TIP #415: Enable Easy Creation of Circular Arc Segments
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TIP:	415
Title:	Enable Easy Creation of Circular Arc Segments
Version:	$Revision: 1.11 $
Authors:	Simon Geard <simon@whiteowl.co.uk>
State:	Draft
Type:	Project
Tcl-Version:	8.7
Vote:	Pending
Created:	Tue Oct 16 00:00:00 UTC 2012
Keywords:	Tk
Abstract
Creating a segment of a circular arc is unnecessarily difficult using the canvas arc. This TIP proposes a simple extension of the syntax to support the creation of circular arc segments in a natural way. A similar extension to support the more general elliptical arc segments is outside the scope of this TIP.
Rationale
There is scope to enhance arc creation to make it much more useful as was shown by a recent discussion on news:comp.lang.tcl. The proposal here is the simplest enhancement to enable creation of circular arc segments from a single parameter.
Proposal
Enhance arc creation to support a new -height option
canvas create arc x1 y1 x2 y2 -height h ?options?
The new option -height h causes the specified coordinates x1 y1 and  x2 y2 to be interpreted as the start and end points of the arc's chord. The value of h is the (canvas) distance of the arc's mid-point from the chord with the sign of h determining the direction of the arc:
h > 0 => clockwise h < 0 => anticlockwise
If h != 0 then the options -start and -extent are ignored (because they are calculated internally for a given h).
Any non-zero value of h defines a unique arc.
If h = 0 (exactly) the option is ignored and the command is processed as if it wasn't present. In addition
canvas itemcget tagOrId --height'
will always return 0. This behaviour enables introspection without complications. A consequence is that
canvas itemconfigure tagOrId --height' 0
 is a no-op.
Example
The following code shows the creation of arcs using the new method, copying them onto another canvas and using a scale widget to dynamically control the arcs
# Callback for modifying the arcs' h value
proc deltaHeight h 
	global c
	global arcList
	foreach i hp hm $arcList 
		$c itemconfigure a_$i -height [expr $h*$hp]
		$c itemconfigure b_$i -height [expr $h*$hm]

# Create the canvas and its duplicate
set c [canvas .c -width 700 -height 700 -bg grey]
set cc [canvas .cc -width 700 -height 700 -bg grey]
pack $c $cc -fill both -expand 1 -side left

# Pretty colours
array set colours 0 red 1 yellow 2 green 3 cyan 4 blue 5 magenta

# A slider with which to adjust h
set lh 1; # Initial setting for scale
set s [scale .s -from 0.1 -to 15 -resolution 0.1 -variable lh -orient vertical -length 700 -command deltaHeight]
pack $s -side right -fill y

# Create the arcs
for set i 1 $i <= 24 incr i 
	set col [expr $i % 6]
	set hp [expr $i*10]
	set hm [expr -$i*10]
	lappend arcList $i $hp $hm
	$c create arc 300 200 400 400 -height [expr $i*10] -outline $colours($col) -style arc -tags [list aa a_$i]
	$c create arc 300 200 400 400 -height [expr -$i*10] -outline $colours($col) -style arc -tags [list aa b_$i]

# Serialize
set fh [open "ccopy.tcl" w]
foreach id [$c find withtag aa] 
    puts $fh "cc create arc [$c coords $id] \par		-height [$c itemcget $id -height]\par		-start [$c itemcget $id -start] \par		-extent [$c itemcget $id -extent] \par		-outline [$c itemcget $id -outline] \par		-style [$c itemcget $id -style]"

close $fh

# Create copy from serialization
source "ccopy.tcl"
Reference Implementation
A reference implementation for the functionality is available.
Copyright
This document has been placed in the public domain.
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