bushi, You are, of course, very wise in avoiding Pmw in this context, for all the reasons you mention. You can, though, look to Pmw for hints on packaging Tk widgets. I suspect you're pretty much home on check buttons, but I'll give a simple example a shot (and I can learn how Tk buttons really work at the same time). Who knows, maybe even today. The basic idea's going to be: allocate a button for each item on the list and give yourself some way to associate the button with the list item. Something like:

    buttonlist = []
    for item in arbitrarylist:
       abutton = Checkbutton(...)
       buttonlist.append(abutton)
#now the buttons on buttonlist correspond to the items
#on arbitrarylist.  item arbitrarylist[i] is for button buttonlist[i].
#To display:
    
    for button in buttonlist: 
       button.pack(...) #or grid() or place()

Anyway, I'll come back with something that actually works. As a class, even. Soon. Soon, I tell you. Of course, if I'm like totally not getting what you need to see, let me know at your earliest convenience.