FAQ 3.14 How can I use X or Tk with Perl?

This is an excerpt from the latest version perlfaq3.pod, which
comes with the standard Perl distribution. These postings aim to
reduce the number of repeated questions as well as allow the community
to review and update the answers. The latest version of the complete
perlfaq is at http://faq.perl.org .

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3.14: How can I use X or Tk with Perl?

The Tk.pm module is a completely Perl-based, object-oriented interface
to the Tk toolkit that doesn't force you to use Tcl just to get at Tk.
Sx is an interface to the Athena Widget set. Both are available from
CPAN. See the directory
http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-category/08_User_Interfaces/

Invaluable for Perl/Tk programming are the Perl/Tk FAQ at
http://phaseit.net/claird/comp.lang.perl.tk/ptkFAQ.html , the Perl/Tk
Reference Guide available at
http://www.cpan.org/authors/Stephen_O_Lidie/ , and the online manpages
at http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/%7Eamundson/perl/perltk/toc.html .



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Re: FAQ 3.14 How can I use X or Tk with Perl?

Quoth PerlFAQ Server :
>
> 3.14: How can I use X or Tk with Perl?

I've had it in mind for a while that this FAQ entry is really very
dated. What do people think of this update: have I missed anything
important?

Ben

=head2 How can I write a GUI (X, Tk, Gtk, etc.) in Perl?

There are a number of modules which let you write GUIs in Perl. Most
GUI toolkits have a perl interface: an incomplete list follows.

=over 4

=item Tk

This works under Unix and Windows, and the current version doesn't
look half as bad under Windows as it used to. Some of the gui elements
still don't 'feel' quite right, though. The interface is very natural
and 'perlish', making it easy to use in small scripts that just need a
simple gui. It hasn't been updated in a while.

=item Wx

This is a Perl binding for the cross-platform wxWidgets toolkit
L. It works under Unix, Win32 and Mac OS X,
using native widgets (Gtk under Unix). The interface follows the C++
interface closely, but the documentation is a little sparse for someone
who doesn't know the library, mostly just referring you to the C++
documentation.

=item Gtk and Gtk2

These are Perl bindings for the Gtk toolkit L. The
interface changed significantly between versions 1 and 2 so they have
separate Perl modules. It runs under Unix, Win32 and Mac OS X (currently
it requires an X server on Mac OS, but a 'native' port is underway), and
the widgets look the same on every plaform: i.e., they don't match the
native widgets. As with Wx, the Perl bindings follow the C API closely,
and the documentation requires you to read the C documentation to
understand it.

=item Win32::GUI

This provides access to most of the Win32 GUI widgets from Perl.
Obviously, it only runs under Win32, and uses native widgets. The Perl
interface doesn't really follow the C interface: it's been made more
Perlish, and the documentation is pretty good. More advanced stuff may
require familiarity with the C Win32 APIs, or reference to MSDN.

=item CamelBones

CamelBones L is a Perl interface to
Mac OS X's Cocoa GUI toolkit, and as such can be used to produce native
GUIs on Mac OS X. It's not on CPAN, as it requires frameworks that
CPAN.pm doesn't know how to install, but installation is via the
standard OSX package installer. The Perl API is, again, very close to
the ObjC API it's wrapping, and the documentation just tells you how to
translate from one to the other.

=item Qt

There is a Perl interface to TrollTech's Qt toolkit, but it does not
appear to be maintained.

=item Athena

Sx is an interface to the Athena widget set which comes with X, but
again it appears not to be much used nowadays.

=back

Re: FAQ 3.14 How can I use X or Tk with Perl?

In article , Ben Morrow
wrote:

> Quoth PerlFAQ Server :
> >
> > 3.14: How can I use X or Tk with Perl?
>
> I've had it in mind for a while that this FAQ entry is really very
> dated. What do people think of this update: have I missed anything
> important?

Excellent. I've updated perlfaq3.pod.

If anyone has any updates, please reply to this thread or post to
perlfaq-workers AT perl org.

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