update(n)                    Tcl Built-In Commands                   update(n)

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NAME
       update - Process pending events and idle callbacks

SYNOPSIS
       update ?idletasks?
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DESCRIPTION
       This  command is used to bring the application "up to date" by entering
       the event loop repeatedly until  all  pending  events  (including  idle
       callbacks) have been processed.

       If  the  idletasks  keyword is specified as an argument to the command,
       then no new events or errors are processed;  only  idle  callbacks  are
       invoked.   This  causes  operations that are normally deferred, such as
       display updates and window layout calculations, to be performed immedi-
       ately.

       The  update idletasks  command is useful in scripts where changes have
       been made to the application's state and  you  want  those  changes  to
       appear  on  the display immediately, rather than waiting for the script
       to complete.  Most display updates are performed as idle callbacks,  so
       update idletasks will cause them to run.  However, there are some kinds
       of updates that only happen in response to events, such as those  trig-
       gered  by  window  size changes; these updates will not occur in update
       idletasks.

       The update command with no options is useful in scripts where  you  are
       performing  a  long-running computation but you still want the applica-
       tion to respond to events such as user interactions;  if you  occasion-
       ally call update then user input will be processed during the next call
       to update.

EXAMPLE
       Run computations for about a second and then finish:
              set x 1000
              set done 0
              after 1000 set done 1
              while {!$done} {
                  # A very silly example!
                  set x [expr {log($x) ** 2.8}]

                  # Test to see if our time-limit has been hit.  This would
                  # also give a chance for serving network sockets and, if
                  # the Tk package is loaded, updating a user interface.
                  update
              }

SEE ALSO
       after(n), interp(n)

KEYWORDS
       event, flush, handler, idle, update

Tcl                                   7.5                            update(n)