Is there a way of putting the Python Shell output in a tkinter window?

Need a Python program using Tkinter

• I've downloaded Python 2.2.2 for Windows and have started to learn Python using IDLE. My eventual goal is to create some simple programs that use Tkinter, and that I can put on my Win98 desktop to use when I need them. I'd like someone to create an example of the kind of thing I am after: I have a file, phone.txt at C:\My Documents\phone.txt ., with about 100 lines containing names, phone numbers, and notes. The file has one line for each contact, e.g., Mister Rain (Mist'er Rain) (sprinkler repair) 555-1190 McCully Betty at WebWare 678-555-8843 (she's there Tu-F 9-4:30, M 9-1, cell phone off) When I had a shell account, I kept phone.txt there and found it very useful to search it using grep. I'd enter, for example, "grep -i repair" and be shown all the lines that have "repair" or "Repair" in them. This is what I'd like the Python program to do, the equivalent of searching phone.txt with grep -i. And do it within a TKinter GUI that I can call by clicking on an icon on my desktop. I hope this request is clear.

• Answer:

  Below is a script called grepper.py that I wrote to your specifications. You'll notice that in the second line of the script, I assign a string value to the variable read_from_file. This value, which you should feel free to modify, is the name of the file that grepper.py will initially attempt to open. At launch, the top pane of the application window shows the initial file name. In the upper right corner is the Open button, which you can use at any time to select a new file. The middle pane consists of a box where you can enter a search string. This string will be interpreted as a case-insensitive regular expression and applied to every line of the opened file. Don't worry if you're not familiar with the special syntax of regular expressions; plain strings such as "repair" and "body shop" will be interpreted literally. As soon as you press the Enter key, grepper.py starts searching through the contents of the file. This may take a while in the case of novels and other long documents. Note that if the search string is empty, all lines will be displayed. The bottom pane shows the results of your search. If grepper.py was unable to open the specified file, it displays an error message. Otherwise, those lines that matched the regular expression are displayed, along with the respective line numbers in gray, and with every matching substring in red. Pressing the Escape key causes the application to quit. Triple-clicking in the search box selects the entire string; then, you can use Backspace to immediately clear the box, or just start typing to replace the string. Code follows. As you know, Python is sensitive to indentation, so I've made the lines extra-short in order to avoid spurious line breaks. #==begin grepper.py read_from_file = 'C:\My Documents\phone.txt' import sys, os, string, re from Tkinter import * from tkFileDialog import * class Grepper: def __init__(self): self.fname = read_from_file self.root = Tk() self.root.title('grepper.py') self.root.bind('<KeyPress>', self.key_press) root_frame = Frame(self.root, bg='white') root_frame.pack(expand=YES, fill=BOTH) top_frame = Frame(root_frame, bg='white') top_frame.pack(side=TOP, expand=NO, fill=X) self.fname_label = Label(top_frame, text=self.fname, fg='dark blue', bg='white', font=('helvetica', 12, 'normal')) self.fname_label.pack(side=LEFT, expand=YES, fill=X) self.open_button = Button(top_frame, text='Open', command=self.open, bg='antiquewhite', font=('helvetica', 12, 'bold')) self.open_button.pack(side=RIGHT, expand=NO) regex_frame = Frame(root_frame, bg='white') self.regex_entry = Entry(regex_frame, width = 60, bg='cornsilk', fg='dark red', font=('helvetica', 12, 'bold')) self.regex_entry.pack(side=LEFT, expand=YES, fill=X) self.regex_entry.bind('<KeyPress>', self.key_press) text_frame = Frame(root_frame, bg='white') text_frame.pack(side=BOTTOM, expand=YES, fill=Y) regex_frame.pack(side=BOTTOM, expand=NO, fill=X) self.lines_text = Text(text_frame, fg='black', bg='white', width=80, height=20, font=('courier', 10, 'normal')) self.lines_text.pack(side=LEFT, expand=YES, fill=BOTH) self.lines_y_scrollbar = Scrollbar(text_frame, orient=VERTICAL, command=self.lines_text.yview) self.lines_text.configure( yscrollcommand=self.lines_y_scrollbar.set) self.lines_y_scrollbar.pack(side=RIGHT, expand=YES, fill=Y) self.lines_text.tag_config('match', foreground='dark red', background='white') self.lines_text.tag_config('bold', font=('helvetica', 12, 'bold')) self.lines_text.tag_config('number', foreground='gray') self.lines_text.tag_config('error', foreground='red') self.lines_text.configure(state=DISABLED) self.ctrlRE = re.compile('\\r') self.open(0) self.grep() self.root.mainloop() def key_press(self, event): keysym = event.keysym.lower() if keysym in ['escape']: self.root.quit() elif keysym in ['enter', 'return']: self.grep() def open(self, ask=1): if ask: self.fname = askopenfilename(initialdir=self.open_dir) self.open_dir = os.path.split(self.fname)[0] self.fname_label.configure(text=self.fname) if os.path.isfile(self.fname): self.lines = open(self.fname).readlines() self.grep() def clear(self): self.regex_entry.configure(text='') self.grep() def grep(self): self.lines_text.configure(state=NORMAL) self.lines_text.delete('1.0', END) if not os.path.isfile(self.fname): self.lines_text.insert(END, 'Error: ', 'error', self.fname, 'bold', ' is not a file', 'error') self.lines_text.configure(state=DISABLED) return self.lineRE = re.compile(self.regex_entry.get(), re.IGNORECASE) blank = 0 if not self.regex_entry.get().split(): blank = 1 i = 0 for line in self.lines: i = i+1 line = self.ctrlRE.sub('', line) findall = self.lineRE.findall(line) if not findall: continue self.lines_text.insert(END, '%4d: ' % i, 'number') if blank: self.lines_text.insert(END, line) continue split = self.lineRE.split(line) for j in range(len(findall)): self.lines_text.insert(END, split[j]) self.lines_text.insert(END, findall[j], 'match') self.lines_text.insert(END, split[-1]) self.lines_text.configure(state=DISABLED) Grepper() #==end grepper.py I tested this script using python-2.2.1 and tk-8.3.3 under Linux, but it should work just fine in Windows. The only possible exception I foresee is that the rules of your window manager are slightly different from mine. For example, you might have to double-click and not triple-click in the search box in order to select the entire string. If you have trouble running the script, please let me know so that I have a chance to meet your needs before you assign a rating. Cheers, leapinglizard