This class defines a log facility based on Tk usable by any class. This log class will store all text passed to it. When its display is not opened, the log text may be written on stdout. If a display is opened, the text display will be updated with the log text. When the display is created it will feature all logs written since the creation of this object or since the clear method was called. Each log window can have a help button that will show a help message provided by the user. Puppet::* classes are designed to provide an access to the object using a GUI based on Tk. The basic idea is when you construct a Puppet::* object, you have all the functionnality of the object without the GUI. Then, when the need arises, you may (or the class may decide to) open the GUI of the object. On the other hand, if the need does not arise, you may instanciare a lot of object wihout cluttering your display. For instance, if you have an object (say a ProcessGroup) controlling a set of proceses (Process objects). The user may start the ProcessGroup through its GUI. Then all processes are run. If one of them fails, it will raise its own GUI to display the cause of the problem and let the user decide what to do. This Log facility is but the tiniest bit of the Puppet objects I have in store (or in mind). Future Puppet will feature : Puppet::Any (base class for other Puppets) Puppet::Twins (for RPC calls and Puppet features) Puppet::Process Puppet::ProcessGroup Puppet::AtomicTest (no nuke there, its just a test that cannot be divided) Don't ask me for a release or a release date of them. I have prototypes of most of them and I'll release them when I get the time to put them in a proper shape and to document them. This module was written with perl5.004. See the embedded documentation in the module for more details. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Note that this module is in alpha state. Its interface may change (but I hope not). Legal mumbo jumbo: Copyright (c) 1998 Dominique Dumont. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. - Dominique Dumont dominique_dumont@grenoble.hp.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- INSTALLATION gunzip -c .tar.gz | tar xvf - cd perl Makefile.PL make test make install