PLEASE NOTE: GRIDPLUS2 has only been tested on Windows/XP.

• What is GRIDPLUS?
• Credits
• System Requirements
• Installation
• Using The GRIDPLUS StarKit
• History

What is GRIDPLUS?

GRIDPLUS is a package intended to simplify GUI screen layout development for Tcl/Tk programmers. GRIDPLUS is the second in a series of packages aimed at producing a framework for development/distribution of "database" applications written in Tcl/Tk, but I feel that some of the packages may also be of more general interest. The first package ICONS, released 2002, was originally developed to be used with GRIDPLUS.

GRIDPLUS2 is a Tile based version of GRIDPLUS. Whereas GRIDPLUS Version 1 has features to control widget style as well as window layout - GRIDPLUS2 assumes that the Tile style engine facilties will be used to control widget styles but instead provides signifcantly enhanced screen layout/desgin functionality (See README).

GRIDPLUS is a "Grid" based layout system which builds on, simplifies and extends the existing grid manager. GRIDPLUS layouts are defined as a hierarchy of grids. Each cell in a grid consists of two elements. These will usually be a text label and some other widget such as an entry. It is also allowed to have just one element in a cell, or a cell which is empty. GRIDPLUS grids can also be stretched to neatly fill the cells in which they are positioned. While the GRIDPLUS grid can be used "native", GRIDPLUS commands exist to create grids of buttons, checkbuttons, dropdowns (comboboxes), entries, menubuttons, links and radiobuttons. All places where text can be displayed make use of the TCL message catalogue facility.

The GRIDPLUS gpset and gpmap commands greatly simplify setting the values of the the widgets. The gpmap command is particularly useful setting widgets to values extract from a data base (SQLite, Metakit etc).

In fact GRIDPLUS is much more than an alternative to the grid geometry manager, it provides most, if not all, of the facilities required to build complete screens/windows. Although aimed at producing data entry/update/display form screens for database applications, it may be useful for other tasks.

Here are some examples to give you an idea.

GRIDPLUS also includes the following features:-

• Scrollable text widget with support for tags.
• Scrollable tablelist.
• Scrollable tree (Tile).
• Notebook widget (Tile).
• Simple drop-down menus.
• Simple method to specify widget traversal order when using the TAB key to navigate the screen.
• A group facility to enable/disable groups of widgets and menu options.
• Facility to include non-GRIDPLUS widgets in groups.
• Simple pattern/procedure based entry validations.
• Works with toplevel windows.
• ...and much, much more!!

Credits

Dr Csaba Nemithi: For the excellent tablelist package.

James H Wright: For suggesting the idea which lead to the container command/mode and submitting a fix for the notebook/toplevel problem.

System Requirements

Tcl/Tk	Version 8.5a6 or greater.
Tile	Version 0.7 or greater.
ICONS	For GRIDPLUS icon button support (Optional).
Tablelist	For GRIDPLUS tablelist support (Optional).

Installation

GRIDPLUS Download File Contents:

LICENSE.gridplus	GRIDPLUS package license/copyright terms.
gridplus.tcl	GRIDPLUS package script.
pkgIndex.tcl	GRIDPLUS package index script.

To Install the GRIDPLUS Package (ZIP):

• Create an empty directory in which to unzip the GRIDPLUS download file.
• Copy the GRIDPLUS download file into the new directory.
• Unzip the GRIDPLUS download file using pkzip.
• Start a TCL/TK Console session.
• Display, and make a note of, the library directory using the TCL info command.

  info library

• Create a sub-directory called gridplus2.3 under the "library" directory.
• Copy the GRIDPLUS package files (gridplus.tcl and pkgIndex.tcl) to the gridplus2.3 directory.

Using The GRIDPLUS StarKit

In addition to the GRIDPLUS package detailed in the installation, the download page also has an option to download a StarKit containing all of the necessary packages to run the GRIDPLUS examples.

Note: The GRIDPLUS2.3 requires the 8.5a6 (or later?) TclKit, which includes Tile.

The StarKit is also a useful simply as a tool to try out the GRIDPLUS system.

History

GRIDPLUS2.0 README (7th October 2006).
GRIDPLUS2.1 README (25th February 2007).
GRIDPLUS2.2 README (22nd July 2007).