TIP #161: CHANGE DEFAULT FOR MENU'S -TEAROFF OPTION TO FALSE 
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 Version:      $Revision: 1.2 $
 Author:       Mark Roseman <mark_at_markroseman.com>
 State:        Draft
 Type:         Project
 Tcl-Version:  9.0
 Vote:         Pending
 Created:      Sunday, 19 October 2003
 URL:          https://tip.tcl-lang.org161.html
 Post-History: 

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 ABSTRACT 
==========

 This TIP proposes changing the default value of the /-tearoff/ option 
 on menu widgets to false, from its current setting of true. 

 RATIONALE 
===========

 The default presence of tearoffs for Tk's menus originated with the 
 Motif look & feel, which was the platform standard used for earlier 
 Unix-only versions of Tk. In more modern user interface toolkits on 
 Unix, as well as Macintosh and Windows, menus do not normally have 
 tearoffs associated with them. For applications today, menus without 
 tearoffs are the standard, with tearoff menus being the exception. 

 While turning off the tearoff on menus can be accomplished either with 
 a configuration option on the particular menu, or a global option 
 setting, this can be a source of confusion for the new Tk developer, 
 and too easily forgotten by other developers. Forcing developers to 
 take extra action to achieve "standard" user interface behavior is 
 contrary to Tk's philosophy. 

 PROPOSED CHANGE 
=================

 Implementation of this TIP requires only changing a single default in 
 each of the platform specific /tk*Default.h/ files, and updating the 
 documentation and test cases. 

 COMPATIBILITY 
===============

 Unfortunately, entries in menus are often accessed by index within 
 scripts, and the presence or absence of tearoff affects this index. 
 Therefore, changing the default setting of this option will affect a 
 large number of scripts. Though fixing these scripts will be 
 straightforward (either through adjusting access to individual menus, 
 or using the option database to turn the tearoff option back on), 
 because of the incompatibility this TIP is proposed for 9.0 rather than 
 8.x. 

 COPYRIGHT 
===========

 This document has been placed in the public domain. 

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