TclProp, OAT, and TkOAT - General README

RCS:  $Id: README,v 1.1 1996/12/03 02:50:54 safonov Exp safonov $

What is it?

   Release 2.0p1 of TclProp, a formula manager and propagation engine 
   for Tcl, plus extensions that allow traces and formulas to be defined
   on widget and other "object" attributes.

Why are these extensions made public?

   - Because we believe that simple constraints, such as formulas 
   provided by TclProp, make programming user interfaces in Tcl and Tk 
   easier. 

   - Becase extensible constraint toolkits, such as OAT/TclProp
   plans to become, make programming in general more powerful.


Is there any documentation?

   - The README files for each component of the distribution.
   - blurb at http://www.cs.umn.edu/research/GIMME/tclprop.html


What is included in the distribution?

  The distribution includes the following components:
    - TclProp 2.0, a script-only formula manager and propagation engine 
      for Tcl.
    - OAT (stands for Object Attribute Traces), a Tcl extension for using 
      traces with arbitrary objects, and not just with Tcl variables.
    - TkOAT, an extension to Tk that enables traces on Tk widget and canvas
      item attributes. This extension currently requires changes to the 
      Tk core.
    - patch for tk4.1 required by TkOAT. File name is tk4-tkoat.patch.

  The distribution is packaged in 3 different forms, with TclProp included
  in each of the three. The differences are in how loadable extensions and 
  changes to the Tk core are packaged:

    - TclProp-2.0p1.tar.gz     : patches to Tk 4.1 core. 4.2 patches to come...

    - TclProp-2.0p1-src.tar.gz : same patches already applied to Tk 4.1

    - TclProp-2.0p1-bin.tar.gz : pre-compiled wish4.1 binaries for Solaris,
			         Linux, and Irix. More platforms to come...
                                 See file README-bin for more information 
 		 		 on how to set up and run the precompiled 
				 wish binaries.


Where is it?

  - TclProp-2.0p1*.tar.gz uploaded to ftp://ftp.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/incoming
  - http://www.cs.umn.edu/~safonov/TclProp/TclProp-2.0p1*.tar.gz


How do I install it?

  See file INSTALL for more information.


What is the status of TclProp, OAT etc? What are the future directions?

  - Quality: alpha. We expect to stabilize the code when Tk is made
    a dynamically loadable extension.
   
  - Future work: develop an extension similar to TkOAT that provides 
    traces on [incr tcl] object attributes.


Bug reports, flames, suggestions, etc:

  - send to me, Alex Safonov (safonov@cs.umn.edu).