The TextUndo Widget (Mastering Perl/Tk)

8.20. The TextUndo Widget

The TextUndo widget is derived from the Text widget, which simply means that it shares all the capabilities of its ancestor. In object-oriented terminology, we say that TextUndo is a subclass of Text (or, Text is a superclass of TextUndo). You'll learn more about this subject in Chapter 14, "Creating Custom Widgets in Pure Perl/Tk".

Of course, we expect TextUndo to do something different from Text, and it does: it has unlimited undos and redos so that previous editing operations can be rescinded or redone.

Here are the TextUndo methods above and beyond those available for a Text widget:

$textundo->ConfirmDiscard

Displays a messageBox that says "Save edits?". Returns 0 if yes or cancel, 1 if no.

$textundo->ConfirmEmptyDocument

Displays a messageBox that says "Save edits?." The widget is cleared if the reply is no.

$textundo->ConfirmExit

Destroys the widget if you answer yes.

$textundo->CreateFileSelect

Creates a popup file browser to select a filename.

$textundo->deleteStringAtStartOfSelectedLines(string)

Deletes string from the start of every selected line.

$textundo>->EmptyDocument

Deletes all text and undo/redo information; undef s the filename.

$textundo->FileName(?pathName?)

Optionally updates the current filename to pathName. Returns the current filename.

$textundo->IncludeFile

Similar to Load, except it does not call EmptyDocument first.

$textundo->insertStringAtStartOfSelectedLines(string)

Inserts string at the start of every selected line.

$textundo->Load(pathName)

Loads the contents of pathName into the widget.

$textundo->numberChanges

Returns the number of current undo operations.

$textundo->redo

Redoes the previous operation.

$textundo->ResetUndo

Deletes all undo and redo information.

$textundo->Save(?pathName?)

Saves the contents of the widget to a file. If pathName is not specified, the filename from the last Load call is used. If no file was previously loaded an error message pops up. The default filename of the last Load call is not overwriten by pathName.

$textundo->SizeRedo

Returns the number of current redo operations.

$textundo->undo

Undoes the previous operation.

8.20.1. TextUndo Virtual Events

The TextUndo widget supports two virtual events, <<Undo>> and <<Redo>>, which invoke the undo and redo methods, respectively. The key sequence Control-Z is bound to <<Undo>>, and Control-Y is bound to <<Redo>>.