Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl.announce,comp.lang.tcl,comp.lang.perl.tk,comp.answers,news.answers
Path: lvirden
From: lvirden@cas.org (Larry W. Virden)
Subject: comp.lang.tcl Frequently Asked Questions (May 31, 1996) (1/5)
Followup-To: comp.lang.tcl
Summary: A regular posting of the comp.lang.tcl Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ) and their answers. This is the first of five parts.
This part introduces Tcl and Tk and discusses documentation, etc.
Originator: lvirden@cas.org
Keywords: tcl, extended tcl, tk, expect
Sender: lvirden@cas.org
Reply-To: lvirden@cas.org (Larry W. Virden)
X-Url: http://www.teraform.com/%7Elvirden/tcl-faq/part1.html Archive-name: tcl-faq/part1 Comp-lang-tcl-archive-name: tcl-faq.part01 Version: 7.000 Last-modified: May 31, 1996 For more information concerning Tcl (see "tcl-faq/part2"), (see "tcl-faq/part3"), (see "tcl-faq/part4"), or (see "tcl-faq/part5"). Also (see "tcl-faq/commercial-uses/part1"), (see "tcl-faq/bibliography/part1"), (see "tcl-faq/usage"), (see "tk/part1"), or (see "tcl-faq/windows"). Index of questions: I. Origin of comp.lang.tcl, the FAQ information, and to whom do I contact for more information about the FAQ? II. What is Tcl? Tk? Extended Tcl? Rush? What is Tcl _not_? III. Do these packages run on my machine? A. Unix B. MacOS C. INTEL DOS-like systems D. VMS E. AmigaDOS F. NeXT G. Other IV. Other than C, What languages can talk to tcl/tk? A. Shell B. C++ C. Modula-3 D. Eiffel E. Ada F. Perl G. Prolog H. Other V. What training material is available? A. Books, Training courses, etc. B. Time-related seminars, conferences, sessions. VI. Where do I report problems, bugs, or enhancements about Tcl - or - what is comp.lang.tcl? End of FAQ Index ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ From: FAQ General information Subject: -I- Origin of comp.lang.tcl, the FAQ information, and to whom do I contact for more information about the FAQ? What is comp.lang.tcl? First, let me assure you what it is not. <URL:news:comp.lang.tcl> (and <URL:news:comp.lang.tcl.announce> now) are NOT bulletin boards. They are not innately mailing lists. Some users may experience the messages in those manners, but these communities of users are what is known as USENET newsgroups. While Dr. John Ousterhout was the creator of the original, unmoderated <URL:news:comp.lang.tcl>, in the current incarnation, clt (as it is often referenced) has no moderator, no owner, no authority to whom one can appeal when one feels slighted, offended, libeled, etc. On the other hand, there are a group of moderators associated with <URL:news:comp.lang.tcl.announce>, whose job it is to ensure that the postings there remain 'on charter'. The majority of readers of <URL:news:comp.lang.tcl> are access the postings in English, and seem to prefer plain text postings formatted to 78 or less characters per line, as opposed to HTML, Postscript, MIME base64, Macintosh special character sets, etc.. They also prefer to have postings which specify a working email address in the From or Reply-To header (or at least in the body of the msg somewhere). While alternatives to that are certainly possible, you decrease the chance of getting a timely relevant answer by choosing alternatives to these. These rules are not unique to clt, but are the typical USENET netiquette that posters are asked to respect. One question that comes up fairly often concerning <URL:news:comp.lang.tcl> is 'why isn't it split?'. The newsgroup varies in traffic, but I have seen as many as 45 messages a day (counting current cross postings, etc.) Currently, many have come forward with ideas on how a split could be handled, but no concensus has been reached. Also, no moderators have stepped forward to take over moderation of a split group. During January, 1996, <URL:news:comp.lang.tcl.announce>, a moderated group containing announcements of new software, doc, etc. relating to Tcl, was created. So as of right now, asking to split the newsgroup only adds to the existing traffic, without resolving any problems. The information in this set of FAQs comes from several sources. The primary source of information is the group itself - I spend (much too much) time each month culling through what I feel are some of the best answers, gathering up new information on ports, etc. and adding it here. I also gather new application information and add it as best I can. The next most predominant source of information comes from the authors of the various software packages. Finally, a small amount comes from my personal experiences. You can find my general Tcl FAQs at either <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/docs/tcl-faq.part01.gz> <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/docs/tcl-faq.part02.gz>, <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/docs/tcl-faq.part03.gz>, <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/docs/tcl-faq.part04.gz>, <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/docs/tcl-faq.part05.gz>, or <URL:http://www.teraform.com/%7Elvirden/tcl-faq/>. The primary location for the commercial use of Tcl FAQ is <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/docs/tcl-commercial-faq.gz> as well as <URL:http://www.cpu.com/cpu/tclcom1.htm>. The author is <URL:mailto:gwl@cpu.com> (Gerald W. Lester). This FAQ contains information either about commercial products which incorporate Tcl as a part of them, firms which teach classes about Tcl and Tk in some manner, and other commercial ventures. Please be sure to contact the maintainer for all relevant material about _your_ product! The next FAQ contains a bibliography of published material related to Tcl, and will be managed by <URL:mailto:glv@utdallas.edu> (Glenn Vanderburg). (See "tcl-faq/bibliography/part1") or ftp it at <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/docs/tcl-faq-bib.gz>. The second FAQ contains a series of Tcl-related questions and answers and is managed by <URL:mailto:joe@morton.rain.com> (Joe Moss). (See "tcl-faq/usage"), <URL:http://route.psg.com/tcl.html>, <URL:http://psg.com/%7Ejoem/tcl/faq.html> or find it at <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/docs/tcl-faq-usage.gz>. The third contains Tk-related questions and answers and is managed by <URL:mailto:tja@cpu.com> (Thomas J. Accardo). You can (see "tcl-faq/tk/part1") or find it at <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/docs/tcl-faq-tk-usage.gz> FAQs are also available for the Windows port of Tcl <URL:http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/efjohnson/tclwin.htm> and perl/Tk <URL:http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/%7Epvhp/ptk/ptkFAQ.html>. The Japanese translation of the five part FAQ can be located at <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/docs/tcl-faq-j5.3.tar.gz>. This file contains Japanese EUC-Kanji codes. Contact <URL:mailto:taguchi@fox.aic.co.jp> (Taguchi Takeshi) for more information. If you have corrections, enhancements, modifications, clarifications, suggestions, ideas, new questions, new answers to questions which have never been asked, or something else that I have not covered above, contact me at <URL:mailto:lvirden@cas.org>. ------------------------------ From: FAQ General information Subject: -II- What is Tcl? Tk? Extended Tcl? o Highlights of Tcl based languages Tcl and Tk originated with Dr. John Ousterhout (OH'-stir-howt) from the University of California, Berkeley, California. A quip about the pronunciation of Dr. O's last name from <URL:news:comp.lang.tcl> pundit <URL:mailto:js@aelfric.bu.edu> Jay Sekora: > `It's pronounced Oh-stir-howt > without a doubt! > Not Oh-stir-hoot; > he's not a brute.' Dr. Ousterhout got the idea for Tcl while on sabbatical leave at DEC's Western Research Laboratory in the fall of 1987. He started actually implementing it when he got back to Berkeley in the spring of 1988; by summer of that year it was in use in some internal applications, but there was no Tk. The first external releases of Tcl were in 1989. Tk implemention began in 1989, and the first release of Tk was in 1991. Tcl (current release version 7.5) stands for ``tool command language'' and is pronounced ``tickle.'' The author's home ftp site for the Tcl source code is <URL:ftp://ftp.sunlabs.com/pub/tcl/>. Tcl is actually two things: a language and a library. First, Tcl is a simple textual language, intended primarily for issuing commands to interactive programs such as text editors, debuggers, illustrators, and shells. It has a simple syntax and is also programmable, so Tcl users can write command procedures to provide more powerful commands than those in the built-in set. Second, Tcl is a library package that can be embedded in application programs. The Tcl library consists of a parser for the Tcl language, routines to implement the Tcl built-in commands, and procedures that allow each application to extend Tcl with additional commands specific to that application. The application program generates Tcl commands and passes them to the Tcl parser for execution. Commands may be generated by reading characters from an input source, or by associating command strings with elements of the application's user interface, such as menu entries, buttons, or keystrokes. When the Tcl library receives commands it parses them into component fields and executes built-in commands directly. For commands implemented by the application, Tcl calls back to the application to execute the commands. In many cases commands will invoke recursive invocations of the Tcl interpreter by passing in additional strings to execute (procedures, looping commands, and conditional commands all work in this way). An application program gains several advantages by using Tcl for its command language. First, Tcl provides a standard syntax: once users know Tcl, they will be able to issue commands easily to any Tcl-based application. Second, Tcl provides programmability. All a Tcl application needs to do is to implement a few application-specific low-level commands. Tcl provides many utility commands plus a general programming interface for building up complex command procedures. By using Tcl, applications need not re-implement these features. Third, extensions to Tcl, such as the Tk toolkit, provide mechanisms for communicating between applications by sending Tcl commands back and forth. The common Tcl language framework makes it easier for applications to communicate with one another. Note that Tcl was designed with the philosophy that one should actually use two or more languages when designing large software systems. One for manipulating complex internal data structures, or where performance is key, and another, such as Tcl, for writing smallish scripts that tie together the other pieces, providing hooks for the user to extend. For the Tcl script writer, ease of learning, ease of programming and ease of gluing are more important than performance or facilities for complex data structures and algorithms. Tcl was designed to make it easy to drop into a lower language when you come across tasks that make more sense at a lower level. In this way, the basic core functionality can remain small and one need only bring along pieces that one particular wants or needs. Tk (current release 4.1) is an extension to Tcl which provides the programmer with an interface to the X11 windowing system. Note that Tk has been successfully compiled under X11 R4, X11 R5, X11 R6, as well as Sun's NeWS/X11 environments. The author's home ftp site for the Tk source is the directory <URL:ftp://ftp.sunlabs.com/pub/tcl/>. Note that many users will encounter Tk via the ``wish'' command. Wish is a simple windowing shell which permits the user to write Tcl applications in a prototyping environment. Read <URL:http://www.sunlabs.com/people/john.ousterhout/> and <URL:http://www.sunlabs.com/research/tcl/> for details. The future of Tcl and Tk is quite bright. This year Dr. Ousterhout announced that he has been employed by Sun Microcomputer, Inc. to do some further development of Tcl / Tk. Some of the short term (within the next 12 months or so) plans that Dr. O has mentioned are: - Ports of Tcl and Tk to both the PC and Mac, so scripts written on one platform will run on any of the others, presenting their UI in the look and feel of the platform on which they run. - A commercial-quality graphical interface designer like Visual Basic or NextStep. - Dynamic loading of C code in Tcl. - Incorporating Nathaniel Borenstein's Safe-Tcl back into the Tcl core, so that there is a safe mechanism for executing untrusted scripts that arrive via the Internet. John has given me permission to add this quote as well: >From: ouster@tcl.eng.sun.com (John Ousterhout) >Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl >Subject: Re: The future of TcL/Tk's Copyright Terms >Date: 31 Aug 1994 20:08:19 GMT >Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc. >Message-ID: <342nvj$6e9@engnews2.Eng.Sun.COM> > I discussed the status of the Tcl and Tk libraries with people at Sun > as part of my pre-hire negotiations, and we're in agreement that they > will remain free and unrestricted just as they have always been. Future > enhancements made to Tcl and Tk by my group at Sun, including the ports > to Macs and PCs, will be made freely available to anyone to use for > any purpose. My view, and that of the people I report to at Sun, is > that it wouldn't work for Sun to try to take Tcl and Tk proprietary > anyway: someone (probably me, in a new job) would just pick up the > last free release and start an independent development path. This > would be a terrible thing for everyone since it would result in > incompatible versions. > Of course, Sun does need to make money from the work of my team or else > they won't be able to continue to support us. Our current plan is to > charge for development tools and interesting extensions and applications. > Balancing the public and the profitable will be an ongoing challenge for > us, but it is very important both to me and to Sun to keep the support > of the existing Tcl community. I imagine this discussion will repeat > from time to time over the next few years, but I think we can make things > work out well for everyone. See <URL:http://www.utdallas.edu/acc/glv/Tcl/usenix95-bof.html> for more details. John also has asked me to mention the following: > there are now pages containing release notes. The best thing is just to > refer people to my home page, which is: > <URL:http://www.sunlabs.com/people/john.ousterhout/> > <URL:http://www.sunlabs.com/research/tcl/> > <URL:http://www.sunlabs.com/research/%7Eouster/> > You might put a notice about this in the FAQ to help people who see > the FAQ after we reorganize. Extended Tcl (tclX) (Version 7.5a) - This is an extended set of commands for Tcl developed by Karl Lehenbauer and Mark Diekhans. The authors' home ftp site for Extended Tcl is <URL:ftp://ftp.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/distrib/>. Extended Tcl is oriented towards system programming tasks, with many additional interfaces to the Unix operating system along with other useful utilities. Rush is a Tcl-like extension language announced at the Tcl'94 Workshop. Its syntax and semantics are very similar to Tcl's, but it additionally offers an optimizing compiler and a new feature called rules. Its primary advantage over Tcl is performance within a factor of 100 of C, whereas a Tcl compiler is unlikely to do better than a factor of 1000 of C. Rush is not yet publicly available, though ambitious alpha testers are encouraged to inquire. Mail can be sent to either <URL:mailto:asah@cs.berkeley.edu> or <URL:mailto:blojo@cs.berkeley.edu>. For more information, see the paper <URL:ftp://ginsberg.cs.berkeley.edu/pub/asah/papers/rush-tcl94.ps.gz>. o General information about Tcl and Tk by <URL:mailto:glv@utdallas.edu> (Glenn Vanderburg) Tcl (Tool command language) is a freely distributable simple, interpreted language designed to be used as a common extension and customization language for applications. It was designed and implemented by Dr. John Ousterhout in the hope that application designers could spend more of their time on applications and less on scripting languages, and in the hope that users could spend less time learning new scripting languages for each new application. Many useful applications, some of them sold commercially, use Tcl as their scripting language. Tcl is clean and regular, and relatively easy for non-hackers to learn. It is command-oriented, and commands added by applications and users exist on an equal footing with the built-in Tcl commands. Tcl has both simple variables and associative arrays (tables), and all values (including procedure bodies) are represented as strings. Simple customization scripts (such as preference initialization scripts) usually look much like novice users expect them to: a series of simple commands which set options. Tcl is implemented as a C library, which can be embedded in an application. The application can add its own commands to the interpreter (using a clean C interface). It is distributed under a license which allows use for any purpose with no royalties. The Tk toolkit is a Tcl extension (a group of new Tcl commands) which provides a Tcl interface to the X Window System. Tk is one of the easiest ways to build a graphical interface to an application, and due to the interpreted nature of Tcl, Tk-based interfaces tend to be much more customizable and dynamic than those built with one of the C- or C++-based toolkits. Tk implements the Motif look and feel. A number of interesting X applications are implemented entirely in Tk, with no new application-specific commands at all. Tk also provides a mechanism by which one application can send Tcl scripts to other Tk-based applications running on the same display, for easy cooperation between tools. Tcl and Tk are mature, and quite stable, but they are not static: Dr. Ousterhout has moved from Berkeley to Sun Microsystems, where his group is pursuing such projects as a commercial-quality Tk graphical interface designer, an on-the-fly Tcl compiler, and Macintosh and Microsoft Windows ports of Tk. John has stated that the copyright status and licensing provisions of Tcl and Tk will not change. ---- As to what Tcl is not - in the context of the discussion in <URL:news:comp.lang.tcl>, it is not related directly to the Think C Library (TCL) available on the Mac. Confusingly enough, the language concerned with here _is_ available on the Mac, and someone in fact may have used Think C to compile it there. Just one of those universal 'coincidences' that set the stage for Vogon interstellar highway construction crews. Also, Oracle has a product called Tk2Motif which has nothing to do with Tcl or Tk as we are referring to it. ------------------------------ From: FAQ General information Subject: -III- Do these packages run on my machine? A. Unix Tcl runs on Sun 3s and 4s running SunOS 4 and SunOS 5 (Solaris 1.x and 2.x), DECstations running Ultrix, DEC VAXen running Ultrix or BSD, DEC Alphas running OSF/1, 386s running SCO Unix, Xenix, Bell-Tech, Silicon Graphics running IRIX, all sorts of HPs running HP-UX (even HP Snakes running OSF/1 and HP-UX). Intel [34]86 systems running 386bsd, netbsd, freebsd, BSDI, and Linux have Tcl ported. Various CPUs running System V.4 report having ported Tcl. Tcl also appears to be running on Sequent Symmetry running Dynix as well as OSF/1. It also has been reported to run fine on IBM RS6000 under AIX 3.x as well as IBM ES/9000 and AIX/ESA. There were few problems getting it running under Mt. Xinu Mach. It also has been ported to Encore 91's running UMAX V (an 88k based System V with BSD extension Unix). It also runs on Apollos running BSD/SYSV. Tcl runs on a Cray running Unicos. Someone ported Tcl to a Sony NeWS machine running NEWS-OS 4.2. A port to a Convex 3220 and 3880 was also reported. Folks have compiled Tcl/Tk/BLT/itcl to a Mac running the latest A/UX. A port to Tenon MachTen 2.1VM, running on a Mac II which was running MacOS System 7.1, has been reported. The autoconfig did most of the work. That particular user had not ported Tk to this environment yet. Tcl also runs on Supermax Motorola/MIPS based multiprocessors under SMOS. Tk (being based on Tcl) generally requires X11R4 or better as the only additional software requirement. It runs on any of the above Unix systems with that base of software. It also runs on VMS and OSF/1. For information on Tcl/Tk/TclX availability (see "tcl-faq/part4"). B. MacOS (See "tcl-faq/part2") for details of a Macintosh Tcl Mailing list. Ray Johnson <URL:mailto:raymond.johnson@eng.sun.com> has a package called MacTcl. This is a fairly straight port of Tcl to the Macintosh. It is designed to be used as libraries to be embedded into other applications. A basic shell is included. Most Tcl features are present, including many Unix-like features. Additional features include supporting the env variable and sourcing Tcl code from a resource. The current version is available at <URL:ftp://ftp.sunlabs.com/pub/tcl/>. As of Tcl 7.5/Tk 4.1 (now in beta testing), the source code for Tcl and Tk should compile and run on a Macintosh from the original distribution. Also (see "tcl-faq/part4"), the Tcl programs/packages catalog, for the latest port locations and versions. C. INTEL DOS-like systems Numerous ports to DOS are available. One unsupported port to MS-DOS of Tcl and Extended Tcl V6.0a, done by <URL:mailto:Karl@NeoSoft.com> (Karl Lehenbauer), is available on <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/distrib/dostcl.zoo> for binaries and <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/distrib/dostcl60.zoo> for source. A port of Tcl, V6.1 ?, done by unknown, to MS-DOS Windows V 3.1 ?, is available as binary at <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/distrib/w_tclbin.zip> and as source at <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/distrib/w_tclsrc.zip>. A port of Tcl V6.2 to MS-DOS was done by <URL:mailto:johnm@cajal.uoregon.edu> (John Martin) and is available via FTP from <URL:ftp://cajal.uoregon.edu/pub/tcl.dos.port/> and <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/distrib/tcl62.dos.tar.Z>. An MS-DOS Windows DLL instance of Tcl 6.2 was generated by <URL:mailto:ugo@oliver.sublink.org> (Ugo Cei). Contact him for more details. A Windows DLL was made by <URL:mailto:ekki@prakinf.tu-ilmenau.de> (Ekkehard Beier) by slightly modifying a DOS 6.2 Tcl port. There are still problems with the system/WinExec command. A very rudimentary Debugger User Interface using Borland's Classlib is part of the zip-file, too. The source was used also with BC3.1++/AF on MS W3.1. You can get a copy from <URL:ftp://metallica.prakinf.tu-ilmenau.de/pub/DOS/wintcl.zip> via anonymous ftp. Unfortunately Ekki doesn't have time currently to finish the Windows port and user Interface. A source code only port of Tcl V6.7 to MS-DOS, done by <URL:mailto:PSPRENG@CIPVAX.BIOLAN.UNI-KOELN.DE> (Peter Sprenger), is available from him, somewhere on wuarchive.wustl.edu or as <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/distrib/tcl67dos.zip>. A port of Tcl, version 7.3, to MS-DOS, done by <URL:mailto:tpoindex@nyx.net> (Tom Poindexter), is available as <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/distrib/mstcl73e.zip> and <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/distrib/mstcl73s.zip>. This also includes TclX 7.3a and Tk ported to Desqview/X libraries. <URL:mailto:ken@ms.uky.edu> (Professor Ken K. Kubota) has announced a port of Tcl 7.3 and Tk3.6a to MS DOS Windows using Borland C++ 4.0. Fetch the README files from the ftp sites <URL:ftp://ftp.ms.uky.edu/pub/tk-win/{tkwinbin,tkwin,fedloc}.zip> for more information. Omar Stanford <URL:mailto:omar@fcm.missouri.edu> reported in March of 1994 that he had almost completed his port of Tcl 7.3 to MS-Windows 3.1. He had incorporated extensions for networking (including NetWare), Windows Sockets, and many Windows API functions. He also was working on a facility for dynamically allocating commands to the Tcl environment. If there are other extensions that one would like to see under Windows 3.1, or if you are interested in beta testing, drop him a line. <URL:mailto:haga@sra.co.jp> (Toshihiko Haga) and <URL:mailto:miyata@sra.co.jp> (Shigeaki Miyata) announced twin (tcl/tk for MS-Windows), which does not support exec and send, but supports a -bitmap for Windows .bmp files. A few other modifications or special exceptions are noted. This package's files can be found at <URL:ftp://ftp.sra.co.jp/pub/lang/tcl/{twinesrc,twinebin}.zip> and <URL:ftp://ftp.sra.co.jp/pub/lang/tcl/{twinesrc,twinebin}.doc>. Also, Simon Kenyon <URL:mailto:simon@news.itc.icl.ie> of the Information Technology Centre, Dublin, IRELAND, mentions that they are starting to port Tk to MS-Windows. There is a mailing list (see "tcl-faq/part2") for folk who are interested. A package to take older Tcl source distributions and rename them to MS-DOS conventions, so that it can be compiled, has been written by <URL:mailto:byennaco@east.sun.com> (Bob Yennaco). It is available as <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/distrib/tcl2dos.sh.gz> As of Tcl 7.5 (now in alpha testing), the source code for Tcl and Tk should compile and run on Windows machines from the original distribution. Steve Furr <URL:mailto:furr@qnx.com> reports getting Tcl ported to QNX without a lot of trouble. He mentions that QNX users who have the beta X should have gotten a CD-ROM update with Tcl and Tk on the CD. A port of Tcl 7.3, except for glob or command pipelines, to OS/2 2.x using C Set++ has been done by <URL:mailto:wwb@wwa.com> (Bud Bach). Andreas Stuebinger <URL:mailto:stuebing@infosun.fmi.uni-passau.de> also has done an OS/2 port of Tcl (version unknown). Tcl 7.4 has been ported to OS/2 by Stefano Fornari <URL:mailto:fornari@ipvvis.unipv.it> It is available at <URL:ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/os/os2/devtools/languages/>. Illya Vaes <URL:mailto:ivaes@hr.ns.nl> is working on a port of Tk 4.1 (the Win32 version) to OS/2 Presentation Manager. He is using the native PM/GPI calls and should be able to support OS/2 2.x. It is reported that Ilya Zakharevich <URL:mailto:ilya@math.ohio-state.edu> is doing something similar, using the Developer's API extensions to directly support most of the Win32 API's under OS/2 Warp with DAX/DAPIE and Fixpack 17 installed. Contact them for more details on the progress being made. Also (see "tcl-faq/part4"), the Tcl programs/packages catalog, for the latest port locations. D. VMS A port of Tcl 7.3 and Tk 3.6 to VMS was done by Angel Li <URL:mailto:angel@flipper.rsmas.miami.edu>. The files are at <URL:ftp://mango.rsmas.miami.edu/pub/VMS-tcl/tcl73-tk36-itcl13.tar.Z> and were compressed with the Unix compress command. The pathname may be subject to change as I have seen notes from Angel Li mentioning that BLT 1.6 and the photo widget have also been ported. These were compiled on an Alpha running OpenVMS T6.1. A port of Tcl 6.3 onto VMS 5.5 was done by Wolfgang Kechel <URL:mailto:wolfgang@pr-wiesbaden.de> and Till Imanuel Panzschke. Contact them directly for assistance. A port of most of Tcl 6.7 and Tk 3.2 was done by John Kimball <URL:mailto:jkimball@src.honeywell.com> to VMS 5.5. The files are on <URL:ftp://src.honeywell.com/pub/tcl67-tk32-on-vms55.tar.Z>. A port of Tcl 7.0 and Tk 3.3 has being done to VMS on the VAX and Alpha. These are available as: <URL:ftp://src.honeywell.com/pub/vms-tcl/tcl70-tk33-on-vms55.tar.Z> or <URL:ftp://src.honeywell.com/pub/tcl70-tk33-on-vms55.tar.Z>. Gerald W. Lester <URL:mailto:gwlester@cpu.com> says the following _should_ work. If you installed the POSIX package on VMS (its free), then you should be able to configure and make tcl. To access tcl you would have to do one of the following: 1) Use the POSIX shell, or 2) do a "psx tcl". Tcl scripts would not execute directly from DCL; to execute a script foo.tcl from DCL you would have to do "psx foo.tcl". DISCLAIMER: I have not built any version of tcl under VMS POSIX, these comments are based on other work I've done with VMS POSIX. <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/distrib/vms-sharable-binaries.tar.gz> is a version of Tcl/Tk for VMS built as a sharable library. It includes a dynamic module loading command. Otherwise, it matches the src.honeywell.com version. Also (see "tcl-faq/part4"), the Tcl programs/packages catalog, for the latest port locations. E. AmigaDOS Karl Lehbauer <URL:mailto:karl@sugar.NeoSoft.com> has indicated that he started a port of Tcl 3.x to the Amiga. He has a working version, but is no longer working on it. His version uses the Amiga's shared libraries and implements the "send" command. He wrote a MIDI file loader and player as well. Contact him for further details. Ty Sarna <URL:mailto:tsarna@endicor.com> has ported Tcl 6.x to the Amiga. He says: > I've ported 3.3 and several 6.x versions to the Amiga, and it can be > done in under and hour if you leave out the "Unix" functionality. > However, "Unix" functionality includes things like file I/O! Another Amiga user, <URL:mailto:colas@opossum.inria.fr> (Colas Nahaboo), mentioned that using Amiga gcc and the PD X server DaggeX and Xlibs that a port of Tk might be possible. <URL:mailto:hnm@hermes.bouw.tno.nl> (Marco van der Heiden) has completed a port to the Amiga, and suggests Amiga developers contact him by email. <URL:mailto:wulf@hotdog.ping.de> (Berndt Wulf) reports building Tcl and Tk on an Amiga system running NetBSD1.0b2, using the sources on the Walnut Creek Tcl/Tk CD-ROM. A version of Tcl is apparently available on Fish disk number 447. I do not have information concerning what version of Tcl this is. It is my understanding that the Fish disks are available on many of the Amiga Internet archive sites, one of which is <URL:ftp://ftp.cso.uiuc.edu/>. Also (see "tcl-faq/part4"), the Tcl programs/packages catalog, for the latest port locations. F. NeXT (See "tcl-faq/tk/part1") for details on getting Tk to compile under NeXTStep and (see "tcl-faq/usage") for details on getting Tcl to compile. G. Other A port to the Apple IIgs and GNO 1.1/GSOS environment is underway. A beta port of Tcl 7 has been done to VxWorks. You can find it at <URL:ftp://thor.atd.ucar.edu/pub/vx/tclvx7.0.v2.tar.gz> or a name similar (if updates have occurred). A port to GEOS was attempted, but it was found to be difficult to run there (except perhaps under the desktop platform) due to resource limits and constraints. A port of Tcl/Tk and X11R6 to OS-9 has been reported to be done by <URL:mailto:kt@keihh.hanse.de> Kei Thomasen. A different port of Tcl/Tk to OS-9 was done by <URL:mailto:oertel@port.de> Heinz-Juergen Oertel. Also (see "tcl-faq/part4"), the Tcl programs/packages catalog, for the latest port locations. ------------------------------ From: FAQ General information Subject: -IV- Other than C, what languages can talk to tcl/tk? A. Shell There are a number of interfaces which are shell-like. The first is tclsh, which comes as a sample program implementing a Tcl interpreter as a part of the Tcl distribution. Another is wish, which is a shell-like interface that is a part of the Tk package. Many of the other extensions also build interpreters as well. The tclX extension is an example - it builds an interpreter called tcl as well as one called wishx. B. C++ There is a package called Objectify which can be used to assist one in turning C++ classes into Tcl object types. If you wish to use C++ with Tcl then you must have your main() in a source file that is compiled with a C++ compiler; this will ensure that the necessary C++ pre-main initialization code is executed. You can call tcl and tk routines (or other C code) routines from C++ provided that the function prototypes avoid C++ name mangling by using the C++ linkage specification : extern "C" ... prototype ... Fortunately, tcl.h and tk.h will provide these specifications when compiled with a C++ compiler and so you can just use them directly. You can construct your main using normal tcl and tk routines, or use tkMain.c and tkAppInit.c with minor modifications. Ken Yap's patch, obtainable from <URL:ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/alcatel/distrib/tk3.2forC++.patch>, is a patch that allows tk 3.2 main.c and other extension routines to be compiled with a C++ compiler. Thanks to Ken Yap <URL:mailto:ken@syd.dit.csiro.au> for this code. C++ functions and static class member functions can be used to create Tcl command using Tcl_CreateCommand in the normal way. Non-static member functions cannot be used so simply, Tcl would have to supply a "this" pointer. Check out tcl++.h in Extended Tcl. Based on an original implementation b R |>@,'R6ep 3 #LǑnUA1^,qyM/z . 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