I found an annoying bug in specTcl that prevented me from using BWidget widgets (like ComboBox) in the embedded gui builder (based on specTcl). It generates the right tcl gui code but it could not run from inside specTcl. What specTcl do is to create a slave interpreter and load Tk in this interpreter. The problem happens when we try to bind something at the startup code, so I commented out the bind . <Destroy> exit line, at proc run_app source file SpecTcl/save.tk and it works now.

I have rewritten this as a small code snippet and the problem really happens, so it is not specTcl fault, but seems to be a bug in tcl (or tk) core. If you are reading this and knows how to report the bug, I'd be happy to send you more details, so please e-mail me.

When I changed the file manager to open multiple instances, I introduced a bug solved now, which prevented it to navigate controlled by the lateral (left) folders tree.

You may drag an icon from both the file manager or the desktop and drop it in the taskbar (at the bottom of the screen). The added icon will behave the same as the original, but with a boring icon (gears), because we do not manage icons yet. Left-click on the added icon to see the original default action being invoked. Right-click to remove an icon, and the taskbar will be redrawn, rolling the other icons to the left, if needed. It's not much, I know, but I have been busy with other matters. There are some other bugs fixed too.

This is only available in the latest release, tdesk-20050406.kit, see downloads below.

Now our gui builder, SpecTcl (enclosed in tdesk.kit), supports better the new tk widgets: labelframe, spinbox and panedwindow. This last (panedwindow) does not make much sense, until I add commands to control the creation/destruction of panes. You may use interchangeably frames and labelframes with the same commands (with sub-grids inside them). I have added also BWidget's combobox, but for an yet unknown reason, it does not run from inside specTcl, but compiles fine the dialog/gui.

Please, grab your starkit below, and don't forget to send me comments, enhancements, or just a message telling me your interest in this project. Thank you!

I was still not happy with the way XMMS worked with our window manager, so I added support for "has title" Motif hint ("no border" is checked also, but no provision for handling it). Then I found a way to make a better handling of focus, without the need to capture Enter/Leave events (that was really ugly, arg!). Now the window manager don't allow other windows (including its own Tk applications) to steal the focus so easily!

There was still a couple bugs that prevented double click and menu posts in specTcl. Unfortunatelly, I only found it when restarted to work on more dialogs. Now this is fixed, and I have tested several programs both external (eg. gimp, sodipodi, firefox, blender,...) and embedded, and nothing strange was found. Let us cross the fingers...

As I said before, I removed most code snapshots, leaving only some of possible interest. If you need any other version (why?! But who knows?) please ask me.

When trying to push harder the window manager, I found a lot of annoying bugs. Now it seems much more robust. If you find a bug, please report to me. In particular, now it handles correctly iconified windows.

In a few days, I will remove most of the code snapshots in our downloads, and begin to number releases (still pre-alpha!). The project will enter a more interesting phase...

I have had not much time free today to advance tdesk, but I made a couple changes in the window manager to make it look nice. Also, the specTcl function (to call the gui builder from a script) now accepts an (optional) file name, as the mlEditor, so both can be called from a menu or any other script, without the need for a "open file" dialog.

Now we have a way to edit our dialogs with specTcl (all inside the starkit, directory "dialogs"). Some widgets, such as NoteBook (from BWidget) are not supported by specTcl, so to use them, we must first write a small wrapper (see dialogs/folder_options.tcl, as it is really simple!).

You may check the file types that the file manager understand, by selecting the menu "View->folder options". Then, you may edit the GUIs with specTcl (use the embedded, modified and corrected version). To reload all dialogs, use tdesk::load_dialogs. All .tcl files in the directory dialogs will be sourced again. If you create new dialogs, remember to copy your clone with another name...

I have added the remaining "expected" buttons in the window manager decoration frame. Some improvements in file and desktop managers as well. Now it acepts drops from kde's konqueror. Better handling of uri-lists.

Before proceeding with mime detection and menus, here is a cleanup on some issues. Get your today downloads below.

To avoid crowding this page with many news items, I'll keep old news in other pages, as in our main site.