[Prev] [Next] [Limbo Basics] [Limbo Programming] [Language Definition]

Concepts and Terminology

Those that are familiar with Ousterhout's Tcl and the Tk Toolkit, commonly Tcl/Tk, will find Limbo/Tk to be very similar. However, Limbo/Tk does not implement all of the features of Tk 4.0. For more information about the differences between Limbo/Tk and Tk 4.0, see the Inferno Reference Manual.

Importantly, though, for Limbo/Tk applications, Limbo is the language used to create and control Tk components (widgets), not Tcl.

The toplevel Function

The toplevel function creates a window. It returns the Toplevel type that can be passed to other Limbo/Tk functions.

The cmd Function

The cmd function receives the Limbo/Tk commands as strings to create and control Tk graphic objects.

The command string contains a command and its arguments. These look like a very simple version of Tcl. See the Inferno Reference Manual for more information about the Limbo/Tk commands.

The namechan Function

The namechan function of the Limbo/Tk module is used to set up communication between the Limbo/Tk widgets and Limbo programs. The send command results in a string being sent on a Limbo channel. The namechan function is used to associate a Limbo chan of string with a name that can be used inside Limbo/Tk.

Wmlib

The standard Inferno distribution includes the window manager prototype, wm, and the Wmlib module (wmlib.m). The Wmlib module simplifies both the processing of Limbo/Tk commands and the construction of windowed applications.

See the Inferno User's Guide for more information about wm. See the Inferno Reference Manual for more information about the Wmlib module.

[Prev] [Next] [Limbo Basics] [Limbo Programming] [Language Definition]