We can use the tixWidgetClass command to declare a new
class. The syntax is:
tixWidgetClass classCommandName {
-switch value
-switch value
....
}
For example, the following is the declaration section of TixArrowButton:
tixWidgetClass tixArrowButton {
-classname TixArrowButton
-superclass tixPrimitive
-method {
flash invoke invert
}
-flag {
-direction -state
}
-configspec {
{-direction direction Direction e}
{-state state State normal}
}
-alias {
{-dir -direction}
}
-default {
{*Button.anchor c}
{*Button.padX 5}
}
}
We'll look at what each option means as the command is described in the
following sections. The first argument for tixWidgetClass is the
command name for the widget class (tixArrowButton). Command names are
used to create widgets of this class. For example, the code:
tixArrowButton .arrowcreates a widget instance
.arrow of the class TixArrowButton.
Also, the command name is used as a prefix of all the methods of this
class. For example, the Foo and Bar methods of the class
TixArrowButton will be written as tixArrowButton:Foo and
tixArrowButton:Bar.
The class name of the class (TixArrowButton) is specified by the
-classname switch inside the main body of the declaration. The class
name is used only to specify options in the TK option database.
Notice the difference in the capitalization of the class name and the
command name of the TixArrowButton class: both of them have the
individual words capitalized, but the command name
(tixArrowButton) starts with a lower case letter while the class name
(TixArrowButton) starts with an upper case letter. When you create
your own classes, you should follow this naming convention.
The -superclass switch specifies the superclass of the new widget. In
our example, we have set it to tixPrimitive.