# Help with TkRoot **URL:** \ **Category:** ruby-talk\ **Created:** [19 August 2006 08:20 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/help-with-tkroot/30119 "2006-08-19T08:20:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Diego\_Virasoro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Diego\_Virasoro](https://rubytalk.org/u/Diego_Virasoro)\ **Post date:** [19 August 2006 08:20 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/help-with-tkroot/30119/1 "2006-08-19T08:20:15Z")
Hello, I would like to write a program on the Mac which at the start only shows the menubar: only after the user has selected an option from the menu would the first window appear. However I can't get that to work in Tk. It seems that a Tk GUI can't do without a TkRoot widget and TkRoot is shown as a window. Is there any way to make the TkRoot be the menubar itself? Or maybe to make TkRoot invisible? Or any other solution to achieve the same goal? Thank you. Diego Virasoro ---
**Author:** ![Morton\_Goldberg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Morton\_Goldberg](https://rubytalk.org/u/Morton_Goldberg)\ **Post date:** [19 August 2006 19:23 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/help-with-tkroot/30119/2 "2006-08-19T19:23:32Z")
Yes, you can make the root window invisible. The following produces a default menu bar but no (visible) root window on my Mac:     require 'tk'     root = TkRoot.new     root.withdraw     Tk.mainloop Regards, Morton > **路路路** > > On Aug 19, 2006, at 4:20 AM, Diego Virasoro wrote: > > > Hello, > > I would like to write a program on the Mac which at the start only > > shows the menubar: only after the user has selected an option from the > > menu would the first window appear. > > > > However I can't get that to work in Tk. It seems that a Tk GUI can't do > > without a TkRoot widget and TkRoot is shown as a window. > > > > Is there any way to make the TkRoot be the menubar itself? Or maybe to > > make TkRoot invisible? Or any other solution to achieve the same goal? ---
**Author:** ![Gregor\_Kopp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gregor\_Kopp](https://rubytalk.org/u/Gregor_Kopp)\ **Post date:** [21 August 2006 06:30 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/help-with-tkroot/30119/3 "2006-08-21T06:30:08Z")
Diego Virasoro schrieb: > Hello, > I would like to write a program on the Mac which at the start only > shows the menubar: only after the user has selected an option from the > menu would the first window appear. > > However I can't get that to work in Tk. It seems that a Tk GUI can't do > without a TkRoot widget and TkRoot is shown as a window. > > Is there any way to make the TkRoot be the menubar itself? Or maybe to > make TkRoot invisible? Or any other solution to achieve the same goal? > > Thank you. > > Diego Virasoro Maybe you could try to define the menubar in the root window with proper size and then, if the entry in the menu is selected you could make a toplevel. ---
**Author:** ![Morton\_Goldberg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Morton\_Goldberg](https://rubytalk.org/u/Morton_Goldberg)\ **Post date:** [19 August 2006 20:58 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/help-with-tkroot/30119/4 "2006-08-19T20:58:18Z")
Now that I've looked a little deeper into the problem, I see that Tk.root.withdraw wouldn't be useful, because in your case, if you use it, you won't see the root window's menu bar. What to do? Well, you might try something like the following: \ root = TkRoot.new {title 'Ruby Tk'} mnu\_bar = TkMenu.new()     windo\_mnu = TkMenu.new(mnu\_bar)        windo\_mnu.add\_command(           'label'=\>"Show",           'command'=\>lambda {windo\_mnu.show}        )        windo\_mnu.add\_command(           'label'=\>"Hide",           'state'=\>'disabled',           'command'=\>lambda {windo\_mnu.hide}        )        def windo\_mnu.show           entryconfigure(0, 'state'=\>'disabled') # disable show           entryconfigure(1, 'state'=\>'normal') # enable hide           Tk.root.geometry($visible)        end        def windo\_mnu.hide           entryconfigure(1, 'state'=\>'disabled') # disable hide           entryconfigure(0, 'state'=\>'normal') # enable show           Tk.root.geometry("0x0+0+0")        end     mnu\_bar.add\_cascade('label'=\>"Window", 'menu'=\>windo\_mnu) root.menu(mnu\_bar) min\_w, min\_h = 200, 100 root.minsize(min\_w, min\_h) root\_x = (root.winfo\_screenwidth - min\_w) / 2 $visible = "#{min\_w}x#{min\_h}+#{root\_x}+50" root.geometry("0x0+0+0") root.bind('Command-q') {exit} Tk.mainloop \ This is my best shot at the moment. It's not very elegant since you can still see the vestigial root window in the upper left-hand corner of the screen if you look hard, but perhaps it's good enough to fool your users 馃檪 Regards, Morton > **路路路** > > On Aug 19, 2006, at 3:23 PM, Morton Goldberg wrote: > > > Yes, you can make the root window invisible. The following produces a default menu bar but no (visible) root window on my Mac: > > > >    require 'tk' > > > >    root = TkRoot.new > >    root.withdraw > >    Tk.mainloop