From Newsgroup: comp.lang.tcl

Has anybody ever devised a clever way to simulate ruled paper in a
text widget?

I've been searching high and low and can't find anything.

So I figured that if I make the text widget background all black,
then use tags to make all lines have white background and - here is
the trick - create some very thin spacing between the lines, the
black background will show through the spacing and everything will
look like thin black lines across a white background.

But I am here asking, so of course it's not working.

Canvas won't work either, I need the real deal text widget in all
its legendary glory, and the ruled lines have to scale with varying
font size.

Is there a way?

TIA,
--
Luc

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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.tcl

Am 28.02.26 um 02:50 schrieb Luc:

Has anybody ever devised a clever way to simulate ruled paper in a
text widget?

I've been searching high and low and can't find anything.

So I figured that if I make the text widget background all black,
then use tags to make all lines have white background and - here is
the trick - create some very thin spacing between the lines, the
black background will show through the spacing and everything will
look like thin black lines across a white background.

But I am here asking, so of course it's not working.

Canvas won't work either, I need the real deal text widget in all
its legendary glory, and the ruled lines have to scale with varying
font size.

Is there a way?

TIA,

There's a solution somewhere in the wiki using `place`. I can't find it
again, though.

Here's another way, also using `place`, but with only one font at a time.


https://github.com/gregnix/ruledtext

Gregor
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.tcl

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:23:05 +0100, greg wrote:

There's a solution somewhere in the wiki using `place`. I can't find it >again, though.

Here's another way, also using `place`, but with only one font at a time.

https://github.com/gregnix/ruledtext

Gregor

**************************

Thank you! That should do it.
--
Luc

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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.tcl


Luc <luc@sep.invalid> posted:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:23:05 +0100, greg wrote:

There's a solution somewhere in the wiki using `place`. I can't find it >again, though.

Here's another way, also using `place`, but with only one font at a time.

https://github.com/gregnix/ruledtext

Gregor

**************************

Thank you! That should do it.

Have you tried with -bgstipple? This puts a bitmap into the background
of the text widget and with a suitably filled bitmap, you should be able to get the ruling that you need. At least, that is what I think will happen,
I have not tried it myself :).
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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.tcl


Arjen <user153@newsgrouper.org.invalid> posted:

Luc <luc@sep.invalid> posted:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:23:05 +0100, greg wrote:

There's a solution somewhere in the wiki using `place`. I can't find it >again, though.

Here's another way, also using `place`, but with only one font at a time.

https://github.com/gregnix/ruledtext

Gregor

**************************

Thank you! That should do it.

Have you tried with -bgstipple? This puts a bitmap into the background
of the text widget and with a suitably filled bitmap, you should be able to get the ruling that you need. At least, that is what I think will happen,
I have not tried it myself :).

It turns out to be an option for the tags, so not an option for the
text widget as a whole.

This script does give an idea of what it might look like:

pack [text .t]
.t tag configure X -bgstipple error -background green
.t insert end "AAAA" X

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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.tcl

On Mon, 02 Mar 2026 12:48:19 GMT, Arjen wrote:

Have you tried with -bgstipple? This puts a bitmap into the background
of the text widget and with a suitably filled bitmap, you should be able
to get the ruling that you need. At least, that is what I think will
happen, I have not tried it myself :).

It turns out to be an option for the tags, so not an option for the
text widget as a whole.

This script does give an idea of what it might look like:

pack [text .t]
.t tag configure X -bgstipple error -background green
.t insert end "AAAA" X

**************************

Thank you very much for your interest!

Sadly, that won't work.

I tested your example and see, with Arial 12, the background contains
one row of the pattern.

With Arial 24, it contains two rows.

With Arial 36, yup, three rows.

In other words, it won't scale according to font size.
It will "fill," or rather tile, but not scale.

Such is life.

Thank you for the idea.
--
Luc

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From Newsgroup: comp.lang.tcl

Am 02.03.26 um 00:23 schrieb greg:

Am 28.02.26 um 02:50 schrieb Luc:

Has anybody ever devised a clever way to simulate ruled paper in a
text widget?

I've been searching high and low and can't find anything.

So I figured that if I make the text widget background all black,
then use tags to make all lines have white background and - here is
the trick - create some very thin spacing between the lines, the
black background will show through the spacing and everything will
look like thin black lines across a white background.

But I am here asking, so of course it's not working.

Canvas won't work either, I need the real deal text widget in all
its legendary glory, and the ruled lines have to scale with varying
font size.

Is there a way?

TIA,

There's a solution somewhere in the wiki using `place`. I can't find it again, though.

Here's another way, also using `place`, but with only one font at a time.

https://github.com/gregnix/ruledtext

Gregor

Here's the relevant section in the wiki:

https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/A+vertical+line+in+a+text+widget

I thought it was a great idea.

Gregor
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