Tcl-URL! Weekly Tcl News and Links (August 26)
Aug 27, 2002, 07:00 (0 Talkback[s])
QOTW: "... more popular. Not better; just more popular. I prefer
to pick my tools based on functionality rather than popularity, which is
why I stick with Tcl." -- Bryan Oakley
"One programmer's best practice is another's dangerous revisionism."
-- Bill Machrone
ActiveState announces the release of the Tcl Dev Kit 2.0. Features
and benefits include: TclPro Checker, TclPro Debugger, TclPro Wrapper,
TclPro Compiler.
http://groups.google.com/groups?th=622c5431b72547b5
http://www.ActiveState.com/Initiatives/Tcl
Learn how to "dock" a small Tk window under KDE and how to create a
translucent frame, both made possible with George Peter Staplin's
Tk_Theme extension.
http://groups.google.com/groups?th=9f0ff6eaec824550
http://groups.google.com/groups?th=91cf8ad1f1d6286d
http://www.xmission.com/~georgeps/Tk_Theme/
Mac Cody has released "Toucan 1.2 - A feathered friend for the Palm.
Toucan is an integrated development enviroment (IDE) for developing
applications for the Palm OS using Ashok Nadkarni's PalmTcl
interpreter."
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=pgpmoose.200208220905.1730%40despot.non.net
Mark G. Saye begins a discussion on possible enhancements to the
[package] mechanism to create package meta-data & enable
introspection without needing to do a [package require].
http://groups.google.com/groups?th=f236b4a2bdc0025f
Arjen Markus reports on Wiki activity:
A lot of algorithmic stuff appeared last week on the Wiki. This
may seem a bit "dry", but let us look at a few entries:
There are quite a few pages which address the Internet:
- An example of an HTTP robot appears at <http://wiki.tcl.tk/1303>;
- Hidden in a more general page about the Tcl's interp statement is
the answer to a question that was raised on the newsgroup:
automatically downloading and running code - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/1477>;
A small receipe with indications of what to do if you can not rely
trust the code (answer: use a safe interp!)
- Ever dreamt about the wonders of a worm-hole? Well, "burrow" comes
close: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/3929>; describes the creation of a TCP/IP
tunnel between two hosts, using nothing but Tcl.
- Getting tired of spam? Spam filters may help, one using statistical
techniques is based on other work (see the references contained in
the page, <http://wiki.tcl.tk/3901>;
As the author of this Wiki page, says: enjoy!
Two pages that address graphical user-interfaces:
- XML may or may not be the ultimate solution to all of your
data exchange problems. But have a look at XML files with a
simple browser! <http://wiki.tcl.tk/3884>;
(Actually: it is an example of how to combine the many facilities
that Tcl offers)
- So much function in so little code, <http://wiki.tcl.tk/1913>; presents
a notebook application.
Another two pages, these address interfacing to the system:
- Expect is one of those applications that surpasses the imagination
of many of its users. Try and follow the links (but be careful):
<http://wiki.tcl.tk/3913>; leads to a wealth of information and
then try the other Wiki pages on Expect!
- <http://wiki.tcl.tk/3643>; describes a package that lets your application
know that the contents of a directory have changed.
Well, this leaves a number of pages for which I could not think of
an appropriate subject, other than "techniques":
- The idea of a scripted compiler (<http://wiki.tcl.tk/3687>;) has led
to several pages, including one on parsing C code,
<http://wiki.tcl.tk/3906>;
- An application of the msgcat package, universal greetings
(<http://wiki.tcl.tk/2938>;) are everyday's reality in the Tcl'ers chatroom
- Analysing programs (predicting performance for instance) can sometimes be
done by making a small simulation - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/3923>; has an
example.
- Calculating the frequency of substrings is one fundamental subject
in encryption/decryption techniques. This page, <http://wiki.tcl.tk/3838>;,
shows that it is not that hard to do.
Everything you want is probably one or two clicks away in these pages:
The "Welcome to comp.lang.tcl" message by Andreas Kupries
http://www.purl.org/net/tcl-welcome
Larry Virden maintains a comp.lang.tcl FAQ launcher
http://www.purl.org/NET/Tcl-FAQ/
Brent Welch maintains "The Tcl Developer Xchange", a highly
organized resource center of documents and software with
provisions for individuals to "set up a link to your software
and update ... as you release new versions."
http://www.tcl-tk.net/resource/
The Xchange sponsor also keeps info to convince your boss Tcl
is a good thing
http://www.tcl-tk.net/scripting/
The Tcl'ers Wiki is a huge, dynamic, collaboratively edited repository
of documentation, examples, tutorials and pontifications on all things Tcl.
http://wiki.tcl.tk/0
For the ideal overview of the topics about Tcl most likely to
interest a newcomer, see "Arts and Crafts ..."
http://wiki.tcl.tk/969
ActiveState Tools maintains a Cookbook of Tcl recipes
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Tcl
NeoSoft has a comp.lang.tcl contributed sources archive
http://www.neosoft.com/tcl/contributed-software/
Cameron Laird tracks many Tcl/Tk references of interest
http://starbase.neosoft.com/~claird/comp.lang.tcl/
Cetus Links maintains a Tcl/Tk page with verified links
http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_tcl_tk.html
Google Groups archives comp.lang.tcl.announce posts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tcl_announce/
Previous - (U)se the (R)esource, (L)uke! - messages are listed here:
http://purl.org/thecliff/tcl/url.html
--in principal. In spring 2001, though,
http://www.ddj.com/topics/tclurl/
http://tcl.activestate.com:8004/tclurl/
are more consistently up-to-date. A fourth possibility is
http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_q=+Tcl-URL!&as_ugroup=comp.lang.tcl
Suggestions/corrections for next week's posting are always welcome.
To receive a new issue of this posting in e-mail each Monday, ask
<claird@phaseit.net> to subscribe. Be sure to mention "Tcl-URL!".
--
Dr. Dobb's Journal (http://www.ddj.com) is pleased to participate in and
sponsor the "Tcl-URL!" project.
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