Tkinter Listbox.curselection() error?

[Chad Netzer]

On Wednesday 02 October 2002 00:08, Bob wrote:
> Hello,
> I'm trying to write a fairly simple font selection dialog for a
> bigger application I'm working on.  Every time I try to use the
> curselection() method on a listbox I created I get a weird tcl error.
> Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?  Any help would be much
> appreciated.
>
> [snipped long class definition]
>
> if( __name__ == "__main__" ):
> 	root = Tk();
> 	fb = ERGFontChooser( root );
>
> 	f = fb.getFont();
>
> 	print( `f` );
> 	print( f.actual() );

You initialize Tk, and create ERGFontChooser, but you never enter into 
the TK mainloop().  So, first, put root.mainloop() at the end of the 
program.  Then delete the use of fb.getFont() outside of the mainloop, 
since it won't work like you want it to. (see below)

When I run what you have, I get the error only when I hit "OK" or 
"Cancel", causing self.top.destroy() to be run.  But since the 
mainloop() was never entered, the Tk state is not fully defined, and so 
this isn't unexpected.  You can't use getFont() outside of the mainloop 
(at least, not effectively) without expecting these kinds of trouble.  
Outside of the mainloop() Tk isn't really processing events; you could 
call an after_idle(), before entering mainloop, to start some 
prcoessing that isn't event based (such as forcing the window to raise, 
etc.), but I won't guarantee the results.

Also, using wait_window() in getFont, doesn't seem right.  After all, 
getFont() MUST stall until the Toplevel window is destroyed (which will 
destroy all the widgets in it.)  At which point, getFont() tries to 
continue operating on Tkinter widgets that are now destroyed.

If I put the getFont() call in the ok() method (changing it to 
self.getFont()), and get rid of the wait_window() call in getFont(), 
then it does what I think you want:  It returns the font info when you 
press 'Ok', and destroys the window.  Here is the end of the program as 
I wrote it:

        def getFont( self ):

                # we have returned
                items = self.familyBox.curselection();
                fam = self.familyBox.get( items[0] );
                if( self.boldVar.get() == 0 ):
                        weight = NORMAL;
                else:
                        weight = BOLD;

                font = Font( self.root, family = fam );
                font.config( size = self.sizeVar.get(),
                             weight = weight );

                return font;

        def ok( self, event=None ):
                f = self.getFont();

                print( `f` );
                print( f.actual() );

                print "OK";
                self.top.destroy();

if( __name__ == "__main__" ):
        root = Tk();
        fb = ERGFontChooser( root );

        root.mainloop()


Oh, and lay off the coke, Bob. :)

-- 

Chad Netzer
cnetzer at mail.arc.nasa.gov