Subject: [Announce] Tix version 4.0b4 is available I am pleased to announce the availability of Tix version 4.0b4. IS THIS A BETA VERSION? No, this is NOT a beta version. Although there is a letter "b" in the version number, this should be considered as the "final release" of Tix 4.0. Tix 4.0 has been pretty stable now and the only reason that I leave the letter "b" there is I am going for a vacation and I won't be able to support Tix for the next month. As soon as I come back in September, I will release the "Final Version" by simply removing the letter "b" from the version number. REQUIREMENT TK 4.0 + TCL 7.4. Tix 4.0b4 does not work with previous versions of TK and TCL. Versions of Tix that work with previous versions of TK and TCL can be found in the FTP directories listed below. WHAT IS TIX In case you don't know yet, the Tix library is an extension to the Tk toolkit that contains over 20 new widgets for Tk. Features include: (1) A LOT of new widgets: ComboBox, Motif style FileSelectBox, MS Windows style FileSelectBox, PanedWindow, NoteBook, Hierarchical Listbox, Directory List/Tree View, Spin Control widget .... and many more. With these new widgets, your Tcl/Tk applications can acquire a great professional look and you can interact with your users in interesting new ways. (2) XPM image support: This allows you to display color icons in XPM format. Supports transparent background, a feature not found in the standard GIF photo image type. (3) Compound images: A new image type called "compound" allows you to glue together a bunch of bitmaps, images and text strings together to form a bigger image. Then you can use this image with widgets that support the -image option. For example, you can display a text string string together with a bitmap, at the same time, inside a TK button widget. (4) Form geometry manager Works similarly to the Motif Form widget. You can specify geometry constraints using attachment rules. (5) Mwm window manager support: With the tixMwm command, you can communicate with the Motif window manager "mwm"; you can add new items to the Motif system menu and change the window manager decorations. (6) Display Items and Display Styles Display items and display styles make it possible to display visual information in many formats. Currently only the HList widget supports display items, but this will become the standard way of displaying informations in all the Tix widgets in the next version (Tix 4.1). GETTING THE TIX PACKAGE You can obtain Tix from my ftp site: ftp://ftp.cis.upenn.edu/pub/ioi/Tix4.0b4.tar.gz Linux, SGI and SunOS binaries libraries can be found ftp://ftp.cis.upenn.edu/pub/ioi/bin/linux-1.2.3-tix4.0b4/ ftp://ftp.cis.upenn.edu/pub/ioi/bin/sgi-irix5.3-tix4.0b4/ ftp://ftp.cis.upenn.edu/pub/ioi/bin/sunos-4.1.3-tix4.0b4/ I have also uploaded the file to the official Tcl site, so in a few days it will also be available at; ftp://ftp.aud.alcatel.com/tcl/extensions/Tix4.0b4.tar.gz ftp://ftp.aud.alcatel.com/tcl/extensions/Tix4.0b4.README More information about Tix can be found at the Tix Home Page at http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~ioi/tix/tix.html There is a mailing list for the discussion of the development of the Tix library and Tix applications. To subscribe, please send a message to ioi@graphics.cis.upenn.edu I will not be able to answer mails until late August. If you have a pressing problem about Tix you may be able to find help from the Tix mailing list. Send you questions to: tix-info@graphics.cis.upenn.edu DOCUMENTATION All Tix documentation are now in HTML format. After you download Tix, please read the file Tix4.0b4/README.html. It contains links to all other important documentation in the Tix package, including the copyright statement. WHAT'S NEW (1) There are man pages for all "supported" widgets. (2) For each "supported" widget, there is a sample program that demonstrates how to program with that widget. To see these programs, start the demo in Tix4.0b4/demos/widget and click on the "Run Sample Programs" tab. (3) New image type "compound": you can use it with every Tk/Tix widget that support the -image option. (4) Better support for keyboard traversal. Now FileSelectBox, ExFileSelectBox and NoteBook all support traversal with Tab and arrow keys. (5) Fewer patches to the standard Tk distribution. Now only two files are patched. Even these patches can be turned off by *not* supplying the --enable-patches flag when you run the ./configure script. Please read the file docs/Install.html in the distribution for more information. IS TIX FREE? Tix 4.0 is released under very liberal license terms, similar to the Tcl/TK license terms. Please read the file docs/LEGAL.html in the distribution for more details. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I have to thank everyone who sent me bug reports and kept bugging me until I got rid all of the major bugs. Without the supports of the beta testers I would have never put together such a (IMHO) useful package. Special thanks are due to Sven Delmas, John Granieri, Bryan Oakley, Jeff Payne, Michael Carter, Richard Ball, Patrick D'Cruze, Mark Roseman and especially to John Ousterhout, who wrote the most cool programs I ever saw in my life. Enjoy! Ioi