NAME
       message - Create and manipulate message widgets

SYNOPSIS
       message pathName ?options?

STANDARD OPTIONS
       -anchor         -font          -highlightthickness-takefocus
       -background     -foreground    -padx           -text
       -borderwidth    -highlightbackground           -pady-textvariable
       -cursor         -highlightcolor                -relief-width

       See  the  options manual entry for details on the standard
       options.

WIDGET-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
       Command-Line Name:-aspect
       Database Name:  aspect
       Database Class: Aspect

              Specifies a non-negative integer  value  indicating
              desired  aspect  ratio  for  the  text.  The aspect
              ratio is specified as 100*width/height.  100  means
              the text should be as wide as it is tall, 200 means
              the text should be twice as wide as it is tall,  50
              means  the  text  should  be twice as tall as it is
              wide, and so on.  Used to choose  line  length  for
              text  if width option isn't specified.  Defaults to
              150.

       Command-Line Name:-justify
       Database Name:  justify
       Database Class: Justify

              Specifies how to justify lines of  text.   Must  be
              one  of  left, center, or right.  Defaults to left.
              This option works together with the anchor, aspect,
              padX,  padY, and width options to provide a variety
              of arrangements of the text within the window.  The
              aspect  and  width  options determine the amount of
              screen space  needed  to  display  the  text.   The
              anchor, padX, and padY options determine where this
              rectangular area is displayed within  the  widget's
              window,  and the justify option determines how each
              line is displayed within that  rectangular  region.
              For  example,  suppose  anchor  is e and justify is
              left, and that the message window  is  much  larger
              than  needed  for the text.  The the text will dis-
              played so that the left edges of all the lines line
              up  and  the right edge of the longest line is padX
              from the right side of the window;  the entire text
              block  will be centered in the vertical span of the
              window.
       Command-Line Name:-width
       Database Name:  width
       Database Class: Width

              Specifies the length of lines in the  window.   The
              value  may  have  any  of  the  forms acceptable to
              Tk_GetPixels.  If this option has a  value  greater
              than zero then the aspect option is ignored and the
              width option determines the line length.   If  this
              option has a value less than or equal to zero, then
              the aspect option determines the line length.


DESCRIPTION
       The message command creates a new  window  (given  by  the
       pathName  argument)  and  makes  it into a message widget.
       Additional options, described above, may be  specified  on
       the  command  line  or in the option database to configure
       aspects of the message such as its colors, font, text, and
       initial  relief.  The message command returns its pathName
       argument.  At the time this command is invoked, there must
       not  exist  a window named pathName, but pathName's parent
       must exist.

       A message is a widget that displays a textual  string.   A
       message  widget  has  three  special  features.  First, it
       breaks up its string into lines  in  order  to  produce  a
       given  aspect  ratio  for the window.  The line breaks are
       chosen at word boundaries wherever possible (if not even a
       single  word  would  fit  on a line, then the word will be
       split across lines).  Newline  characters  in  the  string
       will force line breaks;  they can be used, for example, to
       leave blank lines in the display.

       The second feature of a message widget  is  justification.
       The text may be displayed left-justified (each line starts
       at the left side of the window), centered  on  a  line-by-
       line  basis,  or  right-justified  (each  line ends at the
       right side of the window).

       The third feature of a message widget is that  it  handles
       control  characters and non-printing characters specially.
       Tab characters are replaced with  enough  blank  space  to
       line  up on the next 8-character boundary.  Newlines cause
       line breaks.  Other control characters  (ASCII  code  less
       than 0x20) and characters not defined in the font are dis-
       played as a four-character sequence \xhh where hh  is  the
       two-digit  hexadecimal number corresponding to the charac-
       ter.  In the unusual case where the font  doesn't  contain
       all  of the characters in ``0123456789abcdef\x'' then con-
       trol characters and undefined characters are not displayed
       at all.
WIDGET COMMAND
       The  message  command creates a new Tcl command whose name
       is pathName.  This command may be used to  invoke  various
       operations  on  the  widget.  It has the following general
       form:
              pathName option ?arg arg ...?
       Option and the args determine the exact  behavior  of  the
       command.   The following commands are possible for message
       widgets:

       pathName cget option
              Returns the  current  value  of  the  configuration
              option given by option.  Option may have any of the
              values accepted by the message command.

       pathName configure ?option? ?value option value ...?
              Query or modify the configuration  options  of  the
              widget.   If no option is specified, returns a list
              describing all of the available options  for  path-
              Name  (see  Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the
              format of this list).  If option is specified  with
              no  value, then the command returns a list describ-
              ing the one named option (this list will be identi-
              cal  to  the  corresponding  sublist  of  the value
              returned if no option is  specified).   If  one  or
              more  option-value  pairs  are  specified, then the
              command modifies the given widget option(s) to have
              the  given  value(s);   in  this  case  the command
              returns an empty string.  Option may  have  any  of
              the values accepted by the message command.


DEFAULT BINDINGS
       When  a  new  message  is created, it has no default event
       bindings: messages are intended for output purposes  only.


BUGS
       Tabs  don't  work  very well with text that is centered or
       right-justified.  The most common result is that the  line
       is justified wrong.


KEYWORDS
       message, widget
