A Bezier (bizarre) Clock

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Scott Hess (shess@winternet.com) wrote this entertaining tclet. It demonstrates Tcl's flexible drawing capabilities. The clock uses a bezier curve anchored at four points -- the hour position, the minute position, the second position and the center of the clock -- to show the time. Click button-1 to switch between display modes, and click button-3 to switch between line thicknesses.

Source

Here's the source for the ruler above (140 lines of code):

    # The length of hands and tickmarks (from center), and the
    # width.  These sizes will be scaled by scale.  type gives the
    # hand-type, choose from types.
array set hand {
    hour        0.40
    minute      0.75
    second      0.85
    0           0.00
    intick      0.95
    outtick     1.00
    width       0.15
    scale       100

    type        bezier
    types       {normal curve angle bezier}
    normal      {minute 0 0 second 0 0 hour 0 0 minute}
    curve       {minute 0 second 0 hour 0 minute}
    bezier      {minute second 0 hour}
    angle       {minute second second hour}
    
    tick        {intick outtick}
}

    # Calculate the set of points for the current hand type and
    # the angles in the passed array.
proc hands {anglesName} {
    upvar $anglesName aa
    global hand
    set ss $hand(scale)
    set points {}
    foreach desc [set hand($hand(type))] {
        lappend points [expr sin($aa($desc))*$hand($desc)*$ss+$ss]
        lappend points [expr $ss-cos($aa($desc))*$hand($desc)*$ss]
    }
    return $points
}

    # Calculate the angles for the second, minute, and hour hands,
    # and then update the .clock hands to match.
proc setclock {hour minute second} {
    global hand
    set pi180 [expr asin(1)/90.0]
    set angles(0)       0
    set angles(second)  [expr $second*6*$pi180]
    set angles(minute)  [expr $minute*6*$pi180]
    set angles(hour)    [expr $hour*30*$pi180+$angles(minute)/12]
    set sector [expr round($angles(second))]
    switch $sector {
	0 {.clock itemconfigure hands -fill AntiqueWhite4}
	1 {.clock itemconfigure hands -fill green}
	2 {.clock itemconfigure hands -fill blue}
	3 {.clock itemconfigure hands -fill purple}
	4 {.clock itemconfigure hands -fill red}
	5 {.clock itemconfigure hands -fill yellow}
	6 {.clock itemconfigure hands -fill bisque}
	default {.clock itemconfigure hands -fill white}
    }
    eval .clock coords hands [hands angles]
}

    # Draw the clock for the current time, and reschedule.  The
    # regsub is to prevent times like "08", which don't work in
    # expr, since leading 0 indicates octal.
proc updateclock {} {
    after cancel updateclock
    set hms [clock format [clock seconds] -format "%I %M %S"]
    regsub -all "(^| )0" $hms "\\1" hms
    eval setclock $hms
    after 1000 updateclock
}

    # Build the clock.  Puts tickmarks every 30 degrees, tagged
    # "ticks", and prefill the "hands" line.
proc buildclock {} {
    global hand
    set pi180 [expr asin(1)/90.0]
    
    catch {.clock delete marks}
    set hand(scale) [expr [winfo width .clock]/2.0]
    
        # This is a horrid hack.  Use the hands procedure to
        # calculate the tickmark positions by temporarily changing
        # the clock type.
    set type $hand(type)
    set hand(type) tick
    for {set ii 0} {$ii<12} {incr ii} {
        set angles(intick) [expr $ii*30*$pi180]
        set angles(outtick) $angles(intick)
        eval .clock create line [hands angles] -tags {{ticks marks}}
    }
    set hand(type) $type
    
    .clock create line 0 0 0 0 -tags {hands marks} -smooth 1
    .clock itemconfigure marks -capstyle round \
                               -width [expr $hand(width)*$hand(scale)]
    
    updateclock
}

    # Increment the clock type.
proc incrtype {} {
    global hand
    set ii [lsearch $hand(types) $hand(type)]
    incr ii
    if {$ii==[llength $hand(types)]} {
        set ii 0
    }
    set hand(type) [lindex $hand(types) $ii]
}

    # Increment the width of the hands.
proc incrwidth {} {
    global hand
    set ii [expr int($hand(width)*100.0)]
    incr ii 5
    if {$ii>25} {
        set ii 0
    }
    set hand(width) [expr $ii/100.0]
    .clock itemconfigure marks -width [expr $hand(width)*$hand(scale)]
}

    # Destroy an existing clock (useful when I was sourcing into
    # wish).
catch {destroy .clock}

    # Create an elastic canvas to hold the clock, in a window that
    # stays square.
canvas .clock -width 200 -height 200
pack .clock -expand 1 -fill both

    # Catch resize (Configure) to let us rescale the clock face.
    # Button-1 increments through the clock types, Button-3 increments
    # through the clock widths.
bind . <Configure> "buildclock"
bind . <Button-1> "incrtype"
bind . <Button-3> "incrwidth"

buildclock