CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpython-2.7user-interfacetkinter
General Nuisance
General Nuisance

Reputation: 211

How can I perform an action after mainloop() has been called in Tkinter?

I want to make a GUI command line using the Text widget. For debugging purposes, I am trying to print whatever the user types into the separate GUI window to the system terminal. I know that it is frowned upon to mix GUI and Text Based commands into the same script, but I am just debugging, so forgive me 😉 Here is my code:

from Tkinter import *

main = Tk()
console = Text(main)
console.pack()


main.mainloop()

while True:
    text = console.get("1.0", "end-1c")

    print(text)

My current issue is that when the mainloop starts, (of course) the while loop doesn't. If I were to move the while loop in front of the mainloop call, it would never call mainloop. I really want it to continuously check for new text.

Is there a way to like "pause" the mainloop, or just carry out the command, maybe on a new thread or something?

I want to avoid using main.after(), but if that is the only way, then so be it. ¯\(°_o)/¯

Upvotes: 1

Views: 5573

Answers (2)

user4171906
user4171906

Reputation:

You can also bind widgets to "Modified"

from Tkinter import *

class TextModified():
    def __init__(self):
        root = Tk()
        self.txt = Text(root)
        self.txt.pack()
        self.txt.focus_set()
        self.txt.bind('<<Modified>>', self.changed)
        Button(text='Exit', command=root.quit).pack()
        root.mainloop()

    def changed(self, value=None):
        flag = self.txt.edit_modified()
        if flag:     # prevent from getting called twice
            print "changed called", self.txt.get("1.0", "end-1c")
        ## reset so this will be called on the next change
        self.txt.edit_modified(False) 

TM=TextModified()

Upvotes: 1

TigerhawkT3
TigerhawkT3

Reputation: 49318

I recommend using main.after(), as it's the canonical way to do things like this in Tkinter. The following will also ensure that it only tries to print every second, instead of as fast as the console can handle it (as the while loop in your code would do if it worked).

def print_console():
    print(console.get("1.0", "end-1c"))
    main.after(1000, print_console)

print_console()

main.mainloop()

Upvotes: 2

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