Tix/TkInter, FolderDialog won't stay open when clicked

Question

I realize that the first suggestion will be to "stop using Tix", but I like some of the widgets even though they haven't been maintained since '08. One thing I've noticed is that some of the dialog boxes won't stay open. For instance I'm using a FileEntry Widget inside of a LabelFrame Widget inside of the notebook widget. The file dialog looks as follows.

And when you click on the file dialog button you get:

The red arrow shows the drop down to files in that filter, but nothing happens when I click it. You can see a brief flash (like in the milliseconds) like an event loop was checked or something but then nothing. The same with the other buttons on FileEntry.

For the full code to this, you can see here

I think the relevant parts are:

import os, os.path, sys, Tix
from Tkconstants import *
import tkFileDialog
import traceback, tkMessageBox
from Tkinter import *

class pyigblast_gui():
    def __init__(self,root):
            #Initialization
            self.root = root 
            self.exit = -1
            self.dir = None

            self.argument_dict = {'query':''}

            #local
            _program_name = sys.argv[0]
            _directory_name = os.path.dirname(_program_name)

    def MainMenu(self):
            main_menu = Tix.Frame(self.root,bd=2,relief=RAISED)
            return main_menu

    def TabNotebook(self):
            notebook_frame = self.root
            notebook = Tix.NoteBook(notebook_frame, ipadx=5, ipady=5, bg='black')
            notebook.add('f_and_d', label="Files and Databases", underline=0,
                    createcmd=lambda self=self,nb=notebook,name='f_and_d': self.files_and_directories(nb,name))
            notebook.add('readme', label="Usage", underline=0,
                    createcmd=lambda self=self,nb=notebook,name='readme': self.readme(nb,name) )
            return notebook

    def files_and_directories(self,nb,name):
            f_and_d_page = nb.page(name)
            options = "label.padX4"
            self.input_frame = Tix.LabelFrame(f_and_d_page,options=options)
            self.input_frame.pack(side=TOP,expand=0,fill=BOTH)
            self.make_fasta_entry()

            #self.input_frame.grid(in_=f_and_d_page,row=0,column=0,columnspan=2)

    def make_fasta_entry(self):
            message = Tix.Message(self.input_frame,relief=Tix.FLAT, width=500, anchor=W,
                                                            text='Enter the entry FASTA file here',font=('Arial',16))
            self.fasta_entry = Tix.FileEntry(self.input_frame, label="Select a FASTA file:",selectmode="normal")
            message.pack(side=TOP,expand=1,fill=BOTH,padx=3,pady=3)
            self.fasta_entry.pack(side=TOP,fill=X,padx=3,pady=3)

    def build(self):
            window_info = self.root.winfo_toplevel()
            window_info.wm_title('PyIgBLAST - GUI')
            #if window_info <= 800:
            window_info.geometry('1500x900+10+10')
            frame1 = self.MainMenu()
            frame1.pack(side=BOTTOM, fill=X)
            frame2 = self.TabNotebook()
            frame2.pack(side=TOP,expand=1,fill=BOTH,padx=5,pady=5)
            window_info.wm_protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", lambda self=self:self.quitcmd())


    def loop(self):
            while self.exit < 0:
                    # There are 2 whiles here. The outer one lets you continue
                    # after a ^C interrupt.
                    try:
                            # This is the replacement for _tkinter mainloop()
                            # It blocks waiting for the next Tcl event using select.
                            while self.exit < 0:
                                    self.root.tk.dooneevent(0)
                    except SystemExit:
                            # Tkinter uses SystemExit to exit
                            self.exit = 1
                            return
                    except KeyboardInterrupt:
                            if tkMessageBox.askquestion ('Interrupt', 'Really Quit?') == 'yes':
                                    # self.tk.eval('exit')
                                    self.exit = 1
                                    return
                            continue
                    except:
                            # Otherwise it's some other error - be nice and say why
                            t, v, tb = sys.exc_info()
                            text = ""
                            for line in traceback.format_exception(t,v,tb):
                                    text += line + '\n'
                            try: tkMessageBox.showerror ('Error', text)
                            except: pass
                            self.exit = 1
                            raise SystemExit, 1
    def destroy(self):
            self.root.destroy()
 if __name__ == '__main__':
    root = Tix.Tk()
    pyigblast_class = pyigblast_gui(root)
    pyigblast_class.build()
    pyigblast_class.loop()
    pyigblast_class.destroy()

Also in a seperate but unrelated warning given by Tix, I get this output to the terminal.

(TixForm) Error:Trying to use more than one geometry
      manager for the same master window.
      Giving up after 50 iterations.

If anyone can tell me about what I need to change with Tix to keep the dialog open and/or why it says I'm using two geometry managers I would appreciate it!

Thanks, J

Answer 1

Ok, shine that noise.

The ttk solution is so much cleaner and more customizable. Here is a very elegant solution recapitulating this exact file dialog, but is much cleaner using ttk.

http://www.pyinmyeye.com/2012/08/tkinter-filedialog-demo.html