From Newsgroup: comp.lang.tcl

I wanted to share a tiny (1 KLOC) Unix GUI man page viewer I made that uses Tcl/Tk 9.0.2.

It is available here: https://github.com/mark-summerfield/manpager

I’ve done it using TclOO which I find a lot more "natural" to my programming style (having programmed in Python for so long).

Manpager makes use of some Tcl/Tk 9-specific features including:

* callback - which I use a lot
* my varname
* lseq
* exec’s -encoding argument (which is why it needs 9.0.2)
* file home
* oo::abstract

The code I’m most pleased with is a minute (6 line) class:

oo::class create Ref {
variable Value
constructor value { set Value $value }
method get {} { return $Value }
method set value { set Value $value }
}

I use this instead of using upvar. It allows me to wrap a value and pass it down the call stack as deep as I like just like a normal value, but at any point the value can be changed by using the set method. For a usage example
see app_actions-1.tm’s on_config method and config_form-1.tm’s ConfigForm class.

In my Store version control alternative https://github.com/mark-summerfield/manpager I use even more Tcl/Tk 9
features including oo::singleton to lazily create dialog windows which I
want to keep available (but hidden when not in use) to preserve their state, size, and position.

I’ve found Ashok Nadkarni’s books really helpful. Just wish there was a volume covering Tk!

All in all I am enjoying using Tcl/Tk 9 far more than I’ve ever enjoyed Tcl programming before.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.lang.tcl

Am 22.08.2025 um 09:57 schrieb Mark Summerfield:

I wanted to share a tiny (1 KLOC) Unix GUI man page viewer I made that uses Tcl/Tk 9.0.2.

It is available here: https://github.com/mark-summerfield/manpager

I’ve done it using TclOO which I find a lot more "natural" to my programming
style (having programmed in Python for so long).

Manpager makes use of some Tcl/Tk 9-specific features including:

* callback - which I use a lot
* my varname
* lseq
* exec’s -encoding argument (which is why it needs 9.0.2)
* file home
* oo::abstract

The code I’m most pleased with is a minute (6 line) class:

oo::class create Ref {
variable Value
constructor value { set Value $value }
method get {} { return $Value }
method set value { set Value $value }
}

I use this instead of using upvar. It allows me to wrap a value and pass it down the call stack as deep as I like just like a normal value, but at any point the value can be changed by using the set method. For a usage example see app_actions-1.tm’s on_config method and config_form-1.tm’s ConfigForm class.

In my Store version control alternative https://github.com/mark-summerfield/manpager I use even more Tcl/Tk 9 features including oo::singleton to lazily create dialog windows which I
want to keep available (but hidden when not in use) to preserve their state, size, and position.

I’ve found Ashok Nadkarni’s books really helpful. Just wish there was a volume covering Tk!

All in all I am enjoying using Tcl/Tk 9 far more than I’ve ever enjoyed Tcl programming before.

Hi Mark,
thanks for the great news, I appreciate.

Your Ref class remebers me to typical access functions to member
variables in C++.

Thanks for sharing,
Harald
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.lang.tcl

On 8/22/25 2:57 AM, Mark Summerfield wrote:

I wanted to share a tiny (1 KLOC) Unix GUI man page viewer I made that uses Tcl/Tk 9.0.2.

It is available here: https://github.com/mark-summerfield/manpager
[snip]

That page provides just enough to whet my interest
I'm a retired Tcl/Tk newbie who hasn't used it for too long.
You describe it as an alternative to gman - with which I'm unfamiliar
and Synaptic doesn't give a "homepage" for it.

Do you have a more complete description of your app?
Is there a good description somewhere of gman that would give me an idea
of what you wanted to accomplish?

TIA


--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.lang.tcl

On Fri, 22 Aug 2025 06:15:16 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:

On 8/22/25 2:57 AM, Mark Summerfield wrote:

I wanted to share a tiny (1 KLOC) Unix GUI man page viewer I made that uses >> Tcl/Tk 9.0.2.

It is available here: https://github.com/mark-summerfield/manpager
[snip]

That page provides just enough to whet my interest
I'm a retired Tcl/Tk newbie who hasn't used it for too long.
You describe it as an alternative to gman - with which I'm unfamiliar
and Synaptic doesn't give a "homepage" for it.

Do you have a more complete description of your app?
Is there a good description somewhere of gman that would give me an idea
of what you wanted to accomplish?

TIA

In Debian 12 (bookworm)'s synaptic there's a gman package.
But no mention of a home page.
There's a screenshot of it here (scroll down about 40%): https://askubuntu.com/questions/253705/graphical-user-interface-to-view-man-page
and a manual page here: https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/xenial/man1/gman.1x.html
It appears to be 26 years old and is maybe no longer maintained.

The main reason I created my own is that gman always shows the man pages
in an external viewer; I wanted them shown in the GUI app & also to
have clickable man page links, e.g., if you click, say, man(1) that
man page will appear.

I don't have a more complete description of Manpager.
If you install and run it (basically download a zip or clone it
and put it anywhere -- providing you have a wish 9.0.2 in your
path called wish9 & Tcllib & Tklib) it should be easy to use.
The only help is in the tooltips.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2