because of this hairy Tk GUI code, I switched to a different Tk programming technique in all my programs.

The idea is to use pure-Tcl/Tk for constructing GUI, but then use perl/Tk style for operating widgets.

use strict;
use Tcl::Tk;

my $mw = Tcl::Tk::tkinit;
my $int = $mw->interp;

$int->Eval(<<'EOS');
# here goes pure-Tk GUI creation
package require BWidget
package require tooltip

menu .menu -tearoff 0
menu .menu.file -tearoff 0
menu .menu.help -tearoff 0
.menu.help add command -label {brief explanation... (F1)} -command exp
+lainBox
.menu.help add command -label {About...} -command aboutBox
.menu.file add separator
.menu.file add command -label Exit -command {destroy .}
.menu add cascade -menu .menu.file -label File
.menu add cascade -menu .menu.help -label Help

. config -menu .menu
wm title . {Here goes the title}

pack [text .t -wrap none -font "Courier 8"] -expand 1 -fill both
pack [button .b -text "test button" -command "puts this"] -fill x
tooltip::tooltip .b "helper tooltip"

# and now 2 helper dialog boxes:
proc aboutBox {} {
    Dialog .about -modal local -separator 1 -title {about...}
    pack [message [.about getframe].m1 -text {author - me}]
    .about add -name Ok -text Ok
    .about setfocus 0
    .about draw
    destroy .about
}

proc explainBox {} {
    Dialog .explain -modal local -separator 1 -title {brief explanatio
+n}
    set vt [.explain getframe]
    pack [message $vt.m1 -text {This program does foo bar fluffy, bla-
+bla-bla}  -width 450]
    .explain add -name Ok -text Ok
    .explain setfocus 0
    .explain draw
    destroy .explain
    unset vt
}

bind . <Key-F1> explainBox
bind . <Control-Key-F1> aboutBox

EOS

# bind Tcl/Tk widget to the perl/Tk
my $t = $int->widget(".t",'Text');

# do anything with perl/Tk syntax
$t->insert('end','some-text');
$t->see('end');
$int->MainLoop;
[download]

Same GUI creation perl/Tk will be thrice as much code.

This technique requires some additional efforts to start with, but I get very much benefits, so I never look back