@@ -81,7 +81,8 @@ def __init__(self, root=None, font=None, name=None, exists=False,
         if exists:
             self.delete_font = False
             # confirm font exists
-            if self.name not in root.tk.call("font", "names"):
+            if self.name not in root.tk.splitlist(
+                    root.tk.call("font", "names")):
                 raise tkinter._tkinter.TclError(
                     "named font %s does not already exist" % (self.name,))
             # if font config info supplied, apply it
 
@@ -407,8 +407,6 @@ def test_list_from_layouttuple(self):
             ('name', 'no_minus', 'value'))
         self.assertRaises(ValueError, ttk._list_from_layouttuple, tk,
             ('something', '-children')) # no children
-        self.assertRaises(ValueError, ttk._list_from_layouttuple, tk,
-            ('something', '-children', 'value')) # invalid children
 
 
     def test_val_or_dict(self):
 
@@ -275,6 +275,7 @@ def _list_from_statespec(stuple):
 def _list_from_layouttuple(tk, ltuple):
     """Construct a list from the tuple returned by ttk::layout, this is
     somewhat the reverse of _format_layoutlist."""
+    ltuple = tk.splitlist(ltuple)
     res = []
 
     indx = 0
@@ -293,8 +294,6 @@ def _list_from_layouttuple(tk, ltuple):
             indx += 2
 
             if opt == 'children':
-                if not tk.wantobjects():
-                    val = tk.splitlist(val)
                 val = _list_from_layouttuple(tk, val)
 
             opts[opt] = val
@@ -408,8 +407,8 @@ def map(self, style, query_opt=None, **kw):
             return _list_from_statespec(self.tk.splitlist(
                 self.tk.call(self._name, "map", style, '-%s' % query_opt)))
 
-        return _dict_from_tcltuple(
-            self.tk.call(self._name, "map", style, *(_format_mapdict(kw))))
+        return _dict_from_tcltuple(self.tk.splitlist(
+            self.tk.call(self._name, "map", style, *(_format_mapdict(kw)))))
 
 
     def lookup(self, style, option, state=None, default=None):
@@ -463,8 +462,8 @@ def layout(self, style, layoutspec=None):
             lspec = "null" # could be any other word, but this may make sense
                            # when calling layout(style) later
 
-        return _list_from_layouttuple(self.tk, self.tk.splitlist(
-            self.tk.call(self._name, "layout", style, lspec)))
+        return _list_from_layouttuple(self.tk,
+            self.tk.call(self._name, "layout", style, lspec))
 
 
     def element_create(self, elementname, etype, *args, **kw):