Event processing

mainloop

mainloop(). Enter Tkinter's main event loop. To leave the event loop, use the quit method. Event loops can be nested; it's ok to call mainloop from within an event handler.

quit

quit(). Leaves Tkinter's main event loop. Note that you can have nested event loops; each call to quit terminates the outermost event loop.

update

update(). Process all pending events, call event callbacks, complete any pending geometry management, redraw widgets as necessary, and call all pending idle tasks. This method should be used with care, since it may lead to really nasty race conditions if called from the wrong place (from within an event callback, for example, or from a function that can in any way be called from an event callback, etc.)

update_idletasks

update_idletasks(). Call all pending idle tasks, without processing any other events. This can be used to carry out geometry management and redraw widgets if necessary, without calling any callbacks.

focus_set

focus_set(), focus(). Move keyboard focus to self. This means that all keyboard events sent to the application will be routed to self.

focus_displayof

focus_displayof().

focus_force

focus_force(). Force keyboard focus to self.

FIXME: what's the difference between "moving" and "forcing"?

focus_get

focus_get().

focus_lastfor

focus_lastfor().

tk_focusNext

tk_focusNext(). Return the next widget (following self) that should have focus. This is used by the default bindings for the Tab key.

tk_focusPrev

tk_focusPrev(). Return the previous widget (preceding self) that should have focus. This is used by the default bindings for the Shift-Tab key.

grab_current

grab_current().

grab_release

grab_release(). Release the event grab.

grab_set

grab_set(). Route all events for this application to self.

grab_set_global

grab_set_global(). Route all events for the entire screen to self.

This should only be used in very special circumstances, since it blocks all other applications running on the same screen. And that probably includes your development environment, so you better make sure your application won't crash or lock up until it has properly released the grab.

grab_status

grab_status().

wait_variable

wait_variable(variable). Wait for the given Tkinter variable to change. This method enters a local event loop, so other parts of the application will still be responsive. The local event loop is terminated when the variable is updated (setting it to it's current value also counts).

wait_visibility

wait_visibility(widget). Wait for the given widget to become visible. This is typically used to wait until a new toplevel window appears on the screen. Like wait_variable, this method enters a local event loop, so other parts of the application will still work as usual.

wait_window

wait_window(widget). Wait for the given widget to be destroyed. This is typically used to wait until a destroyed window disappears from the screen. Like wait_variable and wait_visibility, this method enters a local event loop, so other parts of the application will still work as usual.