Perl/Tk is the marriage of the Tk graphical toolkit with Perl, the powerful programming language used primarily for system administration, web programming, and database manipulation. With Perl/Tk, you can build Perl programs with an attractive, intuitive GUI interface with all the power of Perl behind it.

Mastering Perl/Tk is the "bible" of Perl/Tk: It's not only a great book for getting started, but the best reference for learning the techniques of experienced Perl/Tk programmers. The first half of the book contains the basics on how to use Perl/Tk, and then branches out into advanced applications with a series of extensive program examples. The result is a book accessible for novices, and invaluable for experienced programmers ready to learn the next step in the elegant and effective use of Perl/Tk. The book includes:

• An introduction to each of the basic Perl/Tk widgets and geometry managers
  
• A dissection of the MainLoop, including how to use callbacks and bindings effectively
  
• Coverage of the Tix widgets, an extended set of widgets that are a part of the standard Perl/Tk distribution
  
• Working with images in Perl/Tk, including bitmaps, pixmaps, photos, and how to compose a compound image type
  
• How to create custom mega-widgets in Perl/Tk, both composite and derived
  
• Handling interprocess communication with Perl/Tk, both with standard Unix utilities (pipes and sockets) and with the send command designed for direct communication between Tk applications
  
• Developing your own Tk widget in the C language
  
• Examples of web applications written with Perl/Tk and the LWP library
  

The book also includes appendices on installing Perl/Tk, a complete quick-reference for each standard widget, and listings of all the extended examples in the book.

Nancy Walsh is the author of Learning Perl/Tk, and Steve Lidie wrote the Perl/Tk Pocket Reference as well as a series of Perl/Tk articles in The Perl Journal. Together, they have written Mastering Perl/Tk to be the definitive guide to Perl/Tk.

Table of Contents

Preface 

1. Hello, Perl/Tk
2. Geometry Management

3. Fonts
4. Button, Checkbutton, and Radiobutton Widgets
5. Label and Entry Widgets
6. The Scrollbar Widget
7. The Listbox Widget
8. The Text, TextUndo, and ROText Widgets
9. The Canvas Widget
10. The Scale Widget
11. Frame, MainWindow, and Toplevel Widgets
12. The Menu System
13. Miscellaneous Perl/Tk Methods
14. Creating Custom Widgets in Pure Perl/Tk
15. Anatomy of the MainLoop
16. User Customization
17. Images and Animations
18. A Tk Interface Extension Tour
19. Interprocess Communication with Pipes and Sockets
20. IPC with send
21. C Widget Internals
22. Perl/Tk and the Web
23. Plethora of pTk Potpourri

A. Installing Perl/Tk
B. Options and Default Values for Each Widget
C. Complete Program Listings

Index