ASED Tcl/Tk - IDE Version 1.0 dated 01/16/00
Copyright Đ 1999-2000 Andreas Sievers

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA


What is ASED?

ASED is an easy to use Tcl/Tk IDE with the following features:
-multifile editor
-syntaxhighlighting
-undo/redo
-indent/unindent
-find/replace
-test mode
-fast sourcecode navigation
-simple console included
and some more.



Installation:

Windows:
Since version 0.9.2 ASED distribution includes now the BWidget Toolkit. In addition thereīs a distribution available including a compiled version of ASED (ased4w.exe). Installation and testing under Windows should be very easy now.
Unzip the file ased094w.zip to a directory of your choice and run the ased4w.exe file.
If you have already installed Tcl/Tk 8.X and the BWidget Toolkit 1.2.X you might want to start ASED via ased.tcl. Please notice: Changing the file ased.tcl has no effect on the ased4w.exe file. To run ased.tcl you will need Tcl/Tk 8.0 or higher to be installed properly . Start ASED by double clicking on ased.tcl in your explorer, e.g.

Unix:
Be sure you have installed Tcl/Tk 8.X. Extract ased0932.tar.gz to a directory of your choice. If your PATH environment variable is not including the paths to BWidget and/or Tcl/Tk-Libs, please edit the ased.tcl file first and set the path names appropriate. Enable execution of ased.tcl e.g. via chmod +x ased.tcl. Then start ased from an x-terminal. You can run ASED with filenames as additional arguments, so that ASED will open these files in its editor when it starts.



Some basics:

Though I tried to make ASED very intuitiv and easy to use, some remarks may help to better understand, how ASED works.

1. Starting ASED
ASED allows filenames as arguments. So it is possible to open several files automatically when starting ASED from a console, e.g.
ased.tcl file1.tcl file2.tcl file3.tcl

2. Testing Code
If you press the TEST button, ASED executes allways the content of the current editor window (not the opened file!). This enables you to make changes and test it without the need of storing before or making backups. On the other hand, if you save the content of an editor window to a file, the current file will be copied to a *.bak file before the content of the editor window is stored to that file. This enables you, to restore allways the latest version of a file.
By pressing the TEST-Button, ASED allways starts a slave interpreter to execute the code. In addition it allways automatically loads Tk.
It is possible to start several applications at the same time. The running application could be terminated via the STOP-Button, even if you see the "watch"-cursor. However, this may fail, if your application runs in some kind of an infinite loop and never returns to the eventloop of tcl. By pressing the STOP-Button the slave interpreter of the current editor window will be destroyed.
You can also edit and test extensions without the need to load the main application into an editor window by associating a project file to that extension file or to define a default project file via the option menu. If you have defined a projectfile and press the TEST-Button, the projectfile will be executed (instead of starting the content of the current editor window). Though in this case also the content of the editor window will be executed via the projectfile instead of the (stored) file.

3. Console
Since there is typically no console available under windows, the output of "puts" commands is directed to ASEDīs console window. So this can be used for easy debugging via including "puts" commands in the code, like it is possible under UNIX.

4. Sourcecode Navigation
To enable fast sourcecode navigation there are included:
- ProcList Window: This shows you all procs of the current edited code. Clicking on a
  proc will bring you at once to the corespondent code line.
- History Buttons (under the Proclist). By clicking "Next" or "Prev" arrow, ASED will bring
  you to the previous edited code lines. But the history will allway store only one position 
  per proc.
- Goto Line Combobox: This will allways show the current line. By pressing the button right 
  from the line entry field, ASED stores this value in the line history. You can also enter 
  a line number and press that button to go to a code line. To jump back open the history,
  chose a line and press the button.
- To switch between real and sorted order in the procs window simply press the right mouse 
  button within the procs window

Examples for beginners:

Especially under windows, with ASED it should be very easy to start with Tcl/Tk.
Run the ASED.EXE file. Just key in the examples and press the TEST-Button

1. Example:

puts "Hello world"


After pressing the TEST-Button, you should see the output "Hello world" in ASEDīs console window and a square window. (This square window is due to automatically loading Tk.)
To end the test press the STOP-Button within ASEDīs toolbar. The square window should now disappear.

2. Example:

tk_messageBox -message "Hello world"

After pressing the TEST-Button, you should see the a window with the message "Hello world" and an Ok-button. Pressing the Ok-Button will end the test. Since ASED automatically loads Tk please notice that you have to add "package require Tk" as a first line if you want to run this outside of ASED:

package require Tk
tk_messageBox -message "Hello world"

**************************************************************************

The latest version of Tcl/Tk is available via

    http://www.scriptics.com

The BWidget Toolkit is available via

    http://www.unifix-online.com/tcltk
***************************************************************************


Please report any bugs to

andreas.sievers@t-online.de

Of course any hints, comments or sugestions are welcome as well.

