The Linux Tcl and Tk HOWTO The Linux Tcl and Tk HOWTO Table of Contents The Linux Tcl and Tk HOWTO........................................................................................................................1 Luca Rossetti lukaros@tin.it...................................................................................................................1 1. Introduction..........................................................................................................................................1 2. Tcl/Tk History......................................................................................................................................1 3. What is Tcl/Tk.....................................................................................................................................1 4. Installing and getting started with Tcl and Tk.....................................................................................1 5. Just a little bit of Programming............................................................................................................2 6. Scripting Language: pros and cons......................................................................................................2 7. Most Famous Programs using Tcl/Tk..................................................................................................2 8. References............................................................................................................................................2 9. Tcl/Tk License Terms..........................................................................................................................2 1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................................2 1.1 Purpose of this document...................................................................................................................3 1.2 What you should know before reading..............................................................................................3 1.3 New versions of this document..........................................................................................................3 1.4 Revision History................................................................................................................................4 1.5 Feedback and other stuff....................................................................................................................4 1.6 Credits................................................................................................................................................4 1.7 Distribution Policy.............................................................................................................................5 2. Tcl/Tk History......................................................................................................................................5 2.1 Cronology..........................................................................................................................................5 3. What is Tcl/Tk.....................................................................................................................................5 3.1 What is Tcl?.......................................................................................................................................5 3.2 What is Tk?........................................................................................................................................6 3.3 Extensions..........................................................................................................................................7 3.4 Supported Platforms..........................................................................................................................7 4. Installing and getting started with Tcl and Tk.....................................................................................7 4.1 Downloading the Core Distributions.................................................................................................8 4.2 Installation.........................................................................................................................................8 4.3 The Contributed Archive...................................................................................................................9 4.4 Mirror Sites........................................................................................................................................9 4.5 Which Releases to Use.......................................................................................................................9 4.6 Where to report problems, bugs, or enhancements............................................................................9 5. Just a little bit of Programming..........................................................................................................10 5.1 The one−minute program in Tcl......................................................................................................10 6. Scripting Language: pros and cons....................................................................................................11 6.1 Some of the most common complaints about Tcl............................................................................11 Tcl is interpreted.......................................................................................................................11 Several characteristics are not intuitive....................................................................................11 6.2 Some of the most pros about Tcl.....................................................................................................12 It is a high−level scripting language.........................................................................................12 Tcl is free..................................................................................................................................12 It runs on many platforms.........................................................................................................12 It is interpreted..........................................................................................................................12 It is extensible...........................................................................................................................12 It is embeddable in your applications.......................................................................................12 Tcl/Tk is Year 2000 (Y2K) compliant......................................................................................12 7. Most Famous Programs using Tcl/Tk................................................................................................12 i The Linux Tcl and Tk HOWTO Table of Contents 8. References.........................................................................................................................................13 8.1 Books...............................................................................................................................................13 Tcl and the Tk Toolkit..............................................................................................................13 Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk, II ed.............................................................................13 Tcl and Tk Reference Manual..................................................................................................14 The Visual TCL Handbook, 1/e................................................................................................14 Running LINUX.......................................................................................................................14 Tcl/Tk for Dummies (For Dummies)........................................................................................14 Interactive Web Applications With Tcl/Tk..............................................................................14 8.2 Manual and On−line Tutorials.........................................................................................................15 8.3 World Wide Web sites.....................................................................................................................15 8.4 Other documents & Frequently Asked Questions...........................................................................15 8.5 Newsgroup.......................................................................................................................................15 9. Tcl/Tk License Terms.......................................................................................................................16 ii The Linux Tcl and Tk HOWTO Luca Rossetti [email protected] v0.2, 07 November 1998 This document describes the Linux approach to Tcl, a scripting langua ge. It is an easy to learn interpreted language that uses a typeless approach to achieve a higher level of programming and a rapid application development. The Tk toolkit is a programming environment for creating graphical user interf aces (GUI) under X Window System. Their capabilities include the possibility to extend and embed in other application, rapid development and ease of use. Toge ther, Tcl and Tk provide many benefits both to application developer and user. Tk−ba sed interfaces tend to be much more customizable and dynamic