Action Items:

• come up with more ideas
• decide on at least an initial few ... soon!
• after that, code/modify, and package into a starkit

See the Methodology page for how these are to be used.

We want to bring together a fairly small set of example applications, evaluate them to generate problems (bugs) and track their improvement as we improve Tk. The set of apps we choose should be small enough to be manageable, but broad enough in scope to cover a wide range of cases.

The apps should be fairly well designed/structured to start with (something with a completely boneheaded design probably doesn't help us), and can be actual or contrived, I don't think it matters. We need to be able to have code for them though. They should range in scope from something quite small to something much larger.

(As a separate matter, we also want to be aware of High Profile Tk Applications).

First job is to pick a reasonable list of apps: add your suggestions to this page and then we can narrow it down and pick. We'll then post screenshots, set out a process for doing the critique and evaluations, and carry on from there.

Candidate Example: Simple Calculation App

A simple app that takes a few inputs (from an entry, a combo-box or similar, a few radio buttons), does some 'time consuming' calculation when you press a button (hence needs a progress bar), and displays a result. menubar to exit and show about box; this could be whipped together in short order

• Pros/Cons...?

Candidate Example: Email Compose Window

An email compose window ... nothing too complex, sort of at the level of the one in mac os x's mail (toolbar, popup for accounts, fields, ability to do attachments, menus to cut/copy/paste/undo/add bcc field etc.). nothing on backend of course

• Pros/Cons...?

Candidate Example: Electric Secretary

the electric secretary app from effective tcl ... lots of data entry/db looking stuff, tabs, etc.

• Pros/Cons...?

Candidate Example: Random Standardish DB-looking app

Some type of very standard looking database form app w/ menus, toolbar, status, etc. (suggestions)? Perhaps the metakit/starkit example below? Something else?
DKF: It'd be really cool if the instructions for how to build the GUI could be done in some shorter form. That sort of thing is what most of these large database GUI apps are (or ought to be) really about anyway.

• Specific example?
• Pros/Cons...?

Candidate Example: Tk Widget Demo

the Tk widget demo (see also Widget Tour Update)

• Pros/Cons...?

Candidate Example: Metakit/Starkit Tool JAG: How about a metakit browser/editor? It would be useful and show off (at least) the items mentioned...
AK: Google for "kitviewer", or talk to Steve Landers. He wrote this app. Currently it is only a metakit browser.
JAG: Yeah, I'm aware of several metakit viewers - I've even written a quick metakit viewer/editor myself - that's why I thought it might be a good fit for this item...
Bryan Oakley: thinking out loud for a moment...

Starkits are arguably a "crown jewel" of the tcl community. However, the interface for building starkits (and I'm thinking of sdx here...) is a bit weak. Perhaps a good key example would be to write a starkit browser/explorer/builder. Nothing too fancy -- an explorer-type interface that lets one see the files in the startkit and be able to add and remove files.

This presupposes that a tree widget gets added to the core. Also, should some sort of drag and drop facility be added to tk this would be an excellent place to show it off.

I know this page asks for existing apps that can be polished, so maybe this suggestion belongs somewhere else.

• Pros/Cons...?