Question

The following is my short script. It is meant to print right left and up when those arrow keys are held, but I don’t know why it does not work.

import Tkinter as tk

right = False
left = False
up = False

def keyPressed(event):
    if event.keysym == 'Escape':
        root.destroy()
    if event.keysym == 'Right':
        right = True
    if event.keysym == 'Left':
        left = True
    if event.keysym == 'Up':
        up = True

def keyReleased(event):
    if event.keysym == 'Right':
        right = False
    if event.keysym == 'Left':
        left = False
    if event.keysym == 'Up':
        up = False

def task():
    if right:
        print 'Right'
    if left:
        print 'Left'
    if up:
        print 'Forward'
    root.after(20,task)

root = tk.Tk()
print( "Press arrow key (Escape key to exit):" )

root.bind_all('<Key>', keyPressed)
root.bind_all('<KeyRelease>', keyReleased)
root.after(20,task)

root.withdraw()
root.mainloop()

The issue began when I started using root.after().

Answer 1

In python, functions create a new scope. If a variable isn’t found within the function’s scope, python looks in the outer (module/file) scope for the variable. You add variables into the current scope with assignment. This all means that:

right = False
def func():
    right = True
func()
print (right)  #right is still False in the outer scope.

In order to actually modify the variable in an outer scope, you need to tell python that you want to do something like that explicitly:

right = False
def func():
    global right
    right = True
func()
print (right)

This works, but it’s not considered good practice because you’re changing the state of your program. Now the value of right depends on whether you’ve called a function which is a bit unsettling.

A better way to share data between function calls is to use a class. Then methods (functions bound to an instance of the class) can change the state of that single instance, but the rest of your program can continue as if nothing happened.

class Foo(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.right = False
    def func(self):
        self.right = True

a = Foo() #calls __init__ implicitly
print(a.right)  #should be False -- We set this in __init__
a.func()  #change state of `a`
print(a.right)  #Now it's True!

Here’s a slightly more “classy” version of your code:

import Tkinter as tk

class App(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.right = False
        self.left = False
        self.up = False

    def keyPressed(self,event):
        print "HERE"
        if event.keysym == 'Escape':
            root.destroy()
        elif event.keysym == 'Right':
            self.right = True
        elif event.keysym == 'Left':
            self.left = True
        elif event.keysym == 'Up':
            self.up = True

    def keyReleased(self,event):
        if event.keysym == 'Right':
            self.right = False
        elif event.keysym == 'Left':
            self.left = False
        elif event.keysym == 'Up':
            self.up = False

    def task(self):
        if self.right:
            print 'Right'
        elif self.left:
            print 'Left'
        elif self.up:
            print 'Forward'
        root.after(20,self.task)

application = App()
root = tk.Tk()
print( "Press arrow key (Escape key to exit):" )

root.bind_all('<Key>', application.keyPressed)
root.bind_all('<KeyRelease>', application.keyReleased)
root.after(20,application.task)

root.mainloop()