I'd look for existing solutions before rolling my own, since calendars are hard to get "just so". How about starting with Tk::Month?

Update for posterity: Don't use Tk::Month. It has limited functionality and doesn't appear to have been maintained in some time. I gave the above advice based on an optimistic appraisal of the module after doing a quick search on CPAN and looking at the docs.

Update: It works fine. Just keep it simple:

#!/usr/bin/perl


use warnings;
use strict;

use Tk;
use Tk::Month;

my $mw = MainWindow->new();

my $month = "November";
my $year = "2006";
my $m = $mw->Month(
    -printformat   => '%a %e',
    -includeall    => 0,
    -month         => $month,
    -year          => $year,
    -command       => sub {
        my ($ym, $wd) = @_;
        my ($month, $year) = split( /\s+/ , $ym );
        my ($wday, $date)  = split( /\s+/ , $wd->[0] );
        print "$wday, $month $date $year\n";
    },
);
$m->pack;

MainLoop;
[download]

How do you use Tk::Month? This code just hangs...

use strict;
use warnings;
use Tk;
use Tk::Month;


my $MW = MainWindow->new(); 
$MW->geometry('300x200+50+50');

my $m = $MW->Month(
                -month          => 'November',
                -year           => '2006',
                -title          => '%b %y',
                -command        => \&press,
                -printformat    => '%e',
                -navigation     => [0|1],
                -includeall     => [0|1],
                -showall        => [0|1],
                -first          => [0|1|2|3|4|5|6],
        )->pack();


MainLoop;
[download]

I don't get hanging, but I don't get a nice calendar either. It looks like Tk::Month is old, unmaintained, and broken. Too bad, because it looks like it might have been just the thing.

Back to the drawing board.

You want to show a calendar, but what purpose does it serve? Are you trying to do anything with the calendar, or just show the dates of the current month as a reference point?

Update: I was throwing too much code at it. Tk::Month works fine if I keep it simple. See my original reply to this thread for details.

$MW->Label(-text=>$cal, -font => "courier 10 bold", -justify=>"left")-
+>grid();
[download]

thanks!

I like this option because I can use the tk::label options to change how it looks

However, tk:Month is something to consider for another purpose.

Thanks for all replys!

Some of the replies to Calendar in Perl TK may be of help.