Check-in [f222243ce8]

{"tip": {
	"517":{"url":"./tip/517.md","keywords":"tk menu","created":"13-Sept-2018","post-history":"","state":"Draft","tcl-version":"8.7","vote":"Pending","type":"Project","title":"# TIP 517: Add -activerelief Configuration Option to the menu widget","author":["Francois Vogel <[email protected]>"],"is-jest":false},
	"516":{"url":"./tip/516.md","keywords":"Tcl, TclOO","created":"7-Sept-2018","post-history":"","state":"Draft","tcl-version":"8.7","vote":"Pending","type":"Project","title":"# TIP 516: More OO Slot Operations","author":["Donal K. Fellows <[email protected]>"],"is-jest":false},
	"515":{"url":"./tip/515.md","created":"7-Sept-2018","post-history":"","state":"Draft","tcl-version":"8.7","vote":"Pending","type":"Project","title":"# TIP 515: Level Value Reform","author":["Jan Nijtmans <[email protected]>"],"is-jest":false},
	"514":{"url":"./tip/514.md","keywords":"Tcl","created":"20-Aug-2018","post-history":"","state":"Draft","tcl-version":"8.7","vote":"Pending","type":"Project","title":"# TIP 514: Platform differences in handling int/wide","author":["Jan Nijtmans <[email protected]>"],"is-jest":false},
	"513":{"url":"./tip/513.md","keywords":"Tcl,data structure","created":"02-Aug-2017","post-history":"","state":"Draft","tcl-version":"8.7","vote":"Pending","type":"Project","title":"# TIP 513: Better support for 'agendas' as arrays, dictionaries or lists","author":["Florian Murr <[email protected]>"],"is-jest":false},
	"512":{"url":"./tip/512.md","keywords":"Tcl","created":"25-June-2018","post-history":"","state":"Draft","tcl-version":"8.7","vote":"Pending","type":"Project","title":"# TIP 512: No stub for Tcl_SetExitProc()","author":["Jan Nijtmans <[email protected]>"],"is-jest":false},
	"511":{"url":"./tip/511.md","keywords":"Tcl,threads","created":"14-June-2018","post-history":"","state":"Draft","tcl-version":"8.7","vote":"Pending","type":"Project","title":"# TIP 511: Implement Tcl_AsyncMarkFromSignal()","author":["Christian Werner <[email protected]>"],"is-jest":false},
	"510":{"url":"./tip/510.md","keywords":"Tk","created":"5-Jun-2018","post-history":"","state":"Draft","tcl-version":"8.7","vote":"","type":"Project","title":"# TIP 510: Add Rbc to Tk","author":["René Zaumseil <[email protected]>"],"is-jest":false},

	"5":{"url":"./tip/5.md","created":"17-Oct-2000","post-history":"","state":"Final","vote":"Done","tcl-version":"8.4","type":"Project","title":"# TIP 5: Make TkClassProcs and TkSetClassProcs Public and Extensible","author":["Eric Melski <[email protected]>"],"is-jest":false},
	"4":{"url":"./tip/4.md","created":"26-Oct-2000","post-history":"","state":"Draft","vote":"Pending","type":"Informative","title":"# TIP 4: Tcl Release and Distribution Philosophy","discussions-to":"news comp.lang.tcl","author":["Brent Welch <[email protected]>","Donal K. Fellows <[email protected]>","Larry W. Virden <[email protected]>","Larry W. Virden <[email protected]>"],"is-jest":false},
	"3":{"url":"./tip/3.md","created":"14-Sep-2000","post-history":"","state":"Accepted","vote":"Done","type":"Process","title":"# TIP 3: TIP Format","author":["Andreas Kupries <[email protected]>","Donal K. Fellows <[email protected]>"],"is-jest":false},
	"2":{"url":"./tip/2.md","created":"12-Sep-2000","post-history":"","state":"Draft","vote":"Pending","type":"Process","title":"# TIP 2: TIP Guidelines","author":["Andreas Kupries <[email protected]>","Donal K. Fellows <[email protected]>","Don Porter <[email protected]>","Mo DeJong <[email protected]>","Larry W. Virden <[email protected]>","Kevin Kenny <[email protected]>"],"is-jest":false},
	"1":{"url":"./tip/1.md","created":"14-Sep-2000","post-history":"","state":"Active","vote":"No voting","type":"Informational","title":"# TIP 1: TIP Index","author":["TIP Editor <[email protected]>"],"is-jest":false},
	"0":{"url":"./tip/0.md","created":"11-Dec-2000","post-history":"","state":"Final","vote":"Done","type":"Process","title":"# TIP 0: Tcl Core Team Basic Rules","author":["John Ousterhout <[email protected]>"],"is-jest":false},
	"@min": 0,
	"@max": 517
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<th>#</th>
<th>Type</th>
<th>Tcl Version</th>
<th>Status</th>
<th>Title</th>
</tr></thead><tbody>

<tr class='project projectdraft projectdraft87 project87'>
<td valign='top'><a href='./tip/517.md'>517</a></td>
<td valign='top'>Project</td>
<td valign='top'>8.7</td>
<td valign='top'>Draft</td>
<td valign='top'># TIP 517: Add -activerelief Configuration Option to the menu widget</td>
</tr>
<tr class='project projectdraft projectdraft87 project87'>
<td valign='top'><a href='./tip/516.md'>516</a></td>
<td valign='top'>Project</td>
<td valign='top'>8.7</td>
<td valign='top'>Draft</td>
<td valign='top'># TIP 516: More OO Slot Operations</td>
</tr>

# TIP 517: Add -activerelief Configuration Option to the menu widget
	Author:         Francois Vogel <[email protected]>
	State:          Draft
	Type:           Project
	Vote:           Pending
	Created:        13-Sept-2018
	Post-History:
	Keywords:       tk menu
	Tcl-Version:    8.7
-----

# Abstract

This TIP proposes to get rid of the motif-style rendering that is still how the active menu entry is rendered on Linux.

# Rationale

On Linux, the active entry of menues is rendered with a **TK\_RELIEF\_RAISED** relief. This is hardcoded in ***unix/tkUnixMenu.c*** which prevents users from having, say, a flat rendering which is usually praised as more modern.

This issue originally surfaced in [bug 43b596451e] (https://core.tcl-lang.org/tk/tktview/43b596451ec6b59359145ff32e689a2eec70bb85).

# Proposal

It is proposed to add an **-activerelief** configuration option to the menu widget, to make the relief of the active entry configurable. Acceptable values are **raised**, **sunken**, **flat**, **ridge**, **solid**, and **groove**. 

For backwards compatibility reasons, this new option will have its defaults such that the rendering is unchanged compared to the current state of affairs, i.e. it will be **raised** on Linux, and **flat** on other platforms.

This new option will be accepted on all platforms, however on macOS it will be silently ignored since the native menues are used on this platform (***TkpDrawMenuEntry*** is an empty procedure on macOS).

# Alternatives

Alternatively, instead of adding a new **-activerelief** menu option, the issue raised in [bug 43b596451e] (https://core.tcl-lang.org/tk/tktview/43b596451ec6b59359145ff32e689a2eec70bb85) could be resolved by changing the rendering of the active entry in Linux menues to become **TK\_RELIEF\_FLAT**, and keep the current **TK\_RELIEF\_RAISED** only if **tk\_strictMotif** is set. The drawback is that this would constitute a backwards incompatible change - However in turn this could be deemed acceptable in the current alpha state of 8.7.

Having balanced the pros and cons between the two approaches, I'd prefer to add **-activerelief**, which in addition to be a backwards compatible change, has the merit of introducing additional configuration flexibility.

# Implementation

An implementation of this TIP can be found in the [tip-517 branch]
(https://core.tcl.tk/tk/timeline?r=tip-517).

# Copyright

This document has been placed in the public domain.