QOTW: "We have memory leaks in our C++ based extensions, and the Solaris
and Linux memory management methods can vary wildly... but Tcl is as
stable and reliable as the U.S. economy... er, how about a '63 chevy with
a 283 V8? Yeah, as stable and reliable as a '63 chevy with a 283 V8."
--Phil Ehrens,
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=agn0g9$9a8@gap.cco.caltech.edu
"I think the need for OO techniques is greatly reduced by a language with
[eval] and [info] and dynamically-sized structures built in. This may be
why you see less OO in Tcl than in some of the other languages."
-- Darren New,
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=3D25CC00.59A28133@san.rr.com
"What I like about 'bgexec' is that it handles all the dumb stuff under
the hood--so you (the Tcl programmer) don't have to worry about it."
George A. Howlett
The first 8.4 beta of the Tcl/Tk 8.4 Core has been
released at SourceForge.
Announcement:
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=3D29D32C.C5410B87@ActiveState.com
Download:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=10894
http://www.tcl.tk/software/tcltk/8.4.html
ActiveTcl binary releases for Windows, Linux, and Solaris:
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Downloads/ActiveTcl
RPMs (actually just spec files to build an RPM):
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=4244613b.0207072314.2cb207c7@posting.google.com
http://jfontain.free.fr/tcltk-8.4b1-1.spec
Jeff Hobbs posts the 8.4 release schedule:
"8.4b1 was July 5th.
8.4b2 should be August 5th.
8.4.0 should be September 5th."
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=3D2EFB87.13228CC6@ActiveState.com
Registration is now open for the 9th Annual Tcl/Tk conference,
to be held September 16-20, in Vancouver, BC, Canada:
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=3D2C5C3E.DFDA8ABB@ActiveState.com
Michael A. Cleverly announces nstcl 1.0, "a Tcl package
which reimplements many of the useful APIs and commands
from AOLserver and OpenACS, making them available for use
in Tcl/Tk applications & scripts [...] Most notable of
these is the nstcl-database package, and the 'ns_db' API,
which provides a common interface to various different
database extensions."
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=pgpmoose.200207081233.10876@despot.non.net
Tom Wilkason announces SnackAmp 2.0b1, a cross platform Tcl/Tk based
Mp3, Ogg Vorbis audio/music player, playlister and file manager.
Announcement:
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=OdqX8.59259$%%2.2498874@news2.east.cox.net
Home:
http://snackamp.sourceforge.net/index.html
README:
http://snackamp.sourceforge.net/user_manual/readme.html
Snack sound engine:
http://www.speech.kth.se/snack/
Jean-Luc Fontaine's moodss tool is up to release 16.4:
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=4244613b.0207072306.3fd4c277@posting.google.com
Techniques for building standalone deliverables are discussed
in the thread "Compiling or wrapping?". Techniques covered:
ProWrap, FreeWrap, Mktclapp, TclKit, scripted documents
(recently rechristened "StarKits"), and StarPacks:
http://groups.google.com/groups?th=6d20d48a615a784b
More on Starkits and Starpacks: "Due to the many terrific
contributions and enhancements (most of them in the Tcl core
by now) you can now consider deployment of applications built
upon Tcl/Tk to be 'solved'. [...] Starkits are very close to
becoming a 100% hassle-free deployment technology."
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=jcw-7969AB.17155811072002@news1.xs4all.nl
http://www.equi4.com/starkit/
Thanks to Arjen Markus for his summary of Wiki action:
After scanning a long list of changed pages, these are the ones that
attracted the Wiki chronicler's attention:
Some well-chosen words about GUIs:
- A practical guide to fonts can be found at <http://wiki.tcl.tk/451>;
- A pragmatic guide to popup windows is at <http://wiki.tcl.tk/3713>;
- A programmatic aide for editing Korean characters resides
at <http://wiki.tcl.tk/3681>;
- "Embedding Windows applications in Tk frames" begins to answer a
long-standing open question <http://wiki.tcl.tk/3702>;
Extending Tcl may be relatively easy, but these pages discuss the
subject in more detail:
- Writing Extensions <http://wiki.tcl.tk/1191>; is a page that collects
references to other pages on the subject.
- Here is a new one: making compilers work within scripts,
<http://wiki.tcl.tk/3687>;
- Well, with the approach of Tcl 8.4.0, a discussion on how to prepare
yourself for more than one version of Tcl may be just what you need,
<http://wiki.tcl.tk/3708>;
Quite a lot is known about protecting your source code, start reading
all about it at <http://wiki.tcl.tk/3698>;
And for the algorithm addicts:
- nstcl aims at unifying the interface to many packages, like AOLserver,
OpenACS and sundry databases, have a look at <http://wiki.tcl.tk/3666>;
- Interested in tree structures? e4graph may give you ideas. Follow the
branches that stem from <http://wiki.tcl.tk/1410>;
- An all-Tcl calculator, just to understand the inner workings,
by George Staplin, <http://wiki.tcl.tk/3709>;
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@neosoft.com> 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.
