Tk font handling confusion. Bug? Tk/OS/Desktop/PEBCAK?

[Richard Owlett]

My setup:
Debian Stretch with MATE Desktop.
Tcl/Tk 8.6 from Debian repository.
[misc Tcl/Tk tools which caught my attention]

I installed 'filerunner' [https://sourceforge.net/projects/filerunner/].
Then, using the MATE tool, I changed the size of every font. There was
no difference in what filerunner displayed.
{See my thread "Setting Tk default font sizes system wide". I was given
a workaround for my symptom and thus consider _that thread_ closed.}

That left me realizing that I do not understand the interaction of
system font descriptions and what Tk does.

My primary request is for suggested reading(s).
A keyword based web search is less than satisfactory as there is no
indication of quality &/or relevance. I followed links unto the 3rd/4th
generation. It demonstrated how little I knew/understood.

Is there a published script designed to:
Display available fonts.
Use only system defined fonts
Run under any Linux distro/desktop.

I suspect there is a bug, be it Tk/OS/Desktop/PEBCAK/application script.
TIA

[Brad Lanam]

You can try:

package require Tk
tk fontchooser show

The manual page for that is rather difficult to read due to all the underlines.

There are a few fontchooser dialogs available on the wiki.
Search for "font chooser".

I use a modified version of one of the wiki versions for my application.

[Richard Owlett]

On 10/01/2018 08:46 AM, Brad Lanam wrote:
> On Monday, October 1, 2018 at 4:52:30 AM UTC-7, Richard Owlett wrote:
>> My setup:
>> Debian Stretch with MATE Desktop.
>> Tcl/Tk 8.6 from Debian repository.
>> [misc Tcl/Tk tools which caught my attention]
>>

>> [SNIP]

>>
>> Is there a published script designed to:
>> Display available fonts.
>> Use only system defined fonts
>> Run under any Linux distro/desktop.
>>
>> I suspect there is a bug, be it Tk/OS/Desktop/PEBCAK/application script.
>> TIA
>
> You can try:
>
> package require Tk
> tk fontchooser show
>

[snip]

I'm not wanting to "set" font.
I'm interested in seeing what fonts exist.
Especially those listed at
[http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.5/TkCmd/font.htm#M31]

"tk fontchooser show" demonstrates that Tk uses what MATE describes as
> Desktop font

> This font is used in icon labels on the desktop.

[Brad Lanam]

Oh, the internal names.
Well, that manual page is the best bet.
Otherwise dig through source code.
filerunner may define its own font names.

Try:
package require Tk
font names
Try:
source fr.tcl
font names
and see if there are any new names defined.