Slow updates in Tk text widget 1

[Mephistophales]

I have a program consisting of multiple procedures wrapped in a Tk GUI. The GUI has a text widget (.statusWin) and a button (.runUpdate) with the following syntax:

button .runUpdate -text "Run Auto Update" -command    {.statusWin delete 0.0 end; runAutoUpdate}

'runAutoUpdate' is a procedure that calls other procedures which, in turn, write to '.statusWin' as they run, as such:

.statusWin insert end "text"

However, when the button is pressed, the GUI freezes for a few seconds as the procedures are running, and then erases the contents of '.statusWin' and dumps, all at once, the text that was supposed to be written line-by-line.

So all of the output that all of the procedures were supposed to write progressively to '.statusWin' get written at once.

I've checked - this isn't simply due to very fast execution; I've had this program run in command-line mode and output to the console - the text is progressively outputted, not all at once.

If anyone has seen a situation like this, please let me know. I'm sorry if this may be unclear, but it's hard to describe.

Thank you.

 

[charlsut]

Wish usually defers updating screen contents until it sees idle time. You can force a screen update by inserting 'update idletasks' after the '.statusWin delete 0.0 end', and after each call to the update procedures.

Mike Suttles
Xerox OPBU