Re: call to scan in mbox.py

Guido.van.Rossum@cwi.nl
Tue, 21 Jun 1994 17:17:27 +0200

> I suspect mbox.py may be based on a particular mail manager tool. The
> script makes an os call to the function scan. This command is not
> available on my system. Can someone give me a pointer to documentation
> on the scan command and possibly to a PD version of the command.

'scan' is part of the MH mail package, which (I believe) is in the
public domain. Sorry, I don't know an ftp site, but archie might know
one. Note, however, that MH is big and probably requires more work
than Python to install...

> Using the 'winfo interps' comand in rmt.py lists widgets that died
> ungracefully and the Select Application menu only reports the rmt widget
> as being selectable even if
> more widgets are visible on the screen. Killing rmt.py and running it
> again does not clear up the problem. Does anyone know where is this
> erroneous global state being maintained? Does TCL/Tk or Python
> maintain a list of widgets in an X resource?

I suspect that Tk maintains a list of active applications on a
resource in the X server, and that Tk apps that get killed don't
remove themselves from the list. To counter this effect in rmt.py, I
added an explicit check -- app names for which a simple command fails
are not listed in the menu (see the fillAppsMenu function).

Are you telling me that sometimes Tk windows are visible that are not
shown in the menu?

--Guido van Rossum, CWI, Amsterdam <Guido.van.Rossum@cwi.nl>
URL: <http://www.cwi.nl/cwi/people/Guido.van.Rossum.html>