Tkinter OSX and "lift"

[Eric Brunel]

On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:53:14 +0100, Kevin Walzer <kw at codebykevin.com>  
wrote:
> Miki wrote:
>> Hello Kevin,
>>
>>> Tk.lift doesn't seem to work on OSX (Python 2.5.1).
>>>> If you click on the PythonLauncher application that runs in your dock
>>>> when this script is executed, the window comes into focus fine.
>> You're right, but I want to window to be initially in focus (without
>> the user clicking on the python launcher icon).
>
> "Lift" (which calls the Tk command "raise") doesn't work this way, at  
> least not under Aqua. If your application has focus, "lift" will raise  
> the widget being called to the top of the stacking order. However, it  
> will not make the application frontmost. To do this you'd have to use  
> Carbon calls (look at Carbon.CarbonEvt) or use a Tk extension and call  
> it from Python. Of course, this is pretty much a non-issue if your  
> application is wrapped as a standard Mac application bundle via  
> py2app--most Mac users don't run Python apps from the Terminal but  
> instead double-click an application icon. In that event, "lift" should  
> work fine, because the application will already have focus.

There is a trick that sometimes works even for interpreted application:

import Tkinter as tk
root = tk.Tk()
root.withdraw()
# Code building the window...
root.lift()
root.deiconify()
root.mainloop()

This sometimes forces the window to be top-most. If this doesn't work, you  
can also try:

import Tkinter as tk
root = tk.Tk()
root.withdraw()
# Code building the window...
root.lift()
root.after_idle(root.deiconify)
root.mainloop()

This was a trick that had to be done on Windows a few years back to force  
the main window to be created on top of this others. It deosn't seem to be  
needed anymore now, but maybe the trick can be used on a Mac... Don't know  
if this will work the same, though...

HTH
-- 
python -c "print ''.join([chr(154 - ord(c)) for c in  
'U(17zX(%,5.zmz5(17l8(%,5.Z*(93-965$l7+-'])"