tk_messageBox(3tk)

💬 tk_messageBox — the manual page, but make it make sense 💬

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're talking about tk_messageBox — a built-in command from the Tk family of built-in commands. It pops up a message window and then just… waits for you. Iconic behaviour honestly. 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

tk_messageBox — pops up a message window and waits for user response.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

tk_messageBox ?option value ...?

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So here's the vibe. This procedure creates and displays a message window with an application-specified message, an icon, and a set of buttons. Every single button in that message window has its own unique symbolic name — go peek at the -type options if you wanna meet them all. 👑

Once the message window is popped up, tk_messageBox just sits there waiting for the user to pick a button. No rush. No pressure. Then, and only then, it returns the symbolic name of the selected button. That's the whole personality.

The following option-value pairs are supported:

• -command string — Specifies the prefix of a Tcl command to invoke when the user closes the dialog. The actual command is made of string followed by a space and the name of the button clicked by the user to close the dialog. ⚠️ Heads up: this one is only available on macOS.
• -default name — name gives the symbolic name of the default button for this message window (like “ok”, “cancel”, and so on — the quote marks are literally in the docs, we keep the lore). See -type for a list of the symbolic names. If you don't specify this option, the first button in the dialog becomes the default.
• -detail string — Specifies an auxiliary message to go with the main message given by the -message option. This detail gets presented beneath the main message and, where the OS supports it, in a less emphasized font than the main message. It's giving "fine print but make it cute" 💅
• -icon iconImage — Specifies an icon to display. iconImage must be one of these four and no others: error, info, question, warning. If you don't specify this option, the info icon shows up. 🍓
• -message string — Specifies the message to display in this message box. The default value is an empty string.
• -parent window — Makes window the logical parent of the message box. The message box gets displayed on top of its parent window.
• -title titleString — Specifies a string to display as the title of the message box. The default value is an empty string.
• -type predefinedType — Arranges for a predefined set of buttons to be displayed. The possible values for predefinedType are:
  • abortretryignore — Displays three buttons whose symbolic names are abort, retry and ignore.
  • ok — Displays one button whose symbolic name is ok. This is the default. ✨
  • okcancel — Displays two buttons whose symbolic names are ok and cancel.
  • retrycancel — Displays two buttons whose symbolic names are retry and cancel.
  • yesno — Displays two buttons whose symbolic names are yes and no.
  • yesnocancel — Displays three buttons whose symbolic names are yes, no and cancel.

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🔥 EXAMPLE 🔥

no cap, here's the classic "are you SURE you wanna quit" moment:

set answer [tk_messageBox -message "Really quit?" \
        -icon question -type yesno \
        -detail "Select \"Yes\" to make the application exit"]
switch -- $answer {
    yes exit
    no {tk_messageBox -message "I know you like this application!" \
            -type ok}
}

the no branch is lowkey a whole love letter to your user 😭💖

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👑 KEYWORDS 👑

message box

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and that's the whole page, bestie — main character energy from start to finish 🌈⭐

this was Tk, version 4.2, dated tk_messageBox(3tk), and yes that's the same name twice, we love a consistent icon 🎀 bye mwah 💅💖