### 20.1.2.1 How To Use This Section

This section is designed in two parts: the first half (roughly) covers background material, while the second half can be taken to the keyboard as a handy reference.

When trying to answer questions of the form ``how do I do blah'', it is often best to find out how to do``blah'' in straight Tk, and then convert this back into the corresponding `Tkinter` call. Python programmers can often guess at the correct Python command by looking at the Tk documentation. This means that in order to use Tkinter, you will have to know a little bit about Tk. This document can't fulfill that role, so the best we can do is point you to the best documentation that exists. Here are some hints:

- The authors strongly suggest getting a copy of the Tk man pages. Specifically, the man pages in the `mann` directory are most useful. The `man3` man pages describe the C interface to the Tk library and thus are not especially helpful for script writers.

- Addison-Wesley publishes a book called Tcl and the Tk Toolkit by John Ousterhout (ISBN 0-201-63337-X) which is a good introduction to Tcl and Tk for the novice. The book is not exhaustive, and for many details it defers to the man pages.

- Tkinter.py is a last resort for most, but can be a good place to go when nothing else makes sense.

See Also:

ActiveState Tcl Home Page
  The Tk/Tcl development is largely taking place at ActiveState.

Tcl and the Tk Toolkit
  The book by John Ousterhout, the inventor of Tcl .

Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk
  Brent Welch's encyclopedic book.