R help - Jul 2007 - Me again, about the horrible documentation of tcltk

How on Earth can I know what are the arguments of any of the functions of 
the tcl/tk package? I tried hard to find, using all search engines 
available, looking deep into keywords of R, python's tkinter and tcl/tk, but
nowhere I found anything remotely similar to a help.

For example, what are the possible arguments to tkgetOpenFile?

I know that this works:

library(tcltk)
filename <- tclvalue(tkgetOpenFile(
  filetypes="{{Porn Files} {.jpg}} {{All files} {*}}"))
if (filename != "") cat("Selected file:", filename,
"\n")

but, besides filetypes, what are the other arguments to
tkgetOpenFile? I would like to force the files to be sorted by
time, with most recent files coming first (and no, the purpose is
not to use for porn files).

Alberto Monteiro

Alberto Monteiro wrote:
> How on Earth can I know what are the arguments of any of the functions of 
> the tcl/tk package? I tried hard to find, using all search engines 
> available, looking deep into keywords of R, python's tkinter and
tcl/tk, but
> nowhere I found anything remotely similar to a help.
>
> For example, what are the possible arguments to tkgetOpenFile?
>
> I know that this works:
>
> library(tcltk)
> filename <- tclvalue(tkgetOpenFile(
>   filetypes="{{Porn Files} {.jpg}} {{All files} {*}}"))
> if (filename != "") cat("Selected file:", filename,
"\n")
>
> but, besides filetypes, what are the other arguments to
> tkgetOpenFile? I would like to force the files to be sorted by
> time, with most recent files coming first (and no, the purpose is
> not to use for porn files).
>
>   
man n tk_getOpenFile

or if you are not on Unix/Linux, find it online with
Google
> Alberto Monteiro
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

"Alberto Monteiro" <albmont at centroin.com.br> wrote:
> How on Earth can I know what are the arguments of any of the functions of 
> the tcl/tk package? [...]
My impression is that you as supposed to look in tck/tk manuals.
For example, Googling on

tk tck getopenfile

pointed to this Web page:

http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.5/TkCmd/getOpenFile.htm

Hope that helps.

-- 
Mike Prager, NOAA, Beaufort, NC
* Opinions expressed are personal and not represented otherwise.
* Any use of tradenames does not constitute a NOAA endorsement.

Hi Alberto,

It took me approximately 20 seconds to find all the arguments for this function.
Here were the steps I took.

1.) Look at R help page ?tkgetOpenFile
2.) Hmmm. Lots of functions, but little info. But wait, what's this?

Details:

    [snip]

     There are far too many of these commands to describe them and
     their arguments in full.  Please refer to the Tcl/Tk documentation
     for details. With a few exceptions, the pattern is that Tk
     subcommands like 'pack configure' are converted to function names
     like 'tkpack.configure', and Tcl subcommands are like
     'tclfile.dir'.

3.) Type tkgetOpenFile at R prompt.
> tkgetOpenFile
function (...) 
tcl("tk_getOpenFile", ...)
<environment: namespace:tcltk>

4.) Google tk_getOpenFile.
5.) http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.5/TkCmd/getOpenFile.htm 

Best,

Jim


-- 

James W. MacDonald, M.S.
Biostatistician
Affymetrix and cDNA Microarray Core
University of Michigan Cancer Center
1500 E. Medical Center Drive
7410 CCGC
Ann Arbor MI 48109
734-647-5623
>>> "Alberto Monteiro" <albmont at centroin.com.br>
wrote:
> How on Earth can I know what are the arguments of any of the functions of 
> the tcl/tk package? I tried hard to find, using all search engines 
> available, looking deep into keywords of R, python's tkinter and
tcl/tk, but
> 
> nowhere I found anything remotely similar to a help.
> 
> For example, what are the possible arguments to tkgetOpenFile?
> 
> I know that this works:
> 
> library(tcltk)
> filename <- tclvalue(tkgetOpenFile(
>   filetypes="{{Porn Files} {.jpg}} {{All files} {*}}"))
> if (filename != "") cat("Selected file:", filename,
"\n")
> 
> but, besides filetypes, what are the other arguments to
> tkgetOpenFile? I would like to force the files to be sorted by
> time, with most recent files coming first (and no, the purpose is
> not to use for porn files).
> 
> Alberto Monteiro
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help 
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.


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I think it would help if the tcl/tk manuals were added to the RGui Help
menu. Why google when they are on your hard drive already?

Cheers,  Mike


Mike Prager wrote:
> 
> "Alberto Monteiro" <albmont at centroin.com.br> wrote:
> 
>> How on Earth can I know what are the arguments of any of the functions
of
>> the tcl/tk package? [...]
> 
> My impression is that you as supposed to look in tck/tk manuals.
> For example, Googling on
> 
> tk tck getopenfile
> 
> pointed to this Web page:
> 
> http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.5/TkCmd/getOpenFile.htm
> 
> Hope that helps.
> 
> -- 
> Mike Prager, NOAA, Beaufort, NC
> * Opinions expressed are personal and not represented otherwise.
> * Any use of tradenames does not constitute a NOAA endorsement.
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> 
> 
-- 
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