In the current implementation of Tix, there is no limits on how you can access the options of the subwidgets. However, many options of the subwidgets may be already used by the mega-widget in special ways. For example, the -textvariable option of the entry subwidget of TixControl may be used to store some private information for the mega widget. Therefore, you should access the options of the subwidgets with great care. In general you should only access those options that affect the appearance of the subwidgets (such as -font or -foreground) and leave everything else intact. () {In future versions of Tix, there will be explicit restrictions on which subwidget options you can access. Errors will be generated if you try to access restricted subwidget options}