GC
Tk_GetGC(tkwin, valueMask, valuePtr)
Tk_FreeGC(display, gc)
Tk_GetGC maintains a database of all the graphics contexts it has created. Whenever possible, a call to Tk_GetGC will return an existing graphics context rather than creating a new one. This approach can substantially reduce server overhead, so Tk_GetGC should generally be used in preference to the Xlib procedure XCreateGC, which creates a new graphics context on each call.
Since the return values of Tk_GetGC are shared, callers should never modify the graphics contexts returned by Tk_GetGC. If a graphics context must be modified dynamically, then it should be created by calling XCreateGC instead of Tk_GetGC.
When a graphics context is no longer needed, Tk_FreeGC should be called to release it. There should be exactly one call to Tk_FreeGC for each call to Tk_GetGC. When a graphics context is no longer in use anywhere (i.e. it has been freed as many times as it has been gotten) Tk_FreeGC will release it to the X server and delete it from the database.
Copyright © 1990 The Regents of the University of California. Copyright © 1994 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Copyright © 1995 Roger E. Critchlow Jr.