path: root/doc/text.n

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'\" Copyright (c) 1992 The Regents of the University of California.
'\" Copyright (c) 1994-1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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'\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.
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.TH text n 8.5 Tk "Tk Built-In Commands"
.so man.macros
.BS
'\" Note:  do not modify the .SH NAME line immediately below!
.SH NAME
text, tk_textCopy, tk_textCut, tk_textPaste \- Create and manipulate text widgets
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
\fBtext\fR \fIpathName \fR?\fIoptions\fR?
\fBtk_textCopy\fR \fIpathName\fR
\fBtk_textCut\fR \fIpathName\fR
\fBtk_textPaste\fR \fIpathName\fR
.SO
\-background	\-highlightthickness	\-relief
\-borderwidth	\-insertbackground	\-selectbackground
\-cursor	\-insertborderwidth	\-selectborderwidth
\-exportselection	\-insertofftime	\-selectforeground
\-font	\-insertontime	\-setgrid
\-foreground	\-insertwidth	\-takefocus
\-highlightbackground	\-padx	\-xscrollcommand
\-highlightcolor	\-pady	\-yscrollcommand
.SE
.SH "WIDGET-SPECIFIC OPTIONS"
.OP \-autoseparators autoSeparators AutoSeparators
Specifies a boolean that says whether separators are automatically
inserted in the undo stack. Only meaningful when the \fB\-undo\fR
option is true.
.OP \-blockcursor blockCursor BlockCursor
.VS 8.5
Specifies a boolean that says whether the blinking insertion cursor
should be drawn as a character-sized rectangular block.  If false
(the default) a thin vertical line is used for the insertion cursor.
.VE 8.5
.OP \-endline endLine EndLine
.VS 8.5
Specifies an integer line index representing the line of the underlying
textual data store that should be just after the last line contained in
the widget.
This allows a text widget to reflect only a portion of a larger piece
of text.   Instead of an integer, the empty string can be provided to
this configuration option, which will configure the widget to end
at the very last line in the textual data store.
.VE 8.5
.OP \-height height Height
Specifies the desired height for the window, in units of characters
in the font given by the \fB\-font\fR option.
Must be at least one.
.OP \-inactiveselectbackground inactiveSelectBackground Foreground
.VS 8.5
Specifies the colour to use for the selection (the \fBsel\fR tag) when
the window does not have the input focus.  If empty, \fB{}\fR, then no
selection is shown when the window does not have the focus.
.VE 8.5
.OP \-maxundo maxUndo MaxUndo
Specifies the maximum number of compound undo actions on the undo
stack. A zero or a negative value imply an unlimited undo stack.
.OP \-spacing1 spacing1 Spacing1
Requests additional space above each text line in the widget,
using any of the standard forms for screen distances.
If a line wraps, this option only applies to the first line
on the display.
This option may be overridden with \fB\-spacing1\fR options in
tags.
.OP \-spacing2 spacing2 Spacing2
For lines that wrap (so that they cover more than one line on the
display) this option specifies additional space to provide between
the display lines that represent a single line of text.
The value may have any of the standard forms for screen distances.
This option may be overridden with \fB\-spacing2\fR options in
tags.
.OP \-spacing3 spacing3 Spacing3
Requests additional space below each text line in the widget,
using any of the standard forms for screen distances.
If a line wraps, this option only applies to the last line
on the display.
This option may be overridden with \fB\-spacing3\fR options in
tags.
.OP \-startline startLine StartLine
.VS 8.5
Specifies an integer line index representing the first line of the
underlying textual data store that should be contained in the widget.
This allows a text widget to reflect only a portion of a larger piece
of text.  Instead of an integer, the empty string can be provided to
this configuration option, which will configure the widget to start
at the very first line in the textual data store.
.VE 8.5
.OP \-state state State
Specifies one of two states for the text:  \fBnormal\fR or \fBdisabled\fR.
If the text is disabled then characters may not be inserted or deleted
and no insertion cursor will be displayed, even if the input focus is
in the widget.
.OP \-tabs tabs Tabs
Specifies a set of tab stops for the window.  The option's value consists
of a list of screen distances giving the positions of the tab stops,
each of which is a distance relative to the left edge of the widget
(excluding borders, padding, etc).  Each
position may optionally be followed in the next list element
by one of the keywords \fBleft\fR, \fBright\fR, \fBcenter\fR,
or \fBnumeric\fR, which specifies how to justify
text relative to the tab stop.  \fBLeft\fR is the default; it causes
the text following the tab character to be positioned with its left edge
at the tab position.  \fBRight\fR means that the right edge of the text
following the tab character is positioned at the tab position, and
\fBcenter\fR means that the text is centered at the tab position.
\fBNumeric\fR means that the decimal point in the text is positioned
at the tab position;  if there is no decimal point then the least
significant digit of the number is positioned just to the left of the
tab position;  if there is no number in the text then the text is
right-justified at the tab position.
For example,
.QW "\fB\-tabs {2c left 4c 6c center}\fR"
creates three tab stops at two-centimeter intervals;  the first two use left
justification and the third uses center justification.
.RS
.PP
If the list of tab stops does not have enough elements to cover all
of the tabs in a text line, then Tk extrapolates new tab stops using
the spacing and alignment from the last tab stop in the list.  Tab
distances must be strictly positive, and must always increase from one
tab stop to the next (if not, an error is thrown).
The value of the \fBtabs\fR option may be overridden by \fB\-tabs\fR
options in tags.
.PP
If no \fB\-tabs\fR option is specified, or if it is specified as
an empty list, then Tk uses default tabs spaced every eight
(average size) characters.  To achieve a different standard spacing,
for example every 4 characters, simply configure the widget with
.QW "\fB\-tabs \N'34'[expr {4 * [font measure $font 0]}] left\N'34' \-tabstyle wordprocessor\fR" .
.RE
.OP \-tabstyle tabStyle TabStyle
Specifies how to interpret the relationship between tab stops on a line
and tabs in the text of that line.  The value must be \fBtabular\fR (the
default) or \fBwordprocessor\fR. Note that tabs are interpreted as they
are encountered in the text.  If the tab style is \fBtabular\fR then the
\fIn\fR'th tab character in the line's text will be associated with
the \fIn\fR'th
tab stop defined for that line.  If the tab character's x coordinate
falls to the right of the \fIn\fR'th tab stop, then a gap of a single space
will be inserted as a fallback.  If the tab style is \fBwordprocessor\fR
then any tab character being laid out will use (and be defined by) the
first tab stop to the right of the preceding characters already laid out
on that line.  The value of the \fBtabstyle\fR option may be overridden
by \fB\-tabstyle\fR options in tags.
.OP \-undo undo Undo
Specifies a boolean that says whether the undo mechanism is active or
not.
.OP \-width width Width
Specifies the desired width for the window in units of characters
in the font given by the \fB\-font\fR option.
If the font does not have a uniform width then the width of the character
.QW 0
is used in translating from character units to screen units.
.OP \-wrap wrap Wrap
Specifies how to handle lines in the text that are too long to be
displayed in a single line of the text's window.
The value must be \fBnone\fR or \fBchar\fR or \fBword\fR.
A wrap mode of \fBnone\fR means that each line of text appears as
exactly one line on the screen;  extra characters that do not fit
on the screen are not displayed.
In the other modes each line of text will be broken up into several
screen lines if necessary to keep all the characters visible.
In \fBchar\fR mode a screen line break may occur after any character;
in \fBword\fR mode a line break will only be made at word boundaries.
.BE

.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
The \fBtext\fR command creates a new window (given by the
\fIpathName\fR argument) and makes it into a text widget.
Additional
options, described above, may be specified on the command line
or in the option database
to configure aspects of the text such as its default background color
and relief.  The \fBtext\fR command returns the
path name of the new window.
.PP
A text widget displays one or more lines of text and allows that
text to be edited.
Text widgets support four different kinds of annotations on the
text, called tags, marks, embedded windows or embedded images.
Tags allow different portions of the text
to be displayed with different fonts and colors.
In addition, Tcl commands can be associated with tags so
that scripts are invoked when particular actions such as keystrokes
and mouse button presses occur in particular ranges of the text.
See \fBTAGS\fR below for more details.
.PP
The second form of annotation consists of floating markers in the text
called
.QW marks .
Marks are used to keep track of various interesting positions in the
text as it is edited.
See \fBMARKS\fR below for more details.
.PP
The third form of annotation allows arbitrary windows to be
embedded in a text widget.
See \fBEMBEDDED WINDOWS\fR below for more details.
.PP
The fourth form of annotation allows Tk images to be embedded in a text
widget.
See \fBEMBEDDED IMAGES\fR below for more details.
.PP
The text widget also has a built-in undo/redo mechanism.
See \fBTHE UNDO MECHANISM\fR below for more details.
.PP
.VS 8.5
The text widget allows for the creation of peer widgets.  These are
other text widgets which share the same underlying data (text, marks,
tags, images, etc).  See \fBPEER WIDGETS\fR below for more details.
.VE 8.5
.SH INDICES
.PP
Many of the widget commands for texts take one or more indices
as arguments.
An index is a string used to indicate a particular place within
a text, such as a place to insert characters or one endpoint of a
range of characters to delete.
Indices have the syntax
.CS
\fIbase modifier modifier modifier ...\fR
.CE
Where \fIbase\fR gives a starting point and the \fImodifier\fRs
adjust the index from the starting point (e.g. move forward or
backward one character).  Every index must contain a \fIbase\fR,
but the \fImodifier\fRs are optional.
.VS 8.5
Most modifiers (as documented below) allow
an optional submodifier.  Valid submodifiers are \fBany\fR
and \fBdisplay\fR. If the submodifier is abbreviated, then it must be
followed by whitespace, but otherwise there need be no space between the
submodifier and the following \fImodifier\fR.  Typically the \fBdisplay\fR
submodifier adjusts the meaning of the following \fImodifier\fR to make
it refer to visual or non-elided units rather than logical units, but
this is explained for each relevant case below.  Lastly, where \fIcount\fR
is used as part of a modifier, it can be positive or negative, so
.QW "\fIbase\fR \- \-3 lines"
is perfectly valid (and equivalent to
.QW "\fIbase\fR +3lines" ).
.VE 8.5
.PP
The \fIbase\fR for an index must have one of the following forms:
.TP 12
\fIline\fB.\fIchar\fR
Indicates \fIchar\fR'th character on line \fIline\fR.
Lines are numbered from 1 for consistency with other UNIX programs
that use this numbering scheme.
Within a line, characters are numbered from 0.
If \fIchar\fR is \fBend\fR then it refers to the newline character
that ends the line.
.TP 12
\fB@\fIx\fB,\fIy\fR
Indicates the character that covers the pixel whose x and y coordinates
within the text's window are \fIx\fR and \fIy\fR.
.TP 12
\fBend\fR
Indicates the end of the text (the character just after the last
newline).
.TP 12
\fImark\fR
Indicates the character just after the mark whose name is \fImark\fR.
.TP 12
\fItag\fB.first\fR
Indicates the first character in the text that has been tagged with
\fItag\fR.
This form generates an error if no characters are currently tagged
with \fItag\fR.
.TP 12
\fItag\fB.last\fR
Indicates the character just after the last one in the text that has
been tagged with \fItag\fR.
This form generates an error if no characters are currently tagged
with \fItag\fR.
.TP 12
\fIpathName\fR
Indicates the position of the embedded window whose name is
\fIpathName\fR.
This form generates an error if there is no embedded window
by the given name.
.TP 12
\fIimageName\fR
Indicates the position of the embedded image whose name is
\fIimageName\fR.
This form generates an error if there is no embedded image
by the given name.
.PP
If the \fIbase\fR could match more than one of the above forms, such
as a \fImark\fR and \fIimageName\fR both having the same value, then
the form earlier in the above list takes precedence.
If modifiers follow the base index, each one of them must have one
of the forms listed below.  Keywords such as \fBchars\fR and \fBwordend\fR
may be abbreviated as long as the abbreviation is unambiguous.
.TP
\fB+ \fIcount\fR ?\fIsubmodifier\fR? \fBchars\fR
.VS 8.5
Adjust the index forward by \fIcount\fR characters, moving to later lines
in the text if necessary.  If there are fewer than \fIcount\fR characters
in the text after the current index, then set the index to the last index
in the text.  Spaces on either side of \fIcount\fR are optional.  If the
\fBdisplay\fR submodifier is given, elided characters are skipped over
without being counted.  If \fBany\fR is given, then all characters are
counted.  For historical reasons, if neither modifier is given then the
count actually takes place in units of index positions (see \fBindices\fR
for details).  This behaviour may be changed in a future major release,
so if you need an index count, you are encouraged to use \fBindices\fR
instead wherever possible.
.VE 8.5
.TP
\fB\- \fIcount\fR ?\fIsubmodifier\fR? \fBchars\fR
Adjust the index backward by \fIcount\fR characters, moving to earlier
lines in the text if necessary.  If there are fewer than \fIcount\fR
characters in the text before the current index, then set the index to
.VS 8.5
the first index in the text (1.0).  Spaces on either side of \fIcount\fR
are optional.  If the \fBdisplay\fR submodifier is given, elided
characters are skipped over without being counted.  If \fBany\fR is
given, then all characters are counted.  For historical reasons, if
neither modifier is given then the count actually takes place in units of
index positions (see \fBindices\fR for details).  This behaviour may be
changed in a future major release, so if you need an index count, you are
encouraged to use \fBindices\fR instead wherever possible.
.VE 8.5
.TP
\fB+ \fIcount\fR ?\fIsubmodifier\fR? \fBindices\fR
.VS 8.5
Adjust the index forward by \fIcount\fR index positions, moving to later
lines in the text if necessary.  If there are fewer than \fIcount\fR
index positions in the text after the current index, then set the index
to the last index position in the text.  Spaces on either side of
\fIcount\fR are optional.  Note that an index position is either a single
character or a single embedded image or embedded window.  If the
\fBdisplay\fR submodifier is given, elided indices are skipped over
without being counted.  If \fBany\fR is given, then all indices are
counted; this is also the default behaviour if no modifier is given.
.VE 8.5
.TP
\fB\- \fIcount\fR ?\fIsubmodifier\fR? \fBindices\fR
.VS 8.5
Adjust the index backward by \fIcount\fR index positions, moving to
earlier lines in the text if necessary.  If there are fewer than
\fIcount\fR index positions in the text before the current index, then
set the index to the first index position (1.0) in the text.  Spaces on
either side of \fIcount\fR are optional.  If the \fBdisplay\fR
submodifier is given, elided indices are skipped over without being
counted.  If \fBany\fR is given, then all indices are counted; this is
also the default behaviour if no modifier is given.
.VE 8.5
.TP
\fB+ \fIcount\fR ?\fIsubmodifier\fR? \fBlines\fR
.VS 8.5
Adjust the index forward by \fIcount\fR lines, retaining the same
character position within the line.  If there are fewer than \fIcount\fR
lines after the line containing the current index, then set the index to
refer to the same character position on the last line of the text.  Then,
if the line is not long enough to contain a character at the indicated
character position, adjust the character position to refer to the last
character of the line (the newline).  Spaces on either side of
\fIcount\fR are optional.  If the \fBdisplay\fR submodifier is given,
then each visual display line is counted separately.  Otherwise, if
\fBany\fR (or no modifier) is given, then each logical line (no matter
how many times it is visually wrapped) counts just once.  If the relevant
lines are not wrapped, then these two methods of counting are equivalent.
.VE 8.5
.TP
\fB\- \fIcount\fR ?\fIsubmodifier\fR? \fBlines\fR
.VS 8.5
Adjust the index backward by \fIcount\fR logical lines, retaining the
same character position within the line.  If there are fewer than
\fIcount\fR lines before the line containing the current index, then set
the index to refer to the same character position on the first line of
the text.  Then, if the line is not long enough to contain a character at
the indicated character position, adjust the character position to refer
to the last character of the line (the newline).  Spaces on either side
of \fIcount\fR are optional.  If the \fBdisplay\fR submodifier is given,
then each visual display line is counted separately.  Otherwise, if
\fBany\fR (or no modifier) is given, then each logical line (no matter
how many times it is visually wrapped) counts just once.  If the relevant
lines are not wrapped, then these two methods of counting are equivalent.
.VE 8.5
.TP
?\fIsubmodifier\fR? \fBlinestart\fR
.VS 8.5
Adjust the index to refer to the first index on the line.  If the
\fBdisplay\fR submodifier is given, this is the first index on the
display line, otherwise on the logical line.
.VE 8.5
.TP
?\fIsubmodifier\fR? \fBlineend\fR
.VS 8.5
Adjust the index to refer to the last index on the line (the
newline).  If the \fBdisplay\fR submodifier is given, this is the last
index on the display line, otherwise on the logical line.
.VE 8.5
.TP
?\fIsubmodifier\fR? \fBwordstart\fR
.VS 8.5
Adjust the index to refer to the first character of the word containing
the current index.  A word consists of any number of adjacent characters
that are letters, digits, or underscores, or a single character that is
not one of these.  If the \fBdisplay\fR submodifier is given, this only
examines non-elided characters, otherwise all characters (elided or not)
are examined.
.VE 8.5
.TP
?\fIsubmodifier\fR? \fBwordend\fR
.VS 8.5
Adjust the index to refer to the character just after the last one of the
word containing the current index.  If the current index refers to the
last character of the text then it is not modified.  If the \fBdisplay\fR
submodifier is given, this only examines non-elided characters, otherwise
all characters (elided or not) are examined.
.PP
If more than one modifier is present then they are applied in
left-to-right order.  For example, the index
.QW "\fBend \- 1 chars\fR"
refers to the next-to-last character in the text and
.QW "\fBinsert wordstart \- 1 c\fR"
refers to the character just before
the first one in the word containing the insertion cursor.  Modifiers
are applied one by one in this left to right order, and after each step
the resulting index is constrained to be a valid index in the text
widget.  So, for example, the index
.QW "\fB1.0 \-1c +1c\fR"
refers to the index
.QW \fB2.0\fR .
.PP
Where modifiers result in index changes by display lines, display chars
or display indices, and the \fIbase\fR refers to an index inside an
elided tag,
that base index is considered to be equivalent to the first following
non-elided index.
.VE 8.5
.SH TAGS
.PP
The first form of annotation in text widgets is a tag.
A tag is a textual string that is associated with some of the characters
in a text.
Tags may contain arbitrary characters, but it is probably best to
avoid using the characters
.QW " "
(space), \fB+\fR, or \fB\-\fR:
these characters have special meaning in indices, so tags containing
them cannot be used as indices.
There may be any number of tags associated with characters in a
text.
Each tag may refer to a single character, a range of characters, or
several ranges of characters.
An individual character may have any number of tags associated with it.
.PP
A priority order is defined among tags, and this order is used in
implementing some of the tag-related functions described below.
When a tag is defined (by associating it with characters or setting
its display options or binding commands to it), it is given
a priority higher than any existing tag.
The priority order of tags may be redefined using the
.QW "\fIpathName \fBtag raise\fR"
and
.QW "\fIpathName \fBtag lower\fR"
widget commands.
.PP
Tags serve three purposes in text widgets.
First, they control the way information is displayed on the screen.
By default, characters are displayed as determined by the
\fB\-background\fR, \fB\-font\fR, and \fB\-foreground\fR options for the
text widget.
However, display options may be associated with individual tags
using the
.QW "\fIpathName \fBtag configure\fR"
widget command.
If a character has been tagged, then the display options associated
with the tag override the default display style.
The following options are currently supported for tags:
.TP
\fB\-background \fIcolor\fR
\fIColor\fR specifies the background color to use for characters
associated with the tag.
It may have any of the forms accepted by \fBTk_GetColor\fR.
.TP
\fB\-bgstipple \fIbitmap\fR
\fIBitmap\fR specifies a bitmap that is used as a stipple pattern
for the background.
It may have any of the forms accepted by \fBTk_GetBitmap\fR.
If \fIbitmap\fR has not been specified, or if it is specified
as an empty string, then a solid fill will be used for the
background.
.TP
\fB\-borderwidth \fIpixels\fR
\fIPixels\fR specifies the width of a 3-D border to draw around
the background.
It may have any of the forms accepted by \fBTk_GetPixels\fR.
This option is used in conjunction with the \fB\-relief\fR
option to give a 3-D appearance to the background for characters;
it is ignored unless the \fB\-background\fR option
has been set for the tag.
.TP
\fB\-elide \fIboolean\fR
\fIElide\fR specifies whether the data should
be elided.  Elided data (characters, images, embedded windows, etc) is
not displayed and takes no space on screen, but further on behaves just
as normal data.
.TP
\fB\-fgstipple \fIbitmap\fR
\fIBitmap\fR specifies a bitmap that is used as a stipple pattern
when drawing text and other foreground information such as
underlines.
It may have any of the forms accepted by \fBTk_GetBitmap\fR.
If \fIbitmap\fR has not been specified, or if it is specified
as an empty string, then a solid fill will be used.
.TP
\fB\-font \fIfontName\fR
\fIFontName\fR is the name of a font to use for drawing characters.
It may have any of the forms accepted by \fBTk_GetFont\fR.
.TP
\fB\-foreground \fIcolor\fR
\fIColor\fR specifies the color to use when drawing text and other
foreground information such as underlines.
It may have any of the forms accepted by \fBTk_GetColor\fR.
.TP
\fB\-justify \fIjustify\fR
If the first non-elided character of a display line has a tag for which this
option has been specified, then \fIjustify\fR determines how to
justify the line.
It must be one of \fBleft\fR, \fBright\fR, or \fBcenter\fR.
If a line wraps, then the justification for each line on the
display is determined by the first non-elided character of that display line.
.TP
\fB\-lmargin1 \fIpixels\fR
If the first non-elided character of a text line has a tag for which this
option has been specified, then \fIpixels\fR specifies how
much the line should be indented from the left edge of the
window.
\fIPixels\fR may have any of the standard forms for screen
distances.
If a line of text wraps, this option only applies to the
first line on the display;  the \fB\-lmargin2\fR option controls
the indentation for subsequent lines.
.TP
\fB\-lmargin2 \fIpixels\fR
If the first non-elided character of a display line has a tag for which this
option has been specified, and if the display line is not the
first for its text line (i.e., the text line has wrapped), then
\fIpixels\fR specifies how much the line should be indented from
the left edge of the window.
\fIPixels\fR may have any of the standard forms for screen
distances.
This option is only used when wrapping is enabled, and it only
applies to the second and later display lines for a text line.
.TP
\fB\-offset \fIpixels\fR
\fIPixels\fR specifies an amount by which the text's baseline
should be offset vertically from the baseline of the overall
line, in pixels.
For example, a positive offset can be used for superscripts
and a negative offset can be used for subscripts.
\fIPixels\fR may have any of the standard forms for screen
distances.
.TP
\fB\-overstrike \fIboolean\fR
Specifies whether or not to draw a horizontal rule through
the middle of characters.
\fIBoolean\fR may have any of the forms accepted by \fBTcl_GetBoolean\fR.
.TP
\fB\-relief \fIrelief\fR
\fIRelief\fR specifies the 3-D relief to use for drawing backgrounds,
in any of the forms accepted by \fBTk_GetRelief\fR.
This option is used in conjunction with the \fB\-borderwidth\fR
option to give a 3-D appearance to the background for characters;
it is ignored unless the \fB\-background\fR option
has been set for the tag.
.TP
\fB\-rmargin \fIpixels\fR
If the first non-elided character of a display line has a tag for which this
option has been specified, then \fIpixels\fR specifies how wide
a margin to leave between the end of the line and the right
edge of the window.
\fIPixels\fR may have any of the standard forms for screen
distances.
This option is only used when wrapping is enabled.
If a text line wraps, the right margin for each line on the
display is determined by the first non-elided character of that display
line.
.TP
\fB\-spacing1 \fIpixels\fR
\fIPixels\fR specifies how much additional space should be
left above each text line, using any of the standard forms for
screen distances.
If a line wraps, this option only applies to the first
line on the display.
.TP
\fB\-spacing2 \fIpixels\fR
For lines that wrap, this option specifies how much additional
space to leave between the display lines for a single text line.
\fIPixels\fR may have any of the standard forms for screen
distances.
.TP
\fB\-spacing3 \fIpixels\fR
\fIPixels\fR specifies how much additional space should be
left below each text line, using any of the standard forms for
screen distances.
If a line wraps, this option only applies to the last
line on the display.
.TP
\fB\-tabs \fItabList\fR
\fITabList\fR specifies a set of tab stops in the same form
as for the \fB\-tabs\fR option for the text widget.  This
option only applies to a display line if it applies to the
first non-elided character on that display line.
If this option is specified as an empty string, it cancels
the option, leaving it unspecified for the tag (the default).
If the option is specified as a non-empty string that is
an empty list, such as \fB\-tags\0{\0}\fR, then it requests
default 8-character tabs as described for the \fB\-tags\fR
widget option.
.TP
\fB\-tabstyle \fIstyle\fR
\fIStyle\fR specifies either the \fItabular\fR or
\fIwordprocessor\fR style of tabbing to use for the text widget.
This option only applies to a display line if it applies to the
first non-elided character on that display line.
If this option is specified as an empty string, it cancels
the option, leaving it unspecified for the tag (the default).
.TP
\fB\-underline \fIboolean\fR
\fIBoolean\fR specifies whether or not to draw an underline underneath
characters.
It may have any of the forms accepted by \fBTcl_GetBoolean\fR.
.TP
\fB\-wrap \fImode\fR
\fIMode\fR specifies how to handle lines that are wider than the
text's window.
It has the same legal values as the \fB\-wrap\fR option
for the text widget:  \fBnone\fR, \fBchar\fR, or \fBword\fR.
If this tag option is specified, it overrides the \fB\-wrap\fR option
for the text widget.
.PP
If a character has several tags associated with it, and if their
display options conflict, then the options of the highest priority
tag are used.
If a particular display option has not been specified for a
particular tag, or if it is specified as an empty string, then
that option will never be used;  the next-highest-priority
tag's option will used instead.
If no tag specifies a particular display option, then the default
style for the widget will be used.
.PP
The second purpose for tags is event bindings.
You can associate bindings with a tag in much the same way you can
associate bindings with a widget class:  whenever particular X
events occur on characters with the given tag, a given
Tcl command will be executed.
Tag bindings can be used to give behaviors to ranges of characters;
among other things, this allows hypertext-like
features to be implemented.
For details, see the description of the
.QW "\fIpathName \fBtag bind\fR"
widget command below.
.VS 8.5
Tag bindings are shared between all peer widgets
(including any bindings for the special \fBsel\fR tag).
.VE 8.5
.PP
The third use for tags is in managing the selection.
See \fBTHE SELECTION\fR below.
.VS 8.5
With the exception of the special \fBsel\fR
tag, all tags are shared between peer text widgets, and may be
manipulated on an equal basis from any such widget.  The \fBsel\fR
tag exists separately and independently in each peer text widget (but
any tag bindings to \fBsel\fR are shared).
.VE 8.5
.SH MARKS
.PP
The second form of annotation in text widgets is a mark.
Marks are used for remembering particular places in a text.
They are something like tags, in that they have names and
they refer to places in the file, but a mark is not associated
with particular characters.
Instead, a mark is associated with the gap between two characters.
Only a single position may be associated with a mark at any given
time.
If the characters around a mark are deleted the mark will still
remain;  it will just have new neighbor characters.
In contrast, if the characters containing a tag are deleted then
the tag will no longer have an association with characters in
the file.
Marks may be manipulated with the
.QW "\fIpathName \fBmark\fR"
widget
command, and their current locations may be determined by using the
mark name as an index in widget commands.
.PP
Each mark also has a
.QW gravity ,
which is either \fBleft\fR or \fBright\fR.
The gravity for a mark specifies what happens to the mark when
text is inserted at the point of the mark.
If a mark has left gravity, then the mark is treated as if it
were attached to the character on its left, so the mark will
remain to the left of any text inserted at the mark position.
If the mark has right gravity, new text inserted at the mark
position will appear to the left of the mark (so that the mark
remains rightmost).  The gravity for a mark defaults to \fBright\fR.
.PP
The name space for marks is different from that for tags:  the
same name may be used for both a mark and a tag, but they will refer
to different things.
.PP
Two marks have special significance.
First, the mark \fBinsert\fR is associated with the insertion cursor,
as described under \fBTHE INSERTION CURSOR\fR below.
Second, the mark \fBcurrent\fR is associated with the character
closest to the mouse and is adjusted automatically to track the
mouse position and any changes to the text in the widget (one
exception:  \fBcurrent\fR is not updated in response to mouse
motions if a mouse button is down;  the update will be deferred
until all mouse buttons have been released).
Neither of these special marks may be deleted.
.VS 8.5
With the exception of
these two special marks, all marks are shared between peer text
widgets, and may be manipulated on an equal basis from any peer.
.VE 8.5
.SH "EMBEDDED WINDOWS"
.PP
The third form of annotation in text widgets is an embedded window.
Each embedded window annotation causes a window to be displayed
at a particular point in  the text.
There may be any number of embedded windows in a text widget,
and any widget may be used as an embedded window (subject to the
usual rules for geometry management, which require the text window
to be the parent of the embedded window or a descendant of its
parent).
.PP
The embedded window's position on the screen will be updated as the
text is modified or scrolled, and it will be mapped and unmapped as
it moves into and out of the visible area of the text widget.
Each embedded window occupies one
.VS 8.5
unit's
.VE 8.5
worth of index space
in the text widget, and it may be referred to either by the name
of its embedded window or by its position in the widget's
index space.
If the range of text containing the embedded window is deleted then
the window is destroyed.
.VS 8.5
Similarly if the text widget as a whole is deleted, then the window is
destroyed.
.VE 8.5
.PP
.VS 8.5
Eliding an embedded window immediately after scheduling it for creation
via \fIpathName \fBwindow create \fIindex \fB-create\fR will prevent it
from being effectively created.
Uneliding an elided embedded window scheduled for creation via
\fIpathName \fBwindow create \fIindex \fB-create\fR will automatically
trigger the associated creation script.
After destroying an elided embedded window, the latter won't get
automatically recreated.
.VE 8.5
.PP
When an embedded window is added to a text widget with the
\fIpathName \fBwindow create\fR widget command, several configuration
options may be associated with it.
These options may be  modified later with the \fIpathName \fBwindow configure\fR
widget command.
The following options are currently supported:
.TP
\fB\-align \fIwhere\fR
If the window is not as tall as the line in which it is displayed,
this option determines where the window is displayed in the line.
\fIWhere\fR must have one of the values \fBtop\fR (align the top of the window
with the top of the line), \fBcenter\fR (center the window
within the range of the line), \fBbottom\fR (align the bottom of the
window with the bottom of the line's area),
or \fBbaseline\fR (align the bottom of the window with the baseline
of the line).
.TP
\fB\-create \fIscript\fR
Specifies a Tcl script that may be evaluated to create the window
for the annotation.
If no \fB\-window\fR option has been specified for the annotation
this script will be evaluated when the annotation is about to
be displayed on the screen.
\fIScript\fR must create a window for the annotation and return
the name of that window as its result.
.VS 8.5
Two substitutions will be performed in \fIscript\fR before evaluation.
\fI%W\fR will be substituted by the name of the parent text widget,
and \fI%%\fR will be substituted by a single \fI%\fR.
.VE 8.5
If the annotation's window should ever be deleted, \fIscript\fR
will be evaluated again the next time the annotation is displayed.
.TP
\fB\-padx \fIpixels\fR
\fIPixels\fR specifies the amount of extra space to leave on
each side of the embedded window.
It may have any of the usual forms defined for a screen distance.
.TP
\fB\-pady \fIpixels\fR
\fIPixels\fR specifies the amount of extra space to leave on
the top and on the bottom of the embedded window.
It may have any of the usual forms defined for a screen distance.
.TP
\fB\-stretch \fIboolean\fR
If the requested height of the embedded window is less than the
height of the line in which it is displayed, this option can be
used to specify whether the window should be stretched vertically
to fill its line.
If the \fB\-pady\fR option has been specified as well, then the
requested padding will be retained even if the window is
stretched.
.TP
\fB\-window \fIpathName\fR
Specifies the name of a window to display in the annotation.
.VS 8.5
Note that if a \fIpathName\fR has been set, then later configuring a
window to the empty string will not delete the widget corresponding to
the old \fIpathName\fR. Rather it will remove the association between
the old \fIpathName\fR and the text widget.  If multiple peer widgets
are in use, it is usually simpler to use the \fB\-create\fR option if
embedded windows are desired in each peer.
.VE 8.5
.SH "EMBEDDED IMAGES"
.PP
The final form of annotation in text widgets is an embedded image.
Each embedded image annotation causes an image to be displayed
at a particular point in  the text.
There may be any number of embedded images in a text widget,
and a particular image may be embedded in multiple places in the same
text widget.
.PP
The embedded image's position on the screen will be updated as the
text is modified or scrolled.
Each embedded image occupies one
.VS 8.5
unit's
.VE 8.5
worth of index space
in the text widget, and it may be referred to either by
its position in the widget's index space, or the name it is assigned
when the image is inserted into the text widget with \fIpathName \fBimage create\fR.
If the range of text containing the embedded image is deleted then
that copy of the image is removed from the screen.
.PP
.VS 8.5
Eliding an embedded image immediately after scheduling it for creation
via \fIpathName \fBimage create \fIindex \fB-create\fR will prevent it
from being effectively created.
Uneliding an elided embedded image scheduled for creation via
\fIpathName \fBimage create \fIindex \fB-create\fR will automatically
trigger the associated creation script.
After destroying an elided embedded image, the latter won't get
automatically recreated.
.VE 8.5
.PP
When an embedded image is added to a text widget with the \fIpathName \fBimage
create\fR widget command, a name unique to this instance of the image
is returned.  This name may then be used to refer to this image
instance.  The name is taken to be the value of the \fB\-name\fR option
(described below).  If the \fB\-name\fR option is not provided, the
\fB\-image\fR name is used instead.  If the \fIimageName\fR is already
in use in the text widget, then \fB#\fInn\fR is added to the end of the
\fIimageName\fR, where \fInn\fR is an arbitrary integer.  This insures
the \fIimageName\fR is unique.
Once this name is assigned to this instance of the image, it does not
change, even though the \fB\-image\fR or \fB\-name\fR values can be changed
with \fIpathName \fBimage configure\fR.
.PP
When an embedded image is added to a text widget with the
\fIpathName \fBimage create\fR widget command, several configuration
options may be associated with it.
These options may be modified later with the \fIpathName \fBimage configure\fR
widget command.
The following options are currently supported:
.TP
\fB\-align \fIwhere\fR
If the image is not as tall as the line in which it is displayed,
this option determines where the image is displayed in the line.
\fIWhere\fR must have one of the values \fBtop\fR (align the top of the image
with the top of the line), \fBcenter\fR (center the image
within the range of the line), \fBbottom\fR (align the bottom of the
image with the bottom of the line's area),
or \fBbaseline\fR (align the bottom of the image with the baseline
of the line).
.TP
\fB\-image \fIimage\fR
Specifies the name of the Tk image to display in the annotation.
If \fIimage\fR is not a valid Tk image, then an error is returned.
.TP
\fB\-name \fIImageName\fR
Specifies the name by which this image instance may be referenced in
the text widget. If \fIImageName\fR is not supplied, then the
name of the Tk image is used instead.
If the \fIimageName\fR is already in use, \fI#nn\fR is appended to
the end of the name as described above.
.TP
\fB\-padx \fIpixels\fR
\fIPixels\fR specifies the amount of extra space to leave on
each side of the embedded image.
It may have any of the usual forms defined for a screen distance.
.TP
\fB\-pady \fIpixels\fR
\fIPixels\fR specifies the amount of extra space to leave on
the top and on the bottom of the embedded image.
It may have any of the usual forms defined for a screen distance.
.SH "THE SELECTION"
.PP
Selection support is implemented via tags.
If the \fBexportSelection\fR option for the text widget is true
then the \fBsel\fR tag will be associated with the selection:
.IP [1]
Whenever characters are tagged with \fBsel\fR the text widget
will claim ownership of the selection.
.IP [2]
Attempts to retrieve the
selection will be serviced by the text widget, returning all the
characters with the \fBsel\fR tag.
.IP [3]
If the selection is claimed away by another application or by another
window within this application, then the \fBsel\fR tag will be removed
from all characters in the text.
.IP [4]
Whenever the \fBsel\fR tag range changes a virtual event
\fB<<Selection>>\fR is generated.
.PP
The \fBsel\fR tag is automatically defined when a text widget is
created, and it may not be deleted with the
.QW "\fIpathName \fBtag delete\fR"
widget command.  Furthermore, the \fBselectBackground\fR,
\fBselectBorderWidth\fR, and \fBselectForeground\fR options for
the text widget are tied to the \fB\-background\fR,
\fB\-borderwidth\fR, and \fB\-foreground\fR options for the \fBsel\fR
tag:  changes in either will automatically be reflected in the
other.
.VS 8.5
Also the
\fB\-inactiveselectbackground\fR option for the text widget is used
instead of \fB\-selectbackground\fR when the text widget does not have
the focus.  This allows programmatic control over the visualization of
the \fBsel\fR tag for foreground and background windows, or to have
\fBsel\fR not shown at all (when \fB\-inactiveselectbackground\fR is
empty) for background windows.  Each peer text widget has its own
\fBsel\fR tag which can be separately configured and set.
.VE 8.5
.SH "THE INSERTION CURSOR"
.PP
The mark named \fBinsert\fR has special significance in text widgets.
It is defined automatically when a text widget is created and it
may not be unset with the
.QW "\fIpathName \fBmark unset\fR"
widget command.
The \fBinsert\fR mark represents the position of the insertion
cursor, and the insertion cursor will automatically be drawn at
this point whenever the text widget has the input focus.
.SH "THE MODIFIED FLAG"
The text widget can keep track of changes to the content of the widget
by means of the modified flag. Inserting or deleting text will set
this flag. The flag can be queried, set and cleared programmatically
as well. Whenever the flag changes state a \fB<<Modified>>\fR virtual
event is generated. See the \fIpathName \fBedit modified\fR widget command for
more details.
.SH "THE UNDO MECHANISM"
.PP
The text widget has an unlimited undo and redo mechanism (when the
\fB\-undo\fR widget option is true) which records every insert and
delete action on a stack.
.PP
Boundaries (called
.QW separators )
are inserted between edit actions.  The
purpose of these separators is to group inserts, deletes and replaces
into one compound edit action.  When undoing a change everything between
two separators will be undone.  The undone changes are then moved to the
redo stack, so that an undone edit can be redone again.  The redo stack
is cleared whenever new edit actions are recorded on the undo stack.  The
undo and redo stacks can be cleared to keep their depth under control.
.PP
Separators are inserted automatically when the \fB\-autoseparators\fR
widget option is true.  You can insert separators programmatically as
well.  If a separator is already present at the top of the undo stack
no other will be inserted.  That means that two separators on the undo
stack are always separated by at least one insert or delete action.
.PP
The undo mechanism is also linked to the modified flag.  This means
that undoing or redoing changes can take a modified text widget back
to the unmodified state or vice versa.  The modified flag will be set
automatically to the appropriate state.  This automatic coupling
does not work when the modified flag has been set by the user, until
the flag has been reset again.
.PP
See below for the \fIpathName \fBedit\fR widget command that controls the undo
mechanism.
.SH "PEER WIDGETS"
.PP
.VS 8.5
The text widget has a separate store of all its data concerning each
line's textual contents, marks, tags, images and windows, and the undo
stack.
.PP
While this data store cannot be accessed directly (i.e. without a text
widget as an intermediary), multiple text widgets can be created, each
of which present different views on the same underlying data.  Such
text widgets are known as peer text widgets.
.PP
As text is added, deleted, edited and coloured in any one widget, and as
images, marks, tags are adjusted, all such changes will be reflected in
all peers.
.PP
All data and markup is shared, except for a few small details.  First,
the \fBsel\fR tag may be set and configured (in its display style)
differently for each peer.  Second, each peer has its own \fBinsert\fR
and \fBcurrent\fR mark positions (but all other marks are shared).
Third, embedded windows, which are arbitrary other widgets, cannot be
shared between peers.  This means the \fB\-window\fR option of embedded
windows is independently set for each peer (it is advisable to use
the \fB\-create\fR script capabilities to allow each peer to create its
own embedded windows as needed).  Fourth, all of the configuration
options of each peer (e.g. \fB\-font\fR, etc) can be set independently,
with the exception of \fB\-undo\fR, \fB\-maxUndo\fR, \fB\-autoSeparators\fR
(i.e. all undo, redo and modified state issues are shared).
.PP
Finally any single peer need not contain all lines from the underlying
data store.  When creating a peer, a contiguous range of lines (e.g.
only lines 52 through 125) may be specified.  This allows a peer to
contain just a small portion of the overall text.  The range of lines
will expand and contract as text is inserted or deleted.  The peer will
only ever display complete lines of text (one cannot share just part of
a line).  If the peer's contents contracts to nothing (i.e. all complete
lines in the peer widget have been deleted from another widget), then it
is impossible for new lines to be inserted.  The peer will simply become
an empty shell on which the background can be configured, but which will
never show any content (without manual reconfiguration of the start and
end lines).  Note that a peer which does not contain all of the
underlying data store still has indices numbered from
.QW 1.0
to
.QW end .
It is simply that those indices reflect a subset of the total data, and
data outside the contained range is not accessible to the peer.  This
means that the command \fIpeerName \fBindex end\fR may return quite different
values in different peers.  Similarly, commands like \fIpeerName \fBtag
ranges\fR will not return index ranges outside that which is meaningful
to the peer.  The configuration options \fB\-startline\fR and
\fB\-endline\fR may be used to control how much of the underlying data is
contained in any given text widget.
.PP
Note that peers are really peers.  Deleting the
.QW original
text widget will not cause any other peers to be deleted, or otherwise
affected.
.PP
See below for the \fIpathName \fBpeer\fR widget command that controls the
creation of peer widgets.
.VE 8.5
.SH "ASYNCHRONOUS UPDATE OF LINE HEIGHTS"
.PP
In order to maintain a responsive user-experience, the text widget calculates
lines metrics (line heights in pixels) asynchronously. Because of this, some
commands of the text widget may return wrong results if the asynchronous
calculations are not finished at the time of calling. This applies to
\fIpathName \fBcount -ypixels\fR and \fIpathName \fByview\fR.
.PP
Again for performance reasons, it would not be appropriate to let these
commands always wait for the end of the update calculation each time they are
called. In most use cases of these commands a more or less inaccurate result
does not really matter compared to execution speed.
.PP
In case accurate result is needed (and if the text widget is managed by a
geometry manager), one can resort to \fIpathName \fBsync\fR and \fIpathName
\fBpendingsync\fR to control the synchronization of the view of text widgets.
.PP
The \fB<<WidgetViewSync>>\fR virtual event fires when the line heights of the
text widget becomes obsolete (due to some editing command or configuration
change), and again when the internal data of the text widget are back in sync
with the widget view. The detail field (%d substitution) is either true (when
the widget is in sync) or false (when it is not).
.PP
\fIpathName \fBsync\fR, \fIpathName \fBpendingsync\fR and
\fB<<WidgetViewSync>>\fR apply to each text widget independently of its peers.
.PP
Examples of use:
.CS
## Example 1:
# immediately complete line metrics at any cost (GUI unresponsive)
$w sync
$w yview moveto $fraction

## Example 2:
# synchronously wait for up-to-date line metrics (GUI responsive)
# before executing the scheduled command, but don't block execution flow
$w sync -command [list $w yview moveto $fraction]

## Example 3:
# init
set yud($w) 0
proc updateaction w {
\&set ::yud($w) 1
\&# any other update action here...
}
# runtime, synchronously wait for up-to-date line metrics (GUI responsive)
$w sync -command [list updateaction $w]
vwait yud($w)
$w yview moveto $fraction

## Example 4:
# init
set todo($w) {}
proc updateaction w {
\&foreach cmd $::todo($w) {uplevel #0 $cmd}
\&set todo($w) {}
}
# runtime
lappend todo($w) [list $w yview moveto $fraction]
$w sync -command [list updateaction $w]

## Example 5:
# init
set todo($w) {}
bind $w <<WidgetViewSync>> {
\&if {%d} {
\&\&foreach cmd $todo(%W) {eval $cmd}
\&\&set todo(%W) {}
\&}
}
# runtime
if {![$w pendingsync]} {
\&$w yview moveto $fraction
} else {
\&lappend todo($w) [list $w yview moveto $fraction]
}
.CE
.SH "WIDGET COMMAND"
.PP
The \fBtext\fR command creates a new Tcl command whose
name is the same as the path name of the text's window.  This
command may be used to invoke various
operations on the widget.  It has the following general form:
.CS
\fIpathName option \fR?\fIarg arg ...\fR?
.CE
\fIPathName\fR is the name of the command, which is the same as
the text widget's path name.  \fIOption\fR and the \fIarg\fRs
determine the exact behavior of the command.  The following
commands are possible for text widgets:
.TP
\fIpathName \fBbbox \fIindex\fR
Returns a list of four elements describing the screen area
of the character given by \fIindex\fR.
The first two elements of the list give the x and y coordinates
of the upper-left corner of the area occupied by the
character, and the last two elements give the width and height
of the area.
If the character is only partially visible on the screen, then
the return value reflects just the visible part.
If the character is not visible on the screen then the return
value is an empty list.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBcget\fR \fIoption\fR
Returns the current value of the configuration option given
by \fIoption\fR.
\fIOption\fR may have any of the values accepted by the \fBtext\fR
command.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBcompare\fR \fIindex1 op index2\fR
Compares the indices given by \fIindex1\fR and \fIindex2\fR according
to the relational operator given by \fIop\fR, and returns 1 if
the relationship is satisfied and 0 if it is not.
\fIOp\fR must be one of the operators <, <=, ==, >=, >, or !=.
If \fIop\fR is == then 1 is returned if the two indices refer to
the same character, if \fIop\fR is < then 1 is returned if \fIindex1\fR
refers to an earlier character in the text than \fIindex2\fR, and
so on.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBconfigure\fR ?\fIoption\fR? \fI?value option value ...\fR?
Query or modify the configuration options of the widget.
If no \fIoption\fR is specified, returns a list describing all of
the available options for \fIpathName\fR (see \fBTk_ConfigureInfo\fR for
information on the format of this list).  If \fIoption\fR is specified
with no \fIvalue\fR, then the command returns a list describing the
one named option (this list will be identical to the corresponding
sublist of the value returned if no \fIoption\fR is specified).  If
one or more \fIoption\-value\fR pairs are specified, then the command
modifies the given widget option(s) to have the given value(s);  in
this case the command returns an empty string.
\fIOption\fR may have any of the values accepted by the \fBtext\fR
command.
.VS 8.5
.TP
\fIpathName \fBcount\fR \fI?options\fR? \fIindex1 index2\fR
Counts the number of relevant things between the two indices.
If \fIindex1\fR is after \fIindex2\fR, the result will be a negative number
(and this holds for each of the possible options).
The actual items which are counted depend on the
options given.  The result is a list of integers, one for the result of
each counting option given.  Valid counting options are \fB\-chars\fR,
\fB\-displaychars\fR, \fB\-displayindices\fR, \fB\-displaylines\fR,
\fB\-indices\fR, \fB\-lines\fR, \fB\-xpixels\fR and \fB\-ypixels\fR. The
default value, if no option is specified, is \fB\-indices\fR. There is an
additional possible option \fB\-update\fR which is a modifier. If given (and
if the text widget is managed by a geometry manager), then all subsequent
options ensure that any possible out of date information is recalculated. 
This currently only has any effect for the \fI\-ypixels\fR count (which, if
\fB\-update\fR is not given, will use the text widget's current cached value
for each line). This \fB\-update\fR option is obsoleted by \fIpathName
\fBsync\fR, \fIpathName \fBpendingsync\fR and \fB<<WidgetViewSync>>\fR.  The
count options are interpreted as follows:
.RS
.IP \fB\-chars\fR
count all characters, whether elided or not.  Do not count
embedded windows or images.
.IP \fB\-displaychars\fR
count all non-elided characters.
.IP \fB\-displayindices\fR
count all non-elided characters, windows and images.
.IP \fB\-displaylines\fR
count all display lines (i.e. counting one for each
time a line wraps) from the line of the first index up to, but not
including the display line of the second index.  Therefore if they are
both on the same display line, zero will be returned.  By definition
displaylines are visible and therefore this only counts portions of
actual visible lines.
.IP \fB\-indices\fR
count all characters and embedded windows or images (i.e.
everything which counts in text-widget index space), whether they are
elided or not.
.IP \fB\-lines\fR
count all logical lines (irrespective of wrapping) from
the line of the first index up to, but not including the line of the
second index.  Therefore if they are both on the same line, zero will be
returned.  Logical lines are counted whether they are currently visible
(non-elided) or not.
.IP \fB\-xpixels\fR
count the number of horizontal pixels from the first
pixel of the first index to (but not including) the first pixel of the
second index.  To count the total desired width of the text widget
(assuming wrapping is not enabled), first find the longest line and then
use
.QW ".text count \-xpixels \N'34'${line}.0\N'34' \N'34'${line}.0 lineend\N'34'" .
.IP \fB\-ypixels\fR
count the number of vertical pixels from the first pixel
of the first index to (but not including) the first pixel of the second
index.  If both indices are on the same display line, zero will be
returned.  To count the total number of vertical pixels in the text
widget, use
.QW ".text count \-ypixels 1.0 end" ,
and to ensure this is up to date, use
.QW ".text count \-update \-ypixels 1.0 end" .
.PP
The command returns a positive or negative integer corresponding to the
number of items counted between the two indices.  One such integer is
returned for each counting option given, so a list is returned if more
than one option was supplied.  For example
.QW ".text count \-xpixels \-ypixels 1.3 4.5"
is perfectly valid and will return a list of two elements.
.RE
.VE 8.5
.TP
\fIpathName \fBdebug \fR?\fIboolean\fR?
If \fIboolean\fR is specified, then it must have one of the true or
false values accepted by Tcl_GetBoolean.
If the value is a true one then internal consistency checks will be
turned on in the B-tree code associated with text widgets.
If \fIboolean\fR has a false value then the debugging checks will
be turned off.
In either case the command returns an empty string.
If \fIboolean\fR is not specified then the command returns \fBon\fR
or \fBoff\fR to indicate whether or not debugging is turned on.
There is a single debugging switch shared by all text widgets:  turning
debugging on or off in any widget turns it on or off for all widgets.
For widgets with large amounts of text, the consistency checks may
cause a noticeable slow-down.
.RS
.PP
When debugging is turned on, the drawing routines of the text widget
set the global variables \fBtk_textRedraw\fR and \fBtk_textRelayout\fR
to the lists of indices that are redrawn.  The values of these variables
are tested by Tk's test suite.
.RE
.TP
\fIpathName \fBdelete \fIindex1 \fR?\fIindex2 ...\fR?
Delete a range of characters from the text.
If both \fIindex1\fR and \fIindex2\fR are specified, then delete
all the characters starting with the one given by \fIindex1\fR
and stopping just before \fIindex2\fR (i.e. the character at
\fIindex2\fR is not deleted).
If \fIindex2\fR does not specify a position later in the text
than \fIindex1\fR then no characters are deleted.
If \fIindex2\fR is not specified then the single character at
\fIindex1\fR is deleted.
It is not allowable to delete characters in a way that would leave
the text without a newline as the last character.
The command returns an empty string.
If more indices are given, multiple ranges of text will be deleted.
All indices are first checked for validity before any deletions are made.
They are sorted and the text is removed from the last range to the
first range so deleted text does not cause an undesired index shifting
side-effects.  If multiple ranges with the same start index are given,
then the longest range is used.  If overlapping ranges are given, then
they will be merged into spans that do not cause deletion of text
outside the given ranges due to text shifted during deletion.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBdlineinfo \fIindex\fR
Returns a list with five elements describing the area occupied
by the display line containing \fIindex\fR.
The first two elements of the list give the x and y coordinates
of the upper-left corner of the area occupied by the
line, the third and fourth elements give the width and height
of the area, and the fifth element gives the position of the baseline
for the line, measured down from the top of the area.
All of this information is measured in pixels.
If the current wrap mode is \fBnone\fR and the line extends beyond
the boundaries of the window,
the area returned reflects the entire area of the line, including the
portions that are out of the window.
If the line is shorter than the full width of the window then the
area returned reflects just the portion of the line that is occupied
by characters and embedded windows.
If the display line containing \fIindex\fR is not visible on
the screen then the return value is an empty list.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBdump \fR?\fIswitches\fR? \fIindex1 \fR?\fIindex2\fR?
Return the contents of the text widget from \fIindex1\fR up to,
but not including \fIindex2\fR,
including the text and
information about marks, tags, and embedded windows.
If \fIindex2\fR is not specified, then it defaults to
one character past \fIindex1\fR.  The information is returned
in the following format:
.RS
.LP
\fIkey1 value1 index1 key2 value2 index2\fR ...
.LP
The possible \fIkey\fR values are \fBtext\fR, \fBmark\fR,
\fBtagon\fR, \fBtagoff\fR, \fBimage\fR, and \fBwindow\fR.  The corresponding
\fIvalue\fR is the text, mark name, tag name, image name, or window name.
The \fIindex\fR information is the index of the
start of the text, mark, tag transition, image or window.
One or more of the following switches (or abbreviations thereof)
may be specified to control the dump:
.TP
\fB\-all\fR
Return information about all elements: text, marks, tags, images and windows.
This is the default.
.TP
\fB\-command \fIcommand\fR
Instead of returning the information as the result of the dump operation,
invoke the \fIcommand\fR on each element of the text widget within the range.
The command has three arguments appended to it before it is evaluated:
the \fIkey\fR, \fIvalue\fR, and \fIindex\fR.
.TP
\fB\-image\fR
Include information about images in the dump results.
.TP
\fB\-mark\fR
Include information about marks in the dump results.
.TP
\fB\-tag\fR
Include information about tag transitions in the dump results. Tag
information is returned as \fBtagon\fR and \fBtagoff\fR elements that
indicate the begin and end of each range of each tag, respectively.
.TP
\fB\-text\fR
Include information about text in the dump results.  The value is the
text up to the next element or the end of range indicated by \fIindex2\fR.
A text element does not span newlines.  A multi-line block of text that
contains no marks or tag transitions will still be dumped as a set
of text segments that each end with a newline.  The newline is part
of the value.
.TP
\fB\-window\fR
Include information about embedded windows in the dump results.
The value of a window is its Tk pathname, unless the window
has not been created yet.  (It must have a create script.)
In this case an empty string is returned, and you must query the
window by its index position to get more information.
.RE
.TP
\fIpathName \fBedit \fIoption \fR?\fIarg arg ...\fR?
This command controls the undo mechanism and the modified flag.  The
exact behavior of the command depends on the \fIoption\fR argument
that follows the \fBedit\fR argument.  The following forms of the
command are currently supported:
.RS
.TP
\fIpathName \fBedit modified ?\fIboolean\fR?
If \fIboolean\fR is not specified, returns the modified flag of the
widget. The insert, delete, edit undo and edit redo commands or the
user can set or clear the modified flag.  If \fIboolean\fR is
specified, sets the modified flag of the widget to \fIboolean\fR.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBedit redo\fR
When the \fB\-undo\fR option is true, reapplies the last undone edits
provided no other edits were done since then. Generates an error when
the redo stack is empty.  Does nothing when the \fB\-undo\fR option is
false.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBedit reset\fR
Clears the undo and redo stacks.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBedit separator\fR
Inserts a separator (boundary) on the undo stack. Does nothing when
the \fB\-undo\fR option is false.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBedit undo\fR
Undoes the last edit action when the \fB\-undo\fR option is true.  An
edit action is defined as all the insert and delete commands that are
recorded on the undo stack in between two separators. Generates an
error when the undo stack is empty.  Does nothing when the \fB\-undo\fR
option is false.
.RE
.TP
\fIpathName \fBget\fR \fI?\-displaychars?\fR \fI\-\- index1\fR ?\fIindex2 ...\fR?
Return a range of characters from the text.
The return value will be all the characters in the text starting
with the one whose index is \fIindex1\fR and ending just before
the one whose index is \fIindex2\fR (the character at \fIindex2\fR
will not be returned).
If \fIindex2\fR is omitted then the single character at \fIindex1\fR
is returned.
If there are no characters in the specified range (e.g. \fIindex1\fR
is past the end of the file or \fIindex2\fR is less than or equal
to \fIindex1\fR) then an empty string is returned.
If the specified range contains embedded windows, no information
about them is included in the returned string.
If multiple index pairs are given, multiple ranges of text will be returned
in a list.  Invalid ranges will not be represented with empty strings in
the list.  The ranges are returned in the order passed to \fIpathName \fBget\fR.
.VS 8.5
If the \fB\-displaychars\fR option is given, then, within each range,
only those characters which are not elided will be returned.  This may
have the effect that some of the returned ranges are empty strings.
.VE 8.5
.TP
\fIpathName \fBimage \fIoption \fR?\fIarg arg ...\fR?
This command is used to manipulate embedded images.
The behavior of the command depends on the \fIoption\fR argument
that follows the \fBtag\fR argument.
The following forms of the command are currently supported:
.RS
.TP
\fIpathName \fBimage cget\fR \fIindex option\fR
Returns the value of a configuration option for an embedded image.
\fIIndex\fR identifies the embedded image, and \fIoption\fR
specifies a particular configuration option, which must be one of
the ones listed in the section \fBEMBEDDED IMAGES\fR.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBimage configure \fIindex\fR ?\fIoption value ...\fR?
Query or modify the configuration options for an embedded image.
If no \fIoption\fR is specified, returns a list describing all of
the available options for the embedded image at \fIindex\fR
(see \fBTk_ConfigureInfo\fR for information on the format of this list).
If \fIoption\fR is specified with no \fIvalue\fR, then the command
returns a list describing the one named option (this list will be
identical to the corresponding sublist of the value returned if no
\fIoption\fR is specified).
If one or more \fIoption\-value\fR pairs are specified, then the command
modifies the given option(s) to have the given value(s);  in
this case the command returns an empty string.
See \fBEMBEDDED IMAGES\fR for information on the options that
are supported.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBimage create \fIindex\fR ?\fIoption value ...\fR?
This command creates a new image annotation, which will appear
in the text at the position given by \fIindex\fR.
Any number of \fIoption\-value\fR pairs may be specified to
configure the annotation.
Returns a unique identifier that may be used as an index to refer to
this image.
See \fBEMBEDDED IMAGES\fR for information on the options that
are supported, and a description of the identifier returned.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBimage names\fR
Returns a list whose elements are the names of all image instances currently
embedded in \fIwindow\fR.
.RE
.TP
\fIpathName \fBindex \fIindex\fR
Returns the position corresponding to \fIindex\fR in the form
\fIline.char\fR where \fIline\fR is the line number and \fIchar\fR
is the character number.
\fIIndex\fR may have any of the forms described under \fBINDICES\fR above.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBinsert \fIindex chars \fR?\fItagList chars tagList ...\fR?
Inserts all of the \fIchars\fR arguments just before the character at
\fIindex\fR.
If \fIindex\fR refers to the end of the text (the character after
the last newline) then the new text is inserted just before the
last newline instead.
If there is a single \fIchars\fR argument and no \fItagList\fR, then
the new text will receive any tags that are present on both the
character before and the character after the insertion point; if a tag
is present on only one of these characters then it will not be
applied to the new text.
If \fItagList\fR is specified then it consists of a list of
tag names;  the new characters will receive all of the tags in
this list and no others, regardless of the tags present around
the insertion point.
If multiple \fIchars\fR\-\fItagList\fR argument pairs are present,
they produce the same effect as if a separate \fIpathName \fBinsert\fR widget
command had been issued for each pair, in order.
The last \fItagList\fR argument may be omitted.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBmark \fIoption \fR?\fIarg arg ...\fR?
This command is used to manipulate marks.  The exact behavior of
the command depends on the \fIoption\fR argument that follows
the \fBmark\fR argument.  The following forms of the command
are currently supported:
.RS
.TP
\fIpathName \fBmark gravity \fImarkName\fR ?\fIdirection\fR?
If \fIdirection\fR is not specified, returns \fBleft\fR or \fBright\fR
to indicate which of its adjacent characters \fImarkName\fR is attached
to.
If \fIdirection\fR is specified, it must be \fBleft\fR or \fBright\fR;
the gravity of \fImarkName\fR is set to the given value.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBmark names\fR
Returns a list whose elements are the names of all the marks that
are currently set.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBmark next \fIindex\fR
Returns the name of the next mark at or after \fIindex\fR.
If \fIindex\fR is specified in numerical form, then the search for
the next mark begins at that index.
If \fIindex\fR is the name of a mark, then the search for
the next mark begins immediately after that mark.
This can still return a mark at the same position if
there are multiple marks at the same index.
These semantics mean that the \fBmark next\fR operation can be used to
step through all the marks in a text widget in the same order
as the mark information returned by the \fIpathName \fBdump\fR operation.
If a mark has been set to the special \fBend\fR index,
then it appears to be \fIafter\fR \fBend\fR with respect to the \fIpathName \fBmark next\fR operation.
An empty string is returned if there are no marks after \fIindex\fR.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBmark previous \fIindex\fR
Returns the name of the mark at or before \fIindex\fR.
If \fIindex\fR is specified in numerical form, then the search for
the previous mark begins with the character just before that index.
If \fIindex\fR is the name of a mark, then the search for
the next mark begins immediately before that mark.
This can still return a mark at the same position if
there are multiple marks at the same index.
These semantics mean that the \fIpathName \fBmark previous\fR operation can be used to
step through all the marks in a text widget in the reverse order
as the mark information returned by the \fIpathName \fBdump\fR operation.
An empty string is returned if there are no marks before \fIindex\fR.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBmark set \fImarkName index\fR
Sets the mark named \fImarkName\fR to a position just before the
character at \fIindex\fR.
If \fImarkName\fR already exists, it is moved from its old position;
if it does not exist, a new mark is created.
This command returns an empty string.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBmark unset \fImarkName \fR?\fImarkName markName ...\fR?
Remove the mark corresponding to each of the \fImarkName\fR arguments.
The removed marks will not be usable in indices and will not be
returned by future calls to
.QW "\fIpathName \fBmark names\fR" .
This command returns an empty string.
.RE
.TP
\fIpathName \fBpeer\fR \fIoption args\fR
.VS 8.5
This command is used to create and query widget peers.  It has
two forms, depending on \fIoption\fR:
.RS
.TP
\fIpathName \fBpeer create \fInewPathName\fR ?\fIoptions\fR?
Creates a peer text widget with the given \fInewPathName\fR, and any
optional standard configuration options (as for the \fItext\fR command).
By default the peer will have the same start and end line as the
parent widget, but these can be overridden with the standard
configuration options.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBpeer names\fR
Returns a list of peers of this widget (this does not include the widget
itself).  The order within this list is undefined.
.RE
.TP
\fIpathName \fBpendingsync\fR
Returns 1 if the line heights calculations are not up-to-date, 0 otherwise.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBreplace\fR \fIindex1 index2 chars\fR ?\fItagList chars tagList ...\fR?
Replaces the range of characters between \fIindex1\fR and \fIindex2\fR
with the given characters and tags.  See the section on \fIpathName
\fBinsert\fR for an explanation of the handling of the \fItagList...\fR
arguments, and the section on \fIpathName
\fBdelete\fR for an explanation of the handling of the indices.  If
\fIindex2\fR corresponds to an index earlier in the text than
\fIindex1\fR, an error will be generated.
.RS
.PP
The deletion and insertion are arranged so that no unnecessary
scrolling of the window or movement of insertion cursor occurs.  In
addition the undo/redo stack are correctly modified, if undo operations
are active in the text widget.  The command returns an empty string.
.RE
.VE 8.5
.TP
\fIpathName \fBscan\fR \fIoption args\fR
This command is used to implement scanning on texts.  It has
two forms, depending on \fIoption\fR:
.RS
.TP
\fIpathName \fBscan mark \fIx y\fR
Records \fIx\fR and \fIy\fR and the current view in the text window,
for use in conjunction with later \fIpathName \fBscan dragto\fR commands.
Typically this command is associated with a mouse button press in
the widget.  It returns an empty string.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBscan dragto \fIx y\fR
This command computes the difference between its \fIx\fR and \fIy\fR
arguments and the \fIx\fR and \fIy\fR arguments to the last
\fIpathName \fBscan mark\fR command for the widget.
It then adjusts the view by 10 times the difference in coordinates.
This command is typically associated
with mouse motion events in the widget, to produce the effect of
dragging the text at high speed through the window.  The return
value is an empty string.
.RE
.TP
\fIpathName \fBsearch \fR?\fIswitches\fR? \fIpattern index \fR?\fIstopIndex\fR?
Searches the text in \fIpathName\fR starting at \fIindex\fR for a range
of characters that matches \fIpattern\fR.
If a match is found, the index of the first character in the match is
returned as result;  otherwise an empty string is returned.
One or more of the following switches (or abbreviations thereof)
may be specified to control the search:
.RS
.TP
\fB\-forwards\fR
The search will proceed forward through the text, finding the first
matching range starting at or after the position given by \fIindex\fR.
This is the default.
.TP
\fB\-backwards\fR
The search will proceed backward through the text, finding the
matching range closest to \fIindex\fR whose first character
is before \fIindex\fR
.VS 8.5
(it is not allowed to be at \fIindex\fR).  Note that, for a variety of
reasons, backwards searches can be substantially slower than forwards
searches (particularly when using \fB\-regexp\fR), so it is recommended
that performance-critical code use forward searches.
.VE 8.5
.TP
\fB\-exact\fR
Use exact matching:  the characters in the matching range must be
identical to those in \fIpattern\fR.
This is the default.
.TP
\fB\-regexp\fR
Treat \fIpattern\fR as a regular expression and match it against
the text using the rules for regular expressions (see the \fBregexp\fR
command for details).
.VS 8.5
The default matching automatically passes
both the \fB\-lineanchor\fR and \fB\-linestop\fR options
to the regexp engine (unless \fB\-nolinestop\fR is used), so that
\fI^$\fR match beginning and end of line, and \fI.\fR, \fI[^\fR
sequences will never match the newline character \fI\en\fR.
.VE 8.5
.TP
\fB\-nolinestop\fR
.VS 8.5
This allows \fI.\fR and \fI[^\fR sequences to match the newline
character \fI\en\fR, which they will otherwise not do (see the \fBregexp\fR
command for details). This option is only meaningful if \fB\-regexp\fR
is also given, and an error will be thrown otherwise.  For example,
to match the entire text, use
.QW "\fIpathName \fBsearch \-nolinestop \-regexp\fR \N'34'.*\N'34' 1.0" .
.VE 8.5
.TP
\fB\-nocase\fR
Ignore case differences between the pattern and the text.
.TP
\fB\-count\fI varName\fR
The argument following \fB\-count\fR gives the name of a variable;
if a match is found, the number of index positions between beginning and
end of the matching range will be stored in the variable.  If there are no
embedded images or windows in the matching range (and there are no
elided characters if \fB\-elide\fR is not given), this is equivalent to the
number of characters matched.  In either case, the range \fImatchIdx\fR to
\fImatchIdx + $count chars\fR will return the entire matched text.
.TP
\fB\-all\fR
.VS 8.5
Find all matches in the given range and return a list of the indices of
the first character of each match.  If a \fB\-count\fI varName\fR switch is
given, then \fIvarName\fR is also set to a list containing one element
for each successful match.  Note that, even for exact searches, the
elements of this list may be different, if there are embedded images,
windows or hidden text.  Searches with \fB\-all\fR behave very
similarly to the Tcl command \fBregexp \-all\fR, in that overlapping
matches are not normally returned.  For example, applying an
\fB\-all\fR search of the pattern
.QW \ew+
against
.QW "hello there"
will just match twice, once for each word, and matching
.QW "Z[a\-z]+Z"
against
.QW ZooZooZoo
will just match once.
.VE 8.5
.TP
\fB\-overlap\fR
.VS 8.5
When performing \fB\-all\fR searches, the normal behaviour is that
matches which overlap an already-found match will not be returned.  This
switch changes that behaviour so that all matches which are not totally
enclosed within another match are returned.  For example, applying an
\fB\-overlap\fR search of the pattern
.QW \ew+
against
.QW "hello there"
will just match twice (i.e. no different to just \fB\-all\fR),
but matching
.QW Z[a\-z]+Z
against
.QW ZooZooZoo
will now match twice.
An error will be thrown if this switch is used without \fB\-all\fR.
.VE 8.5
.TP
\fB\-strictlimits\fR
.VS 8.5
When performing any search, the normal behaviour is that
the start and stop limits are checked with respect to the
start of the matching text.  With the \fB\-strictlimits\fR flag,
the entire matching range must lie inside the start and stop
limits specified for the match to be valid.
.VE 8.5
.TP
\fB\-elide\fR
Find elided (hidden) text as well. By default only displayed text is
searched.
.TP
\fB\-\|\-\fR
This switch has no effect except to terminate the list of switches:
the next argument will be treated as \fIpattern\fR even if it starts
with \fB\-\fR.
.PP
.VS 8.5
The matching range may be within a single line of text, or run across
multiple lines (if parts of the pattern can match a new-line).  For
regular expression matching one can use the various newline-matching
features such as \fB$\fR to match the end of a line, \fB^\fR to match
the beginning of a line, and to control
whether \fB.\fR is allowed to match a new-line.
.VE 8.5
If \fIstopIndex\fR is specified, the search stops at that index:
for forward searches, no match at or after \fIstopIndex\fR will
be considered;  for backward searches, no match earlier in the
text than \fIstopIndex\fR will be considered.
If \fIstopIndex\fR is omitted, the entire text will be searched:
when the beginning or end of the text is reached, the search
continues at the other end until the starting location is reached
again;  if \fIstopIndex\fR is specified, no wrap-around will occur.
This means that, for example, if the search is \fB\-forwards\fR
but \fIstopIndex\fR is earlier in the text than \fIstartIndex\fR,
nothing will ever be found.  See \fBKNOWN BUGS\fR below for a number of
minor limitations of the \fIpathName \fBsearch\fR command.
.RE
.TP
\fIpathName \fBsee \fIindex\fR
Adjusts the view in the window so that the character given by \fIindex\fR
is completely visible.
If \fIindex\fR is already visible then the command does nothing.
If \fIindex\fR is a short distance out of view, the command
adjusts the view just enough to make \fIindex\fR visible at the
edge of the window.
If \fIindex\fR is far out of view, then the command centers
\fIindex\fR in the window.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBsync\fR ?\fB-command \fIcommand\fR?
Controls the synchronization of the view of the text widget.
.RS
.TP
\fIpathName \fBsync\fR
Immediately brings the line metrics up-to-date by forcing computation of any
outdated line heights. The command returns immediately if there is no such
outdated line heights, otherwise it returns only at the end of the computation.
The command returns an empty string.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBsync -command \fIcommand\fR
Schedules \fIcommand\fR to be executed (by the event loop) exactly once as soon
as all line heights are up-to-date. If there are no pending line metrics
calculations, the scheduling is immediate. The command returns the empty
string. \fBbgerror\fR is called on \fIcommand\fR failure.
.RE
.TP
\fIpathName \fBtag \fIoption \fR?\fIarg arg ...\fR?
This command is used to manipulate tags.  The exact behavior of the
command depends on the \fIoption\fR argument that follows the
\fBtag\fR argument.  The following forms of the command are currently
supported:
.RS
.TP
\fIpathName \fBtag add \fItagName index1 \fR?\fIindex2 index1 index2 ...\fR?
Associate the tag \fItagName\fR with all of the characters starting
with \fIindex1\fR and ending just before
\fIindex2\fR (the character at \fIindex2\fR is not tagged).
A single command may contain any number of \fIindex1\fR\-\fIindex2\fR
pairs.
If the last \fIindex2\fR is omitted then the single character at
\fIindex1\fR is tagged.
If there are no characters in the specified range (e.g. \fIindex1\fR
is past the end of the file or \fIindex2\fR is less than or equal
to \fIindex1\fR) then the command has no effect.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBtag bind \fItagName\fR ?\fIsequence\fR? ?\fIscript\fR?
This command associates \fIscript\fR with the tag given by
\fItagName\fR.
Whenever the event sequence given by \fIsequence\fR occurs for a
character that has been tagged with \fItagName\fR,
the script will be invoked.
This widget command is similar to the \fBbind\fR command except that
it operates on characters in a text rather than entire widgets.
See the \fBbind\fR manual entry for complete details
on the syntax of \fIsequence\fR and the substitutions performed
on \fIscript\fR before invoking it.
If all arguments are specified then a new binding is created, replacing
any existing binding for the same \fIsequence\fR and \fItagName\fR
(if the first character of \fIscript\fR is
.QW +
then \fIscript\fR augments an existing binding rather than replacing it).
In this case the return value is an empty string.
If \fIscript\fR is omitted then the command returns the \fIscript\fR
associated with \fItagName\fR and \fIsequence\fR (an error occurs
if there is no such binding).
If both \fIscript\fR and \fIsequence\fR are omitted then the command
returns a list of all the sequences for which bindings have been
defined for \fItagName\fR.
.RS
.PP
The only events for which bindings may be specified are those related
to the mouse and keyboard (such as \fBEnter\fR, \fBLeave\fR,
\fBButtonPress\fR, \fBMotion\fR, and \fBKeyPress\fR) or virtual events.
Event bindings for a text widget use the \fBcurrent\fR mark described
under \fBMARKS\fR above.  An \fBEnter\fR event triggers for a tag when the tag
first becomes present on the current character, and a \fBLeave\fR event
triggers for a tag when it ceases to be present on the current character.
\fBEnter\fR and \fBLeave\fR events can happen either because the
\fBcurrent\fR mark moved or because the character at that position
changed.  Note that these events are different than \fBEnter\fR and
\fBLeave\fR events for windows.  Mouse and keyboard events are directed
to the current character.  If a virtual event is used in a binding, that
binding can trigger only if the virtual event is defined by an underlying
mouse-related or keyboard-related event.
.PP
It is possible for the current character to have multiple tags,
and for each of them to have a binding for a particular event
sequence.
When this occurs, one binding is invoked for each tag, in order
from lowest-priority to highest priority.
If there are multiple matching bindings for a single tag, then
the most specific binding is chosen (see the manual entry for
the \fBbind\fR command for details).
\fBcontinue\fR and \fBbreak\fR commands within binding scripts
are processed in the same way as for bindings created with
the \fBbind\fR command.
.PP
If bindings are created for the widget as a whole using the
\fBbind\fR command, then those bindings will supplement the
tag bindings.
The tag bindings will be invoked first, followed by bindings
for the window as a whole.
.RE
.TP
\fIpathName \fBtag cget\fR \fItagName option\fR
This command returns the current value of the option named \fIoption\fR
associated with the tag given by \fItagName\fR.
\fIOption\fR may have any of the values accepted by the \fIpathName \fBtag
configure\fR widget command.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBtag configure \fItagName\fR ?\fIoption\fR? ?\fIvalue\fR? ?\fIoption value ...\fR?
This command is similar to the \fIpathName \fBconfigure\fR widget command except
that it modifies options associated with the tag given by \fItagName\fR
instead of modifying options for the overall text widget.
If no \fIoption\fR is specified, the command returns a list describing
all of the available options for \fItagName\fR (see \fBTk_ConfigureInfo\fR
for information on the format of this list).
If \fIoption\fR is specified with no \fIvalue\fR, then the command returns
a list describing the one named option (this list will be identical to
the corresponding sublist of the value returned if no \fIoption\fR
is specified).
If one or more \fIoption\-value\fR pairs are specified, then the command
modifies the given option(s) to have the given value(s) in \fItagName\fR;
in this case the command returns an empty string.
See \fBTAGS\fR above for details on the options available for tags.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBtag delete \fItagName \fR?\fItagName ...\fR?
Deletes all tag information for each of the \fItagName\fR
arguments.
The command removes the tags from all characters in the file
and also deletes any other information associated with the tags,
such as bindings and display information.
The command returns an empty string.
.TP
\fIpathName\fB tag lower \fItagName \fR?\fIbelowThis\fR?
Changes the priority of tag \fItagName\fR so that it is just lower
in priority than the tag whose name is \fIbelowThis\fR.
If \fIbelowThis\fR is omitted, then \fItagName\fR's priority
is changed to make it lowest priority of all tags.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBtag names \fR?\fIindex\fR?
Returns a list whose elements are the names of all the tags that
are active at the character position given by \fIindex\fR.
If \fIindex\fR is omitted, then the return value will describe
all of the tags that exist for the text (this includes all tags
that have been named in a
.QW "\fIpathName \fBtag\fR"
widget command but have not been deleted by a
.QW "\fIpathName \fBtag delete\fR"
widget command, even if no characters are currently marked with the tag).
The list will be sorted in order from lowest priority to highest
priority.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBtag nextrange \fItagName index1 \fR?\fIindex2\fR?
This command searches the text for a range of characters tagged
with \fItagName\fR where the first character of the range is
no earlier than the character at \fIindex1\fR and no later than
the character just before \fIindex2\fR (a range starting at
\fIindex2\fR will not be considered).
If several matching ranges exist, the first one is chosen.
The command's return value is a list containing
two elements, which are the index of the first character of the
range and the index of the character just after the last one in
the range.
If no matching range is found then the return value is an
empty string.
If \fIindex2\fR is not given then it defaults to the end of the text.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBtag prevrange \fItagName index1 \fR?\fIindex2\fR?
This command searches the text for a range of characters tagged
with \fItagName\fR where the first character of the range is
before the character at \fIindex1\fR and no earlier than
the character at \fIindex2\fR (a range starting at
\fIindex2\fR will be considered).
If several matching ranges exist, the one closest to \fIindex1\fR is chosen.
The command's return value is a list containing
two elements, which are the index of the first character of the
range and the index of the character just after the last one in
the range.
If no matching range is found then the return value is an
empty string.
If \fIindex2\fR is not given then it defaults to the beginning of the text.
.TP
\fIpathName\fB tag raise \fItagName \fR?\fIaboveThis\fR?
Changes the priority of tag \fItagName\fR so that it is just higher
in priority than the tag whose name is \fIaboveThis\fR.
If \fIaboveThis\fR is omitted, then \fItagName\fR's priority
is changed to make it highest priority of all tags.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBtag ranges \fItagName\fR
Returns a list describing all of the ranges of text that have been
tagged with \fItagName\fR.
The first two elements of the list describe the first tagged range
in the text, the next two elements describe the second range, and
so on.
The first element of each pair contains the index of the first
character of the range, and the second element of the pair contains
the index of the character just after the last one in the
range.
If there are no characters tagged with \fItag\fR then an
empty string is returned.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBtag remove \fItagName index1 \fR?\fIindex2 index1 index2 ...\fR?
Remove the tag \fItagName\fR from all of the characters starting
at \fIindex1\fR and ending just before
\fIindex2\fR (the character at \fIindex2\fR is not affected).
A single command may contain any number of \fIindex1\fR\-\fIindex2\fR
pairs.
If the last \fIindex2\fR is omitted then the tag is removed from the
single character at \fIindex1\fR.
If there are no characters in the specified range (e.g. \fIindex1\fR
is past the end of the file or \fIindex2\fR is less than or equal
to \fIindex1\fR) then the command has no effect.
This command returns an empty string.
.RE
.TP
\fIpathName \fBwindow \fIoption \fR?\fIarg arg ...\fR?
This command is used to manipulate embedded windows.
The behavior of the command depends on the \fIoption\fR argument
that follows the \fBwindow\fR argument.
The following forms of the command are currently supported:
.RS
.TP
\fIpathName \fBwindow cget\fR \fIindex option\fR
Returns the value of a configuration option for an embedded window.
\fIIndex\fR identifies the embedded window, and \fIoption\fR
specifies a particular configuration option, which must be one of
the ones listed in the section \fBEMBEDDED WINDOWS\fR.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBwindow configure \fIindex\fR ?\fIoption value ...\fR?
Query or modify the configuration options for an embedded window.
If no \fIoption\fR is specified, returns a list describing all of
the available options for the embedded window at \fIindex\fR
(see \fBTk_ConfigureInfo\fR for information on the format of this list).
If \fIoption\fR is specified with no \fIvalue\fR, then the command
returns a list describing the one named option (this list will be
identical to the corresponding sublist of the value returned if no
\fIoption\fR is specified).
If one or more \fIoption\-value\fR pairs are specified, then the command
modifies the given option(s) to have the given value(s);  in
this case the command returns an empty string.
See \fBEMBEDDED WINDOWS\fR for information on the options that
are supported.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBwindow create \fIindex\fR ?\fIoption value ...\fR?
This command creates a new window annotation, which will appear
in the text at the position given by \fIindex\fR.
Any number of \fIoption\-value\fR pairs may be specified to
configure the annotation.
See \fBEMBEDDED WINDOWS\fR for information on the options that
are supported.
Returns an empty string.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBwindow names\fR
Returns a list whose elements are the names of all windows currently
embedded in \fIwindow\fR.
.RE
.TP
\fIpathName \fBxview \fIoption args\fR
This command is used to query and change the horizontal position of the
text in the widget's window.  It can take any of the following
forms:
.RS
.TP
\fIpathName \fBxview\fR
Returns a list containing two elements.
Each element is a real fraction between 0 and 1;  together they describe
the portion of the document's horizontal span that is visible in
the window.
For example, if the first element is .2 and the second element is .6,
20% of the text is off-screen to the left, the middle 40% is visible
in the window, and 40% of the text is off-screen to the right.
The fractions refer only to the lines that are actually visible in the
window:  if the lines in the window are all very short, so that they
are entirely visible, the returned fractions will be 0 and 1,
even if there are other lines in the text that are
much wider than the window.
These are the same values passed to scrollbars via the \fB\-xscrollcommand\fR
option.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBxview moveto\fI fraction\fR
Adjusts the view in the window so that \fIfraction\fR of the horizontal
span of the text is off-screen to the left.
\fIFraction\fR is a fraction between 0 and 1.
.TP
\fIpathName \fBxview scroll \fInumber what\fR
This command shifts the view in the window left or right according to
\fInumber\fR and \fIwhat\fR.
\fIWhat\fR must be \fBunits\fR, \fBpages\fR or \fBpixels\fR.
.VS 8.5
If \fIwhat\fR is \fBunits\fR or \fBpages\fR then \fInumber\fR must be an
integer, otherwise number may be specified in any of the forms acceptable
to \fBTk_GetPixels\fR, such as
.QW 2.0c
or
.QW 1i
(the result is rounded
to the nearest integer value.  If no units are given, pixels are
assumed).  If \fIwhat\fR is \fBunits\fR, the view adjusts left or right by
\fInumber\fR average-width characters on the display; if it is
\fBpages\fR then the view adjusts by \fInumber\fR screenfuls; if it is
\fBpixels\fR then the view adjusts by \fInumber\fR pixels.  If
.VE 8.5
\fInumber\fR is negative then characters farther to the left become
visible; if it is positive then characters farther to the right become
visible.
.RE
.TP
\fIpathName \fByview \fI?args\fR?
This command is used to query and change the vertical position of the
text in the widget's window.
It can take any of the following forms:
.RS
.TP
\fIpathName \fByview\fR
Returns a list containing two elements, both of which are real fractions
between 0 and 1.
The first element gives the position of the first visible pixel of the
first character (or image, etc) in the
top line in the window, relative to the text as a whole (0.5 means
it is halfway through the text, for example).
The second element gives the position of the first pixel just after the
last visible one in the bottom line of the window,
relative to the text as a whole.
These are the same values passed to scrollbars via the \fB\-yscrollcommand\fR
option.
.TP
\fIpathName \fByview moveto\fI fraction\fR
Adjusts the view in the window so that the pixel given by \fIfraction\fR
appears at the top of the top line of the window.
\fIFraction\fR is a fraction between 0 and 1;  0 indicates the first
pixel of the first character in the text, 0.33 indicates the pixel that is
one-third the way through the text; and so on.
.VS 8.5
Values close to 1 will
indicate values close to the last pixel in the text (1 actually refers
to one pixel beyond the last pixel), but in such cases the widget will
never scroll beyond the last pixel, and so a value of 1 will effectively
be rounded back to whatever fraction ensures the last pixel is at the
bottom of the window, and some other pixel is at the top.
.VE 8.5
.TP
\fIpathName \fByview scroll \fInumber what\fR
This command adjust the view in the window up or down according to
\fInumber\fR and \fIwhat\fR.
\fIWhat\fR must be \fBunits\fR, \fBpages\fR or \fBpixels\fR.
.VS 8.5
If \fIwhat\fR is \fBunits\fR or \fBpages\fR then \fInumber\fR must be an
integer, otherwise number may be specified in any of the forms acceptable
to \fBTk_GetPixels\fR, such as
.QW 2.0c
or
.QW 1i
(the result is rounded
to the nearest integer value.  If no units are given, pixels are
assumed).  If \fIwhat\fR is \fBunits\fR, the view adjusts up or down by
\fInumber\fR lines on the display; if it is \fBpages\fR then the view
adjusts by \fInumber\fR screenfuls; if it is \fBpixels\fR then the view
adjusts by \fInumber\fR pixels.
.VE 8.5
If \fInumber\fR is negative then earlier positions in the text
become visible;  if it is positive then later positions in the text
become visible.
.TP
\fIpathName \fByview \fR?\fB\-pickplace\fR? \fIindex\fR
Changes the view in the widget's window to make \fIindex\fR visible.
If the \fB\-pickplace\fR option is not specified then \fIindex\fR will
appear at the top of the window.
If \fB\-pickplace\fR is specified then the widget chooses where
\fIindex\fR appears in the window:
.RS
.IP [1]
If \fIindex\fR is already visible somewhere in the window then the
command does nothing.
.IP [2]
If \fIindex\fR is only a few lines off-screen above the window then
it will be positioned at the top of the window.
.IP [3]
If \fIindex\fR is only a few lines off-screen below the window then
it will be positioned at the bottom of the window.
.IP [4]
Otherwise, \fIindex\fR will be centered in the window.
.LP
The \fB\-pickplace\fR option has been obsoleted by the \fIpathName \fBsee\fR widget
command (\fIpathName \fBsee\fR handles both x- and y-motion to make a location
visible, whereas the \fB\-pickplace\fR mode only handles motion in y).
.RE
.TP
\fIpathName \fByview \fInumber\fR
This command makes the first character on the line after
the one given by \fInumber\fR visible at the top of the window.
\fINumber\fR must be an integer.
This command used to be used for scrolling, but now it is obsolete.
.RE
.SH BINDINGS
.PP
Tk automatically creates class bindings for texts that give them
the following default behavior.
In the descriptions below,
.QW word
is dependent on the value of
the \fBtcl_wordchars\fR variable.  See \fBtclvars\fR(n).
.IP [1]
Clicking mouse button 1 positions the insertion cursor
just before the character underneath the mouse cursor, sets the
input focus to this widget, and clears any selection in the widget.
Dragging with mouse button 1 strokes out a selection between
the insertion cursor and the character under the mouse.
.IP [2]
Double-clicking with mouse button 1 selects the word under the mouse
and positions the insertion cursor at the start of the word.
Dragging after a double click will stroke out a selection consisting
of whole words.
.IP [3]
Triple-clicking with mouse button 1 selects the line under the mouse
and positions the insertion cursor at the start of the line.
Dragging after a triple click will stroke out a selection consisting
of whole lines.
.IP [4]
The ends of the selection can be adjusted by dragging with mouse
button 1 while the Shift key is down;  this will adjust the end
of the selection that was nearest to the mouse cursor when button
1 was pressed.
If the button is double-clicked before dragging then the selection
will be adjusted in units of whole words;  if it is triple-clicked
then the selection will be adjusted in units of whole lines.
.IP [5]
Clicking mouse button 1 with the Control key down will reposition the
insertion cursor without affecting the selection.
.IP [6]
If any normal printing characters are typed, they are
inserted at the point of the insertion cursor.
.IP [7]
The view in the widget can be adjusted by dragging with mouse button 2.
If mouse button 2 is clicked without moving the mouse, the selection
is copied into the text at the position of the mouse cursor.
The Insert key also inserts the selection, but at the position of
the insertion cursor.
.IP [8]
If the mouse is dragged out of the widget
while button 1 is pressed, the entry will automatically scroll to
make more text visible (if there is more text off-screen on the side
where the mouse left the window).
.IP [9]
The Left and Right keys move the insertion cursor one character to the
left or right;  they also clear any selection in the text.
If Left or Right is typed with the Shift key down, then the insertion
cursor moves and the selection is extended to include the new character.
Control-Left and Control-Right move the insertion cursor by words, and
Control-Shift-Left and Control-Shift-Right move the insertion cursor
by words and also extend the selection.
Control-b and Control-f behave the same as Left and Right, respectively.
Meta-b and Meta-f behave the same as Control-Left and Control-Right,
respectively.
.IP [10]
The Up and Down keys move the insertion cursor one line up or
down and clear any selection in the text.
If Up or Right is typed with the Shift key down, then the insertion
cursor moves and the selection is extended to include the new character.
Control-Up and Control-Down move the insertion cursor by paragraphs (groups
of lines separated by blank lines), and
Control-Shift-Up and Control-Shift-Down move the insertion cursor
by paragraphs and also extend the selection.
Control-p and Control-n behave the same as Up and Down, respectively.
.IP [11]
The Next and Prior keys move the insertion cursor forward or backwards
by one screenful and clear any selection in the text.
If the Shift key is held down while Next or Prior is typed, then
the selection is extended to include the new character.
.IP [12]
Control-Next and Control-Prior scroll the view right or left by one page
without moving the insertion cursor or affecting the selection.
.IP [13]
Home and Control-a move the insertion cursor to the
beginning of its display line and clear any selection in the widget.
Shift-Home moves the insertion cursor to the beginning of the display line
and also extends the selection to that point.
.IP [14]
End and Control-e move the insertion cursor to the
end of the display line and clear any selection in the widget.
Shift-End moves the cursor to the end of the display line and extends
the selection to that point.
.IP [15]
Control-Home and Meta-< move the insertion cursor to the beginning of
the text and clear any selection in the widget.
Control-Shift-Home moves the insertion cursor to the beginning of the text
and also extends the selection to that point.
.IP [16]
Control-End and Meta-> move the insertion cursor to the end of the
text and clear any selection in the widget.
Control-Shift-End moves the cursor to the end of the text and extends
the selection to that point.
.IP [17]
The Select key and Control-Space set the selection anchor to the position
of the insertion cursor.  They do not affect the current selection.
Shift-Select and Control-Shift-Space adjust the selection to the
current position of the insertion cursor, selecting from the anchor
to the insertion cursor if there was not any selection previously.
.IP [18]
Control-/ selects the entire contents of the widget.
.IP [19]
Control-\e clears any selection in the widget.
.IP [20]
The F16 key (labelled Copy on many Sun workstations) or Meta-w
copies the selection in the widget to the clipboard, if there is a selection.
This action is carried out by the command \fBtk_textCopy\fR.
.IP [21]
The F20 key (labelled Cut on many Sun workstations) or Control-w
copies the selection in the widget to the clipboard and deletes
the selection.
This action is carried out by the command \fBtk_textCut\fR.
If there is no selection in the widget then these keys have no effect.
.IP [22]
The F18 key (labelled Paste on many Sun workstations) or Control-y
inserts the contents of the clipboard at the position of the
insertion cursor.
This action is carried out by the command \fBtk_textPaste\fR.
.IP [23]
The Delete key deletes the selection, if there is one in the widget.
If there is no selection, it deletes the character to the right of
the insertion cursor.
.IP [24]
Backspace and Control-h delete the selection, if there is one
in the widget.
If there is no selection, they delete the character to the left of
the insertion cursor.
.IP [25]
Control-d deletes the character to the right of the insertion cursor.
.IP [26]
Meta-d deletes the word to the right of the insertion cursor.
.IP [27]
Control-k deletes from the insertion cursor to the end of its line;
if the insertion cursor is already at the end of a line, then
Control-k deletes the newline character.
.IP [28]
Control-o opens a new line by inserting a newline character in
front of the insertion cursor without moving the insertion cursor.
.IP [29]
Meta-backspace and Meta-Delete delete the word to the left of the
insertion cursor.
.IP [30]
Control-x deletes whatever is selected in the text widget
after copying it to the clipboard.
.IP [31]
Control-t reverses the order of the two characters to the right of
the insertion cursor.
.IP [32]
Control-z (undoes the last edit action if the \fB\-undo\fR option is
true. Does nothing otherwise.
.IP [33]
Control-Z (or Control-y on Windows) reapplies the last undone edit
action if the \fB\-undo\fR option is true. Does nothing otherwise.
.PP
If the widget is disabled using the \fB\-state\fR option, then its
view can still be adjusted and text can still be selected,
but no insertion cursor will be displayed and no text modifications will
take place.
.PP
The behavior of texts can be changed by defining new bindings for
individual widgets or by redefining the class bindings.
.SH "KNOWN ISSUES"
.SS "ISSUES CONCERNING CHARS AND INDICES"
.VS 8.5
.PP
Before Tk 8.5, the widget used the string
.QW chars
to refer to index positions (which included characters, embedded
windows and embedded images).  As of Tk 8.5 the text widget deals
separately and correctly with
.QW chars
and
.QW indices .
For backwards compatibility, however, the index modifiers
.QW "+N chars"
and
.QW "\-N chars"
continue to refer to indices.
One must use any of the full forms
.QW "+N any chars"
or
.QW "\-N any chars"
etc. to refer to actual character indices.  This confusion may be fixed in a
future release by making the widget correctly interpret
.QW "+N chars"
as a synonym for
.QW "+N any chars" .
.VE 8.5
.SS "PERFORMANCE ISSUES"
.PP
Text widgets should run efficiently under a variety
of conditions.  The text widget uses about 2-3 bytes of
main memory for each byte of text, so texts containing a megabyte
or more should be practical on most workstations.
Text is represented internally with a modified B-tree structure
that makes operations relatively efficient even with large texts.
Tags are included in the B-tree structure in a way that allows
tags to span large ranges or have many disjoint smaller ranges
without loss of efficiency.
Marks are also implemented in a way that allows large numbers of
marks.
In most cases it is fine to have large numbers of unique tags,
or a tag that has many distinct ranges.
.PP
One performance problem can arise if you have hundreds or thousands
of different tags that all have the following characteristics:
the first and last ranges of each tag are near the beginning and
end of the text, respectively,
or a single tag range covers most of the text widget.
The cost of adding and deleting tags like this is proportional
to the number of other tags with the same properties.
In contrast, there is no problem with having thousands of distinct
tags if their overall ranges are localized and spread uniformly throughout
the text.
.PP
Very long text lines can be expensive,
especially if they have many marks and tags within them.
.PP
The display line with the insert cursor is redrawn each time the
cursor blinks, which causes a steady stream of graphics traffic.
Set the \fBinsertOffTime\fR attribute to 0 avoid this.
.SS "KNOWN BUGS"
.VS 8.5
.PP
The \fIpathName \fBsearch \-regexp\fR sub-command attempts to perform sophisticated
regexp matching across multiple lines in an efficient fashion (since Tk
8.5), examining each line individually, and then in small groups of lines,
whether searching forwards or backwards.  Under certain conditions the
search result might differ from that obtained by applying the same regexp
to the entire text from the widget in one go.  For example, when
searching with a greedy regexp, the widget will continue to attempt to
add extra lines to the match as long as one of two conditions are true:
either Tcl's regexp library returns a code to indicate a longer match is
possible (but there are known bugs in Tcl which mean this code is not
always correctly returned); or if each extra line added results in at
least a partial match with the pattern.  This means in the case where the
first extra line added results in no match and Tcl's regexp system
returns the incorrect code and adding a second extra line would actually
match, the text widget will return the wrong result.  In practice this is
a rare problem, but it can occur, for example:
.CS
pack [text .t]
\&.t insert 1.0 "aaaa\enbbbb\encccc\enbbbb\enaaaa\en"
\&.t search \-regexp \-\- {(a+|b+\enc+\enb+)+\ena+} 1.0
.CE
will not find a match when one exists of 19
characters starting from the first
.QW b .
.PP
Whenever one possible match is fully enclosed in another, the search
command will attempt to ensure only the larger match is returned.
When performing backwards regexp searches it is possible that Tcl
will not always achieve this, in the case where a match is preceded by
one or more short, non-overlapping matches, all of which are preceded
by a large match which actually encompasses all of them.  The search
algorithm used by the widget does not look back arbitrarily far for a
possible match which might cover large portions of the widget.
For example:
.CS
pack [text .t]
\&.t insert 1.0 "aaaa\enbbbb\enbbbb\enbbbb\enbbbb\\n"
\&.t search \-regexp \-backward \-\- {b+\en|a+\en(b+\en)+} end
.CE
matches at
.QW 5.0
when a true greedy match would match at
.QW 1.0 .
Similarly if we add \fB\-all\fR to this case, it matches at all of
.QW 5.0 ,
.QW 4.0 ,
.QW 3.0
and
.QW 1.0 ,
when really it should only match at
.QW 1.0
since that match encloses all the others.
.VE 8.5
.SH "SEE ALSO"
entry(n), scrollbar(n)
.SH KEYWORDS
text, widget, tkvars