), 'paneNum' (which pane is active in a split window, 0 for top, 1 for bottom) entries. • icon [-f <winName>] [-c|-o|-t|-q] [-g <h> <v>] - Having to do w/ iconifying windows. '-c' means close (iconify) window, '-o' open, '-t' toggle open/close, '-q' returns either a '1' for an iconified window or a '0' for an uniconified window, and '-g' moves the icon to horizontal position <h> and vertical position 'v'. Options are executed as they are parsed, so the '-f' option, if present, should always be first. • killWindow [-w <win>] - kill window. This closes the current window, calling preCloseHook, closeHook, etc as appropriate. Note that if the window is dirty (has unsaved changes), and the user accepts the closure of the window, then 'dirtyHook' will not be called (AlphaTcl's core uses 'preCloseHook' to capture the fact that a dirty window is being closed, and thereby keep a correct count of the number of dirty windows). • mousePos - Returns list <row,col> of mouse position, if the mouse is currently over the active window. Otherwise, return error (catch w/ 'catch'). • moveWin [win name] <left> <top> - moves current or specified window. The window name can be "StatusWin". This command attempt to move the window so the top-left corner of the window contents (not including the titlebar) is at the specified position. Alpha may constrain the action to ensure the window is onscreen. • otherPane [-w <win>] - If window is split, select the other pane. • saveAll - save all currently open windows. • setWinInfo [-w <win>] <field> <arg> - Sets a piece of data about either the current or a specified window. Settable fields: platform - lineendings for the window (mac/unix/dos) read-only - is the window editable? tabsize - character widths used for the tab character (\t) dirty - does the window contain unsaved changes/edits. font - the font name used for the window's contents fontsize - the font size used for the widnow's contents shell - if set, means that dirty flag and undo/redo is ignored state - (ignored by Alphatk) colortags - list of tags for colouring of keywords bindtags - list of tags for keyboard bindings wordbreak - the regexp defintion of the end of a word Alphatk also provides encoding - the character encoding which will be used to save this window to disk linenumbers - show a margin on the left edge of the window showing line numbers. horscrollbar - include a horizontal scrollbar in the window wrap - controls real soft wrapping (none/char/word) The proc: win::setInfo is the preferred interface to this information. Alpha 8/X may also provide the 'hasSpurious' (inconsistent line endings), and 'needsWrap' (some lines are longer than the paragraph width) entries. • sizeWin [win name] <width> <height> - sets size of current or specified window. The window name can be "StatusWin", although only the width can be changed. This command attempt to adjust the size of the window contents (not including the titlebar) to the specified size. Including the titlebar, the height will of course be larger than that given. In addition, Alpha may have minimum and maximum allowed sizes, which will be applied as constraints to the given width, height. • toggleSplitWindow [-w <win>] [percent] - toggle having window split into two panes. Optional arg specifies percent of window to allocate to the first pane. • toggleScrollbar [-w <win>] - toggles horizontal scrollbar on frontmost window. Will not succeed if scrollbar scrolled. • toolbar <subcommand> [args] - (AlphaX only) interact with the Toolbar object located at the top of the document windows. Subcommands include "add", "configure", "create", "delete", "hide", "items", "remove", "set", and "show". Complete documentation can be found in the AlphaTcl Wiki at http://www.purl.org/net/Alpha/Wiki/Commands/ToolbarCommand. • windowVisibility [-w <win>] ?<hidden|normal|minimized>? - get or set the visibility state of a window: it is one of hidden, normal, or minimized. If the last argument is not specified, the command returns the current state. • wins - return window boundaries for all windows. • winNames [-f] - return a list of all open windows, ordered from frontmost window to backmost window, followed by any windows which are not really ordered (e.g. minimized, hidden windows, or those which are in the process of being created). If the '-f' option is specified, complete pathnames are returned. In both cases, when any window's name (as shown in the Open Windows menu) is not unique, ' <n>' (n = 2,3...) is added to the window name to ensure a unique final path component. This can be removed (on an element by element basis) with 'win::StripCount'. The first element of this list is always the same as [win::Current]. The order of iconified/minimized windows is not necessarily defined, so they may just be listed, for example, in an arbitrary order after all normal windows. • win::Current - returns the full name of the current window, or the empty string if no windows are currently open. This is always the same as [lindex [winNames -f] 0]. Note that if a window is currently in the process of being opened (e.g. this function is called from, e.g., openHook) then [win::Current] will not necessarily return the new window name (for example it might be being opened in a hidden state). • zoom - zooms the current window
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= Menu creation/manipulation
• addHelpMenu <item> - add 'item' to the OS Help menu. No menu conversion done, i.e. all items appear as given without being massaged in any way. In Alpha8/X/tk, 'item' can be a submenu created with the 'Menu' command. • addMenuItem [-m] [-l <meta-characters>] <menu name> <item name> [<index>] - Convert item to menu form and add to specified menu. The menu must have already been created by the command: Menu . If '-m' specified, menu form conversion is not done. The '-l' option allows you to use menu meta characters as text of menu items. If the '-l' option is used, the <meta-characters> string is interpreted for menu item attributes, and meta-characters in <item name> are included in the menu item text literally. For example:
addMenuItem -m -l "/B" File "Hello/C"
would appear as the text "Hello/C" in the menu, and have "B" as its command equivalent. The "index" should be an integer greater than 0, indicating where the item should be placed. (Do not use "0" or "end".) If not specified, the item will be inserted at the end of the menu.
• deleteMenuItem [-m] <menu name> <item name> - Convert item to menu form and delete from specified menu. If '-m' is supplied, no menu form conversion is done. The "item" should not include any meta characters, so to remove an item previously inserted with the command: addMenuItem one could use constructions like this:
addMenuItem -m -l "/B" File "Hello/C<O" deleteMenuItem -m File "Hello/C<O"
addMenuItem -m File "Hello/C<O" deleteMenuItem -m File "Hello"
• enableMenuItem [-m] <menuName> <item text> <on|off> - Either enable or disable the menu item of user menu 'menuName' that has text '<item text>'. Note that unless the menu is not only created, but also already inserted, this command has no effect. • insertMenu <name> ?<name>...? - insert the previously created user menu(s) given by the 'name' argument(s) into the menuBar. • markMenuItem [-m] <menuName> <item text> <on|off> [<mark char>] - Either mark or unmark the menu item of user menu 'menuName' that has text '<item text>'. Note that unless the menu is not only created, but also already inserted, this command has no effect. • Menu [-i <num][-m] [-M <mode>] [-n <name|num>] [-p <procname>] [- s] <list> - Defines a new menu named 'name' (if provided w/ '-n' option) with items 'list'. The menu is not yet inserted into the menubar. The menu commands may be nested for heirarchical menus, such as in the filesets menus. By default Alpha massages the item names in the 'list' to make them look better in the menus.
-c Ignore any menu meta-chars. Can also be done on a per-item basis by appending an ampersand ('&') to the end of an item. -m No menu form. If not supplied, each menu item is split into words at each capitalized letter. -M <mode> Specifies that any bindings created by the menu are specific to a given mode. This is important because mode-specific bindings over-ride global bindings. -n <name> Name the menu. Not necessary for submenus. -n <num> Resource id of icon suite to use for menu title. 'ics#' is the only resource that is really necessary. -p <name> The tcl proc named by 'name' is called w/ the menu's name and the item's contents when the item is chosen. -s Use system menu definition proc (faster).
See the "Extending Alpha # Menu Creation Syntax" section for more information about meta characters which can be used for individual items.
• menuNames - list all menus created by the command: Menu during the current editing session. • menu::inserted <name> - is the given menu 'name' currently inserted into the menubar. Returns "1" if it is, otherwise "0". • removeMenu <name> ?<name>...? - remove menu(s) given by the 'name' argument(s) from the menubar.
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= Inter-application communication
-- See TclAE Help
• icGetPref [<-t <type>] <pref name> - Gets preference from Internet Config. '-t' allows type to be set, '0' returns a string (default), '1' returns a path name, commonly used for helper apps. A <pref name> of 'all' returns all valid preferences. • icOpen - Opens Internet Config • launch -f <name> - launch the named app into the background. Note that for some yet unexplained reason, some applications (MicroSoft Word) won't launch completely in the background. 'launch'ing such applications won't insert the application into any system menu that specifies running applications (although "About the Finder..." will list it. The only way to get to such an app is through Alpha's 'switchTo', after which the application will finish launching. The '-f' option gets around this by launching the application in the foreground instead. • nameFromAppl '<app sig>' - Interrogates the desktop database for the first existing app that has the desired signature. <app sig> is four chars inside single quotes. Returns the full path to the executable. • processes - returns info of active processes. A list of lists, each sublist contain a file-name, an application signature, the application memory size, and the number of ticks the application has been active. • switchTo <appName> - Switches to application 'appName'. • sendOpenEvent [filler] <app name> <file name> - Send an open doc event to another currently running application. If 'filler' is noReply, then a reply is not requested. Otherwise, we wait for a reply and 'filler' is ignored.
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= Keyboard bindings and codes
• ascii <char> [<modifier>] <script> [<mode>] - bind the given character with optional modifiers to the specified script, optionally for only a given mode. <char> is a Tcl integer giving the character code corresponding to that key. <modifier> is, if it is present, a string specifying which additional modifier keys that must be pressed for the binding to be activated. The first character of this string must be < and the last must be >. Remaining characters correspond to modifier keys as follows:
c - command modifier o - option modifier s - shift modifier z - control modifier e - escape modifier (activated by the startEscape command) A-Z - any capitalized character, for a control-<char> prefix (activated by the prefixChar command)
<script> is any Tcl script, usually a procedure call, that will be evaluated whenever the bound key combination is pressed. <mode> is, if present, the name of the mode in which this binding should take effect. If there is no <mode> argument then the binding will be global. See "Keyboard Shortcuts" for more information. • Bind <char> [<modifier>] <script> [<mode>] - bind the given character with optional modifiers to the specified script, optionally for only a given mode. <char> specifies one of (1) a Tcl integer with the character code as in 'ascii', (2) a particular key either as an explicit character with a straight single quote (apostrophe) on both sides, such as 'a', or (3) a "special" key such as Enter, Home, etc. The string '\r' (including the single quotes) can be used to bind the Return key. The Tab key can only be bound using "0x30" (without the double quotes). See the explanation under "ascii" for more information, and the help file "Keyboard Shortcuts" for a complete list of special keys and examples. • bindingList [<mode>] - return list of bindings. The optional <mode> argument restricts the output to the bindings specific to that mode. It can be "global" which is equivalent to the command with no option. • deleteModeBindings <mode> - Delete all bindings for specified mode. • describeBinding - display the binding of the next typed key sequence. • getAscii - displays the ASCII code for character at current insertion point • getChar - waits for a keystroke, returns ascii. • getModifiers - returns current modifiers mask. "OR" of several values, cmdKey = 0x01, /* Bit 0 of high byte */ shiftKey = 0x02, /* Bit 1 of high byte */ alphaLock = 0x04, /* Bit 2 of high byte */ optionKey = 0x08, /* Bit 3 of high byte */ controlKey = 0x10, /* Bit 4 of high byte */ rightShiftKey = 0x20, /* Bit 5 of high byte */ rightOptionKey = 0x40, /* Bit 6 of high byte */ rightControlKey = 0x80, /* Bit 7 of high byte */ • insertAscii - prompt for an ASCII code and insert into text. • keyAscii - insert ascii representation (in decimal) of the keydown event, plus a modifier string, if necessary. • keyCode - insert the key code along w/ a string representing and modifiers into the current window. Used by the Alpha Dev menu to create bindings. • prefixChar ?msg msg? - used to further modify the next keystroke combination. If any arguments are given, they are used to form a message presented to the user in the status bar when this keystroke is triggered (if none are given then 'Prefix ...' is the message). • startEscape - used to further modify the next keystroke combination, in the same manner as using the shift key in the next keystroke • unascii <char> [<modifier>] <script> [<mode>] - unbind the ascii character previously bound using 'ascii' • unBind <char> [<modifier>] <script> [<mode>] - unbind the keyboard character previously bound using 'Bind'.
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= Status window
• coreKeyPrompt <thePrompt> - prompt the user for a single (possible modified) keypress. Returns a two item list consisting of the key and a modifier specification. If Shift was pressed, this be reflected in the modifiers but the key will also be returned in UPPER CASE. • displayMode <mode> - Up to four characters of the 'mode' string are displayed in the status line at the bottom of a window. Note that in Alpha 8/X at present this will throw an error if passed the empty string. In Alphatk an empty string will lead to the removal of the popup mode, wrap, encoding, etc. menus from the status bar. • displayPlatform <string> - Sets the text string to show as the label in the menu button which controls the 'platform' popup menu in the status bar. Typically this is used internally by AlphaTcl to set this label to one of 'mac', 'unix' or 'dos' to reflect the current window's line-endings (mac = CR, unix = LF, dos = CRLF). To change the line-endings in use for the current window, see 'setWinInfo'. • displayWrap <string> - Sets the text string to show as the label in the menu button which controls the 'line wrap' popup menu in the status bar. Typically it is used internally by AlphaTcl to set this label to one of 'none', or 'auto' (additionally 'visual-char', 'visual-word' in Alphatk). To change the actual wrap style of the current window, set your mode's 'Line Wrap' preference. • displayEncoding <string> - Sets the text string to show as the label in the menu button which controls the 'encoding' popup menu in the status bar. Typically it is used internally by AlphaTcl to set this label to the current window's encoding ('macRoman', 'utf-8', etc). This is only available in Alphatk. • execute - prompt user for a function or macro. The tab key acts as a "completion" command. • progressBar <subcommand> [args] - (AlphaX only) manage a progress bar in the status window. Subcommands include "configure", "hide", and "show". Complete documentation can be found in the AlphaTcl Wiki at http://www.purl.org/net/Alpha/Wiki/Commands/ProgressBarCommand. • status::msg <string> - prints 'string' on the status line. (This should be used in preference to the older 'message' which conflicts with Tk). • statusPrompt <prompt> [<func>] - Prompt in the status window. If 'func' is present, call this routine at each key-press with the current contents of the status line and the key, insert into statusline whatever is returned by the func. Command-v pastes the current (<80 char) clipboard contents on the status line. Also see the proc: status::prompt which is more flexible.
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= Filesystem
• getFileInfo <file> <arr> - Given a file or folder name, creates an array called 'arr' in the current context, containing fields 'created', 'modified', 'creator', 'type', 'datalen', and 'resourcelen'. These last four fields are ignored in the case of a directory. 'created' and 'modified' are in a form suitable for the command 'mtime'. On Alphatk with non-MacOS platforms, the 'type' entry is always 'TEXT' and the 'creator' entry is just the <file> given. On AlphaX, there is a 'bundle' field to tell whether the item is a bundle (directory displayed as a file) or not. There is also a 'hidden' field indicating if the file is visible or not. Most (all in Tcl 8.5) fields of getFileInfo can be accessed through 'file attributes', 'file mtime' etc., which are preferred. • getStandardFolder [-create] folderType [domain] - (AlphaX only) Wrap the ToolBox function of the same name. It returns the full path of certain system-related directories. Optionally this function can create (or attempt to create, depending on the permissions) the folders when they do not exist already. Complete documentation in the AlphaTcl Wiki at http://www.purl.org/net/Alpha/Wiki/Commands/GetStandardFolder • ls - unix style directory listing, described in "Shells" • setFileInfo <file> <field> [arg] - set some information for files. Settable fields are 'modified', 'created', 'creator', and 'type'. All take an argument except 'resourcelen' which just removes the resource fork. 'file' is a complete pathname. On AlphaX, there is a 'hidden' field to make the file invisible in the Finder. Most (all in Tcl 8.5) fields of setFileInfo can be accessed through 'file attributes', 'file mtime' etc., which are preferred.
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= Debugging
• echo <string>* - echo the strings (used in shells). • evaluate [-w <win>] ?script? - evaluates given text, else hilited text, or entire window if nothing is hilited. 'evaluat'ing means that whatever Tcl code (procs, bindings or macro definitions etc) is present in the evaluated text take effect • tclShell - open the Tcl shell.
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= Colours
• colorTagKeywords [options] <colortag> <keyword list> - Set keywords to color for the given tag. Valid options are:
-a Keywords will be *added* to existing <colortag> keywords. The new keywords can be a different color to older keywords. -k <color> Keyword color. -C All keywords for this colortag are case-sensitive.
No other options are allowed. This command may be evaluated repeatedly for a given colortag, to declare multiple sets of color+keywords. However the '-C' flag applies to all keywords with all colours, and need therefore only be given once -- it should be given (or not, if undesired) the first time that colorTagKeywords is called for the given colortag. So a typical usage will be:
colorTagKeywords -C foo {} colorTagKeywords -a -k blue foo {list of keywords} colorTagKeywords -a -k magenta foo {list of keywords}
(This command is only in Alphatk 8.3fc5 and Alpha 8.0b16 or newer, and in Alpha 8/X there is a limit of 20 characters for <colortag> and of 40 characters for any individual keyword) • dumpColors - dump current foreground and background colors into the current buffer in Alpha-readable format. • getColors [-w <win>] - returns list of colors/hypertext for current document or for the window specified with the -w option. Format is list of lists, each sublist consisting of file offset, color index, and possibly a hypertext command. • insertColorEscape [-w <win>] <pos> <color ind> [hypertext func] - Create a color or style "point" for documentation purposes. Look at the file "colorsMenu.tcl" for examples. The hypertext func is only used when the "point" is underlined. See 'getColors' for info about the current file. You should now use the proc: text::color and the proc: text::hyper instead of this function. • refresh [-w <win>] - redraw the window colours, required in Alpha8/ X after applying colours with [text::color], this is a dummy proc in Alphatk. • regModeKeywords [options] <mode> <keyword list> - Set keywords and comments that Alpha can recognize to color them. Specifically, in mode <mode>, every keyword specified in the list is colored non-black (blue, by default). Comments, if specified by '-e' or '-b' below, are colored red by default. Each keyword must be shorter than 40 characters in Alpha8/X.
-a Keywords will be *added* to existing mode keywords. The new keywords can be a different color than older keywords. This flag can also be used to modify other attributes. -b <beg> <end> Specify a pair of strings that bracket a comment. -C Keywords are case sensitive. When used it should be the first regModeKeywords statement done in a mode. Use an empty <keyword list> e.g. {}, like this 'regModeKeywords -C Tcl {}' -c <color> Comment color. -e <commentstr> Specify a string that begins comments that last to the end of the line. -f <color> 'Function' color, which will color any word preceding '(' -i <char> Specify a character to display differently. Commonly used for curly braces, etc. -I <color> Color of above characters. -k <color> Keyword color. -m <c> Specify a magic character. Every word beginning with the magic character is a keyword. -s <color> String color. Alpha8/X can color single-line strings only, using the simple heuristic of assuming the first two double quotes constitute a string.
• removeColorEscapes [-w <win>] - remove color escapes from topmost window.
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= Keyboard macros
• iterationCount - allows actions to be repeated many times. "control-u 44 =" inserts 44 '='s into current window. Also can be used to execute any function or macro (including the keyboard macro) many times. Defaults to 4. • macro::current - return the most recently recorded keyboard macro as a proc. • macro::endRecording - stop recording keyboard macro • macro::execute - execute the current keyboard macro • macro::startRecording - start recording keyboard macro • macro::recording - are we currently recording?
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= Time related
• cvttime - convert input time to/from some epoch (+/- 0x7c25b080). • mtime <time> [long|short|abbrev] - return a date and time string using the Macintosh International Utilities. The long/short/abbrev specification corresponds to the date. These are the following formats:
short 3/16/92 9:20:46 PM abbrev Mon, Mar 16, 1992 9:20:49 PM long Monday, March 16, 1992 9:20:43 PM
The returned value actually is in the form of a list. To get text as above, run the result through 'join', as in "join [mtime [now] short]". • now - return the current time as Macintosh seconds. This is the number of seconds that have elapsed since Midnight Jan 1, 1904. • ticks - return the current TickCount. Ticks are 60ths of a seconds. TickCount is the number of ticks since the Macintosh was started. The command:
puts stdout [expr "[ticks] / 60"]
will print the number of seconds since the Macintosh was booted.
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= Marks
• createTMark [-w <win>] <name> <pos> - create a temporary 'mark' at location 'pos'. • getNamedMarks [-w <win>] [-n] - return list of all permanent marks in open files. Each element of a list describes one mark as a sublist of the mark's name, the complete pathname of the mark's file, the position of the first character in the first line displayed, the current position, and the end of the selection if text is hilited, or the current position again if there is no hilited section. '-w' allows window name to be applied as filter, '-n' means only names will be returned. • getTMarks [-w <win>] - return a list of temporary marks. Each item of the returned list is a sublist containing the mark name, the complete pathname of the mark, and the start and finish of the selection named by the mark. The following is an example of the result:
{{temp1 External:file.c 1312 1315} {temp2 Internal:it.h 111 111}}
• removeNamedMark [-w window] [-n name] - remove a mark previously set by 'setNamedMark'. If neither -w nor -n are specified, presents the user with a dialog containing all marks from all open windows. If only - w is specified, presents the user with a dialog containing all marks from the specified window. If both -w and -n are specified, the mark 'name' is removed from 'window'. If only -n is specified, the mark 'name' is removed from the current window. • removeTMark [-w <win>] <name> - remove temporary mark. • setNamedMark [-w <win>] [name disp pos end] - set named mark. If optional arguments are present, the mark is created without prompting user. 'disp' is the character position of the start of the first line to be displayed, while 'pos' and 'end' bracket the text to be selected.
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= Remaining commands
(in alphabetical order) --
some of these still need placing in other sections of this document.
• abbreviateText <font> <string> <width> - return an abbreviated string that will fit in the given pixel-length specificed by "width". The "font" argument can be either an integer or a font name. In the case of an integer, it is precisely a theme font ID. Allowable values include these specified below in the command: getTextDimensions . It is possible to use either the integer value or its symbolic name. So, for instance, one can use either:
abbreviateText kThemeLabelFont $HOME 125 abbreviateText 6 $HOME 125 Limited support for using Font names (such as monaco or geneva) exists but is discouraged to ensure cross-platform compatibility; integers from the set {0 1 2 3} are fully supported in both AlphaX and Alphatk.
• abortEm - aborts whatever is currently happening • tags::createFile - In "tags.tcl". • tags::find - In "tags.tcl". • beep [-volume num] [-list | sndName]? where -volume and -list are switches, while num and sndName are variables. Example: beep -volume 3 "click in set 5" will play at volume 3 the sound named "click in set 5" in the Alpha's snd resource. Any sound stored in that resource can be used as well, so feel free to paste a sound (with ResEdit) in the snd resource to have it available. • breakIntoLines <string> [fillColumn [leftFillColumn]] - return 'string' with carriage returns and spaces inserted to satisfy 'leftFillColumn' and 'fillColumn' variables (unless values are given for these). ("paragraphs.tcl") • getTextDimensions [options] <text> - returns the rectangular bounds of <text> in pixels. Bounds are returned as {left ascent right descent} around the (0,0) origin of the line of text. The font, size and display width can be specified with the following options (later options override earlier ones). If not otherwise specified, the default font and size are used. If '-width' is given, then newlines will trigger the creation of a new line in the height calculation, but otherwise they will be treated just as spaces. Currently tabs are treated as the size of an ordinary character.
-w <win> Use the font and size of the specified window -font <font> Use the specified font (integer or name). Special Appearance Manager meta fonts (which affect the font, size, and style) can be specified as one of
0 or kThemeSystemFont 1 or kThemeSmallSystemFont 2 or kThemeSmallEmphasizedSystemFont 3 or kThemeViewsFont
The remaining ID's are only available in AlphaX
4 or kThemeEmphasizedSystemFont 5 or kThemeApplicationFont 6 or kThemeLabelFont 7 or kThemeSystemFontDetail 8 or kThemeSystemFontDetailEmphasized 100 or kThemeMenuTitleFont 101 or kThemeMenuItemFont 102 or kThemeMenuItemMarkFont 103 or kThemeMenuItemCmdKeyFont 104 or kThemeWindowTitleFont 105 or kThemePushButtonFont 106 or kThemeUtilityWindowTitleFont 107 or kThemeAlertHeaderFont
The remaining ID's are available in OS 10.2 or greater 108 or kThemeToolbarFont 200 or kThemeCurrentPortFont
-size <size> Point size (positive integer). Whether given earlier or later, if an Appearance Manager meta font is specified, this size setting is ignored. -width <width> Measure the text in a box of specified width, wrapped to as many lines as necessary. If this option is missing or set to zero, the bounds of the text as a single line is returned. -- End of tags
This command introduced in 8.0b9. Not available on 68k. • getThemeMetrics <arr> - Fills <arr> with the sizes of the interface elements in the current environment. This command introduced in 8.0b9. It populates the array with the following keys (some of these are not currently produced on Alphatk, but they will be in the future):
ScrollBarWidth: The width of a scroll bar. For horizontal scroll bars, this measurement is actually the scroll bar height.
SmallScrollBarWidth: The width of a small scroll bar. For horizontal scroll bars, this measurement is actually the scroll bar height.
CheckBoxHeight: The height of the non-label part of a check box control.
RadioButtonHeight: The height of the non-label part of a radio button control.
EditTextWhitespace: The amount of white space surrounding the text rectangle of the text inside of an Edit Text control. If you select all of the text in an Edit Text control, this white space is visible. The metric is the number of pixels, per side, that the text rectangle is outset to create the whitespace rectangle.
EditTextFrameOutset: The thickness of the Edit Text frame that surrounds the whitespace rectangle (which surrounds the text rectangle). The metric is the number of pixels, per side, that the frame rectangle is outset from the whitespace rectangle.
ListBoxFrameOutset: The number of pixels that the list box frame is outset from the content of the list box.
FocusRectOutset: This is a deprecated metric and you should not use it. This metric describes how far from a control the focus rectangle was drawn, but control focus drawing no longer uses this information.
ImageWellThickness: The thickness of the frame drawn by DrawThemeGenericWell.
ScrollBarOverlap: The number of pixels a scrollbar should overlap any bounding box which surrounds it and scrollable content. This also includes the window frame when a scrollbar is along an edge of the window.
LargeTabHeight: The height of the large tab of a tab control.
LargeTabCapsWidth: The width of the caps, or end pieces, of the large tabs of a tab control.
TabFrameOverlap: The amount you must add to the tab height, kThemeMetricLargeTabHeight, to find the rectangle height to use with the various tab drawing primitives. This amount is also the amount that each tab overlaps the tab pane.
TabIndentOrStyle: If less than zero, this indicates that the text should be centered on each tab. If greater than zero, the text should be justified, according to the system script direction, and the amount is the offset from the edge at which the text should start drawing.
TabOverlap: The amount of space that every tab's drawing rectangle overlapsthat of the tab on either side of it.
SmallTabHeight: The height of the small tab of a tab control. This includes the pixels that overlap the tab pane and/or tab pane bar.
SmallTabCapsWidth: The width of the caps, or end pieces, of the small tabs of a tab control.
PushButtonHeight: The height and the width of the push button control.
ListHeaderHeight: The height of the list header field of the data browser control.
DisclosureTriangleHeight: The height of a disclosure triangle control. This triangle is the not the center of the disclosure button, but its own control.
DisclosureTriangleWidth: The width of a disclosure triangle control.
LittleArrowsHeight: The height of a little arrows control.
LittleArrowsWidth: The width of a little arrows control.
PopupButtonHeight: The height of a popup button control.
SmallPopupButtonHeight: The height of a small popup button control.
LargeProgressBarThickness: The height of the large progress bar, not including its shadow.
PullDownHeight: This metric is not used.
SmallPullDownHeight: This metric is not used.
ResizeControlHeight: The height of the window grow box control.
SmallResizeControlHeight: The width of the window grow box control.
HSliderHeight: The height of the horizontal slider control.
HSliderTickHeight: The height of the tick marks for a horizontal slider control.
VSliderWidth: The width of the vertical slider control.
VSliderTickWidth: The width of the tick marks for a vertical slider control.
TitleBarControlsHeight: The height of the title bar widgets (grow, close, and zoom boxes) for a document window.
CheckBoxWidth: The width of the non-label part of a check box control.
RadioButtonWidth: The width of the non-label part of a radio button control.
NormalProgressBarThickness: The height of the normal progress bar, not including its shadow.
ProgressBarShadowOutset: The number of pixels of shadow depth drawn below the progress bar.
SmallProgressBarShadowOutset: The number of pixels of shadow depth drawn below the small progress bar.
PrimaryGroupBoxContentInset: The number of pixels that the content of a primary group box is inset from the bounds of the control.
SecondaryGroupBoxContentInset: The number of pixels that the content of a secondary group box is from the bounds of the control.
MenuMarkColumnWidth: The width allocated to draw the mark character in a menu.
MenuExcludedMarkColumnWidth: The width allocated for the mark character in a menu item when the menu has the attribute kMenuAttrExcludesMarkColumn.
MenuMarkIndent: The indent into the interior of the mark column at which the mark character is drawn.
MenuTextLeadingEdgeMargin: The whitespace at the leading edge of menu item text.
MenuTextTrailingEdgeMargin: The whitespace at the trailing edge of menu item text.
MenuIndentWidth: The width per indent level of a menu item. This indent is set by the SetMenuItemIndent function.
MenuIconTrailingEdgeMargin: The whitespace at the trailing edge of a menu icon, if the item also has text.
DisclosureButtonHeight: The height of a disclosure button. (Mac OS X only.)
RoundButtonSize: The height and the width of the round button control. (Mac OS X only.)
SmallCheckBoxHeight: The height of the non-label part of a small check box control. (Mac OS X only.)
DisclosureButtonWidth: The width of a disclosure button. (Mac OS X only.)
SmallDisclosureButtonHeight: The height of a small disclosure button. (Mac OS X only.)
SmallDisclosureButtonWidth: The width of a small disclosure button. (Mac OS X only.)
PaneSplitterHeight: The height (or width if vertical) of a pane splitter. (Mac OS X only.)
SmallPushButtonHeight: The height of the small push button control. (Mac OS X only.)
SmallRadioButtonHeight: The height of the non-label part of a small radio button control. (Mac OS X only.)
RelevanceIndicatorHeight: The height of the relevance indicator control. (Mac OS X only.)
LargeRoundButtonSize: The height and the width of the large round button control. (Mac OS X only.)
SmallHSliderHeight: The height of the small, horizontal slider control. (Mac OS X only.)
SmallHSliderTickHeight: The height of the tick marks for a small, horizontal slider control. (Mac OS X only.)
SmallVSliderWidth: The width of the small, vertical slider control. (Mac OS X only.)
SmallVSliderTickWidth: The width of the tick marks for a small, vertical slider control. (Mac OS X only.)
SmallCheckBoxWidth: The width of the non-label part of a small check box control. (Mac OS X only.)
SmallRadioButtonWidth: The width of the non-label part of a small radio button control. (Mac OS X only.)
SmallHSliderMinThumbWidth: The minimum width of the thumb of a small, horizontal slider control. (Mac OS X only.)
SmallVSliderMinThumbHeight: The minimum width of the thumb of a small, vertical slider control. (Mac OS X only.)
SmallHSliderTickOffset: The offset of the tick marks from the appropriate side of a small horizontal slider control. (Mac OS X only.)
SmallVSliderTickOffset: The offset of the tick marks from the appropriate side of a small vertical slider control. (Mac OS X only.) • linkVar - link a Tcl variable to a preexisting internal variable of the same name (only meaningful on Alpha 7/8/X). • pageSetup - display the printing PageSetup dialog. • print ?win? - print front window • quit - quits ALPHA • version - Return string of the form "AlphaX 8.0a8, Sunday, 23 March 2003"
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= Uncommon/unused commands
Probably best to avoid using these.
• specToPathName [hex data] - given an FSSpec in hex form (as that returned by AEbuild, for instance), return a complete pathname.
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= Obsolete (and possibly buggy)
These WILL be removed in a future version (if they haven't been already).
• addAlphaChars <chars> - Add <chars> to the list of characters that internally are caught by the 'isalnum' and 'isalpha' calls. Can be used to augment the list of characters that the \w pattern in a regular expression responds to. Use w/ care. (only supported in Alpha 8/X). • AEBuild [<flags>] <app (name|creator)> <aesuite> <aeevent> [<event parameters>]* - *** Deprecated in favor of [tclAE::send], "TclAE Help" *** Build and send an apple-event. 'AEBuild' is apple's code of the same name. Each "event parameter" is two parameters, a parameter type and the data for the parameter. See the "AEGizmos" help file for more details. Flags include:
-r Wait for reply. -q Queue reply, in which case 'handleReply' (in appleEvents.tcl) is called with the reply as a parameter. -t <timeout> Specifies the timeout in ticks. • closeFloat - close the top floating window. This command is deprecated; use [floatMenu delete [floatMenu top]] instead. • dosc [<-c 'sign' | -n appName>] [-k 'clas'] [-e 'evnt'] <-s string | -f fileName> [<-t timeout|-r>] *** Deprecated in favor of [tclAE::send], "TclAE Help" *** Send an AppleEvent, by default class 'misc', event 'dosc'.
-c 'sign' "sign" is a four-letter creator signature of a running application. -n appName "appName" is the name of a running application. -k 'clas' "clas" is a four-letter event class. -e 'evnt' "evnt" is a four-letter event class. -s string "string" is the text of a script to send to the other app. -f fileName "fileName" is the complete or relative pathname of a file the other application should execute. -t timeout "timeout" is the number of ticks Alpha should wait for a response. A timeout of "0" means wait forever. -r Do not wait for reply. -q Queue reply.
If neither of the '-c' and '-n' options is chosen, the PPC Browser is used. Either '-s' or '-f' must be chosen. Thus, you can have "Alpha 5.02" and "Alpha 5.02 Copy" sending Apple events to each other, or they can send events to a remote server such as Apple's ToolServer. • eventHandler [class] [event] [proc] *** Deprecated in favor of [tclAE::installEventHandler], "TclAE Help" *** Register 'proc' to handle the class and event specified. Class and event are each 4 char args. 'proc' takes a single argument that specifies the incoming event according to the syntax here. There is currently no provision for a reply. • float -m <menu> [<-h|-w|-l|-t|-M> <val>] [-n winname] [-z tag] - Takes a created menu (not necessarily in the menubar), and makes a floating window out of it. Returns integer tag that is used to remove the window. With no arguments, returns all currently defined menus. -h through -M change width, height, left margin, top margin, and margin between buttons. -z allows a ten-char tag to be specified for 'floatShowHide'. Deprecated; use the command: floatMenu instead. • floatShowHide <on|off> <tag> - Shows or hides all floats w/ specified tag. Tags of current modes are automatically shown/hidden. This command is deprecated; use the [floatMenu <show|hide> token] instead. • getline <prompt> <default> - display an OS alert box with prompt displayed, a text edit field with default initially in the field, and with the push buttons OK, Cancel.. The command will return the text entered into the text edit field by the user, or an empty string if the user selected the Cancel button. This core command is now obsolete; use the proc: getLine instead and take advantage of its additional arguments. • icURL <URL> - passes arg to Internet Config, if present. Error if not present. You should use [url::execute] instead (icURL is deprecated). • largestPrefix <list> - return the longest prefix contained in all strings of 'list'. • unfloat <float num> - removes specified floating window. W/ no options lists all floating windows. Deprecated; use [floatMenu delete token]. • watchCursor - turns the cursor into a a watch cursor.