 
 subsubsection3_3_3_7.html  subsection3_3_3.html  subsubsection3_3_3_5.html  tableofcontents3_1.html   Next: subsubsection3_3_3_7.html Caution: Restricted Access Up: subsection3_3_3.html Accessing The Components  Previous: subsubsection3_3_3_5.html Configuring Subwidget Options    Configuring Subwidget Options Using the Tk Option Database  
The 
-options switch is good if you want to specify subwidget
  options for one or a few mega-widgets. If you want to specify the
  subwidget for many mega-widgets, it is easier to use the Tk Option
  Database.
Options in the Tk Option Database can be specified using the 
option command and the pathname of the widget. For all the Tix
  mega-widgets, it is guaranteed that the pathname of their subwidgets
  ends with the 
name of the subwidgets. For example, if we have
  a mega widget called 
.a.b.megaw and it has a subwidget whose
  name is 
subw, then we can be sure that the pathname of the
  subwidget will be something like
    .a.b.megaw.foo.bar.subw
Therefore, if we want to specify options for it in the Option
  Database, we can issue commands like:
    option add *a.b.megaw*subw.option1 value1  option add *a.b.megaw*subw.option2 value2
Notice that it will be wrong to issue the commands as:
    option add *a.b.megaw.subw.option1 value1  option add *a.b.megaw.subw.option2 value2
because in general we will not know whether the subwidget is an
  immediate child window of 
.a.b.megaw (such a decision
  is left to the mega-widget implementor and may vary in different
  versions of the same mega-widget
).
Program 1-7 demonstrates how the Tk Option Database can be
  used to achieve the same effect as program 1-5.
  option add *TixControl*label.width       8option add *TixControl*label.anchor      e
option add *TixControl*entry.width       10
option add *TixControl*entry.borderWidth 3
tixControl .income -label "Income: " -variable income
tixControl .age    -label "Age: "    -variable age
pack .income .age -side top
(Figure 1-7) Using the Tk Option Database in Place of the 
-options  switch  http://tix.sourceforge.nethttp://tix.sourceforge.net 