How to return values from gWidgets and handlers?

Question

I am trying to develop a GUI (using gWidgets) for an R package. My plan was to construct a main window holding the data, and with buttons calling small gui wrappers for each fun

Answer 1

You can pass information between gwidgets by using independent functions and without beforehand knowing the object name of the receiver widget:

initMain <- function() {
  w <- gwindow(title="Main window",visible=FALSE)
  txt <- gtext(text="Initial text in main window.",container=w)
  btn <- gbutton("Send to sub window", container=w)

  list(
    run = function(partner) {
      addHandlerChanged(btn, handler = function(h, ...) {
        svalue(partner$txt) <- svalue(txt)
      } )
      visible(w) <- TRUE
    },
    txt = txt
  )
}

initSubWindow<- function() {
  w <- gwindow(title="Sub window",visible=FALSE)
  txt <- gtext(text="huhu",container=w)
  btn <- gbutton("Send to main window", container=w)

  list(
    run = function(partner) {
      addHandlerChanged(btn, handler = function(h, ...) {
        svalue(partner$txt) <- svalue(txt)
      } )
      visible(w) <- TRUE
    },
    txt = txt
  )
}

mw <- initMain()
sw <- initSubWindow()

mw$run(sw)
sw$run(mw)