# This is notes clipped from mergeall's GUI launcher __main__ Mac OS X hack.
# For mergeall docs - learning-python.com/mergeall/UserGuide.html

# Update: ActiveState's Tk 8.5.18 had additional problems on Mac OS (X) in other 
# programs, which may be related to that described here.  PyEdit and PyMailGUI,
# for example, had to work around windows losing their application menu after
# clicking elsewhere, and this happens at the same time as losing focus in general.  
# All programs also left phantom/zombie Window menu and Dock entries on closing, 
# which may also be related.  Homebrew Python's supported Tk 8.6 may fix some (or
# many) of the Tk issues dealt with here (TBD).   Alas, python.org still recommends 
# ActiveState Tk 8.5, and still requires Tk 8.5, as of Python 3.6.  Why?

# Update: root.focus_force() restores active state after standard dialog calls
# drop it.  However, it doesn't help for minimize/restore events caught via <Map>
# or <Visibility> and has no impact on the initial active state in all codings tried.

# UPDATE: the loss of focus on deiconfy (unhide) in AS Tk 8.5 was eventually solved
# by creating, lowering, and destroying a temp toplevel window around an update(); 
# see the GUI's __main__ code for details for the gory details;  this plus the 
# on-start focus fix make the GUI near perfect, apart from phantom Dock menus items...


"""
[3.0]

SUMMARY: Although most of tkinter works well on Mac OS X, a bug in the
recommended Tk 8.5 from ActiveState botches active-window widget styling
broadly on Macs.  The workaround here fixes styling for initial opening 
only; further resolution awaits a new Tk for Mac Python.

WORKAROUND: This code hides/unhides the main window so it shows its radio 
and check buttons in Aqua's active-window (default blue) style immediately.  
Without this special-case code, the buttons appear on first window open in 
a plain grey style, and change to Aqua active style only after users click 
any other window and then click this program's window.

CAVEAT: This code fixes initial opening only; the active style is lost 
again after the window is minimized and restored -- users must click to 
another window and click back again to reset buttons to active styling.
The main windows also loses its active-style widget coloring when any
common dialog is dismissed (e.g., Open), but this case isn't as grievous,
as it takes just a single click on the main window to reset the style.

OTHER TRIES:

All other attempts to force main window activation style on either initial
opening or minimize/restore -- including various combinations of lift(), 
grab_set(), focus_force(), takefocus(), -topmost, and <Map> bindings -- had
no effect.  

Oddly, both frigcal and pymailgui required only a lift() to open their main
Checkbuttons in active style when run directly from a 'python3' command line,
but required the same hack as mergeall when run by the python launcher on a 
click (mergeall needed the full fix in both cases).  Like mergeall, frigcal
and pymailgui both lose active widget styling after a minimize/restore.

Creating a bogus Tk root and hiding it via after_idle() also works for
initial opening, but seems odd and overkill.  A 15-line AppleScript hack 
also addresses initial opening (only), and app bundles may help (TBD), 
but these both seem well beyond reasonable requirements for a portable 
GUI toolkit like Tk.  In the end, this is a general bug in the version
of Tk recommended by python.org, and heroics can only go so far.

DISCUSSION:

This issue is cosmetic only, and most of Tk DOES work both portably and 
well on a Mac.  But Tk also seems to be a second-class citizen on this 
platform, if not orphaned altogether.  Python/Tk scripts should largely 
just work across platform -- as they do on Windows and Linux.

This is likely a bug in the Tk 8.5 Mac OS X implementation from ActiveState,
and recommended by python.org.  IDLE's search dialog has the same issue,
other widget types lose their active styling too, and common dialog calls
also cause the active style to be lost.  It's a broad issue, and one that 
would be difficult to miss in basic testing.

More tellingly, the Tk 8.5 preinstalled by Apple for its preinstalled 
Python 2.7 does NOT have this problem -- buttons open with and retain the 
active styling always (though this Tk 8.5 has other issues of its own; 
deiconified windows don't draw completely until the user moves the mouse).

It seems unlikely that the bug is _having_ the active style at all (in 
which case ttk themes may be suspect).  Python 2.7's Tk 8.5 gets the 
active styling correct, strongly suggesting that this is the normal and
desired behavior.   In any event, there is no way to suppress active
style either, and Apple's active-window styling seems clearly defined.

It's possible that Tk 8.6 may improve this, but it currently requires a 
source build, which is far too much to ask of this program's user base. 
An ActiveState Python 3.4 couldn't be made to use its own 8.6 (and had a
nasty blurry fonts issue fixed in py.org's install).  It's also possible
that Python 3.6 may support and possibly include Tk 8.6 in the future; 
if so, it is recommended to run with those versions. 

"""