804delta(3pm)

💖 Tk::804delta — what is new for perl/Tk 804 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the Tk::804delta page!! 🎀 this is the glow-up doc: it tells you everything that changed between the Tk800 era and the Tk804 era of perl/Tk. think of it as the group chat recap after a major rebrand. ✨

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

This document describes differences between the Tk800 series and the Tk804 series.

like, the whole before-and-after. buckle up. 💅

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💀 Incompatible Changes 💀

okay so warning: some stuff straight up changed and your old code might be crying. 😭

Tk804.028 era

In Tk804.028, there are some additional incompatible changes:

• Return values of some Tk::Wm methods (e.g. aspect, wmGrid, iconposition, resizable ...) were changed from returning <em>tclish</em> lists (e.g. "1 2 3 4") to <em>perlish</em> lists (1,2,3,4). glow-up fr fr. ✨
• Tk::Wm::wmTracing needs an argument for setting on/off — without an argument it just returns the current value. no argument = no vibe change, it's just reading the room. 👑

All Tk804 releases

All Tk804 releases have the following incompatible changes:

• Tk804 will only work with perl 5.8.0 and above. For older perl versions look for Tk800.025. sorry to the legacy girlies. 🙈
• curselection of Tk::Listbox now returns an <em>array reference</em> in scalar context. This means you have to write

        my(@selected) = $listbox->curselection

or

        my(@selected) = @{ $listbox->curselection }

now. yes literally both are valid, pick your fighter. 💅

• The fontActual method now returns the <em>pixel</em> value instead of the <em>point</em> value for -size. Pixel values are expressed as negative numbers. negative numbers!! it's giving "math but make it fashion". 🧮✨
• Some enhancements from the "dash" patches are lost for now (i.e. -tile, -troughtile ...). rip to those, gone but not forgotten. 🕯️
• The -state option is not available anymore for Tk::Text tags. Use -elide instead. out with the old, in with the new. 🔥

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🌈 Enhancements 🌈

the fun part!! the main character era. 👑

• Tk804 is Unicode-aware. yes she speaks every language now. 🌍
• It is possible to build Tk with Xft support on X11. This is strongly recommened if you are planning to make use of Unicode rendering capabilities of Tk. It also gives anti-aliased fonts for regular text (if you have TrueType or Type1 fonts and they are in your fontconfig config file). smooth fonts?? we love to see it. 🦋
• The new method chooseDirectory is available as a standard directory selector. she picks folders, she's helpful, she's iconic. 📁💖
• Tk::PNG and Tk::JPEG are bundled now with the perl/Tk distribution, providing support for the image formats png and jpeg. no more extra shopping trips bestie, they come included. 🛍️
• Improvements to Tk::Listbox: new option -activestyle, new methods itemconfigure and itemcget, new virtual event <<ListboxSelect>>. she got a whole makeover. 💅
• More tests. (periodt. we love a tested queen. ✅)

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🎀 New Widgets 🎀

fresh arrivals, all of them serving looks:

• Tk::Labelframe — An alternative to Tk::LabFrame.
• Tk::Panedwindow — An alternative to Tk::Adjuster.
• Tk::Spinbox — An alternative to the CPAN module Tk::NumEntry.

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🔧 Selected Bug Fixes 🔧

bestie... this section is literally empty in the original. nothing listed. we move. 💀

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🫶 Changed Internals 🫶

also empty!! the internals changed, but the doc is not telling us how. mystery era. 🙈

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🖥️ Platform Specific Problems 🖥️

empty section, no problems listed. iconic of it honestly. ✨

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🔮 Future Directions 🔮

yep, empty too. the future is unwritten, main character energy only. 👑

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🐛 Reporting Bugs 🐛

If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.tk newsgroup. go lurk first bestie, someone may have already posted about it. 👀

If you believe you have an unreported bug, please send a mail to <ptk@lists.stanford.edu> and/or <nick@ing-simmons.net>. Be sure to trim your bug down to a tiny but sufficient test case. tiny but sufficient — do not dump your entire project in the email, we are begging. 😭

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• Tk
• "Changes" file in the Perl/Tk distribution. (iykyk)

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🦋 this was perl v5.40.1, dated 2025-04-13, brought to you by the perl/Tk girlies. stay Unicode-aware, stay Xft-smooth, and don't forget your -elide. 💖✨🎀