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@@ -1,376 +0,0 @@ -Tcl - -RCS: @(#) $Id: README,v 1.13 1999/02/09 03:31:55 stanton Exp $ - -1. Introduction ---------------- - -This directory and its descendants contain the sources and documentation -for Tcl, an embeddable scripting language. The information here -corresponds to release 8.0.5, which is the fifth patch update for Tcl 8.0. -This patch includes many bug fixes; see the "changes" file for a complete -list. Tcl 8.0 is a major new release that replaces the core of the -interpreter with an on-the-fly bytecode compiler to improve execution -speed. It also includes several other new features such as namespaces and -binary I/O, plus many bug fixes. The compiler introduces a few -incompatibilities that may affect existing Tcl scripts; the -incompatibilities are relatively obscure but may require modifications to -some old scripts before they can run with this version. The compiler -introduces many new C-level APIs, but the old APIs are still supported. -See below for more details. - -2. Documentation ----------------- - -The best way to get started with Tcl is to read one of the introductory -books on Tcl: - - Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk, 2nd Edition, by Brent Welch, - Prentice-Hall, 1997, ISBN 0-13-616830-2 - - Tcl and the Tk Toolkit, by John Ousterhout, - Addison-Wesley, 1994, ISBN 0-201-63337-X - - Exploring Expect, by Don Libes, - O'Reilly and Associates, 1995, ISBN 1-56592-090-2 - -Other books are listed at -http://www.scriptics.com/resource/doc/books/ -http://www.tclconsortium.org/resources/books.html - -The "doc" subdirectory in this release contains a complete set of reference -manual entries for Tcl. Files with extension ".1" are for programs (for -example, tclsh.1); files with extension ".3" are for C library procedures; -and files with extension ".n" describe Tcl commands. The file "doc/Tcl.n" -gives a quick summary of the Tcl language syntax. To print any of the man -pages, cd to the "doc" directory and invoke your favorite variant of -troff using the normal -man macros, for example - - ditroff -man Tcl.n - -to print Tcl.n. If Tcl has been installed correctly and your "man" -program supports it, you should be able to access the Tcl manual entries -using the normal "man" mechanisms, such as - - man Tcl - -There is also an official home for Tcl and Tk on the Web: - http://www.scriptics.com -These Web pages include information about the latest releases, products -related to Tcl and Tk, reports on bug fixes and porting issues, HTML -versions of the manual pages, and pointers to many other Tcl/Tk Web -pages at other sites. Check them out! - -3. Compiling and installing Tcl -------------------------------- - -This release contains everything you should need to compile and run -Tcl under UNIX, Macintoshes, and PCs (either Windows NT, Windows 95, -or Win 3.1 with Win32s). - -Before trying to compile Tcl you should do the following things: - - (a) Check for a binary release. Pre-compiled binary releases are - available now for PCs, Macintoshes, and several flavors of UNIX. - Binary releases are much easier to install than source releases. - To find out whether a binary release is available for your - platform, check the Scriptics Tcl Resource Center - (http://www.scriptics.com/resource). Also, check in - the FTP directory from which you retrieved the base - distribution. - - (b) Make sure you have the most recent patch release. Look in the - FTP directory from which you retrieved this distribution to see - if it has been updated with patches. Patch releases fix bugs - without changing any features, so you should normally use the - latest patch release for the version of Tcl that you want. - Patch releases are available in two forms. A file like - tcl8.0.5.tar.Z is a complete release for patch level 5 of Tcl - version 8.0. If there is a file with a higher patch level than - this release, just fetch the file with the highest patch level - and use it. - -Once you've done this, change to the "unix" subdirectory if you're -compiling under UNIX, "win" if you're compiling under Windows, or -"mac" if you're compiling on a Macintosh. Then follow the instructions -in the README file in that directory for compiling Tcl, installing it, -and running the test suite. - -4. Summary of changes in Tcl 8.0 --------------------------------- - -Here are the most significant changes in Tcl 8.0. In addition to these -changes, there are several smaller changes and bug fixes. See the file -"changes" for a complete list of all changes. - - 1. Bytecode compiler. The core of the Tcl interpreter has been - replaced with an on-the-fly compiler that translates Tcl scripts to - byte codes; a new interpreter then executes the byte codes. In - earlier versions of Tcl, strings were used as a universal - representation; in Tcl 8.0 strings are replaced with Tcl_Obj - structures ("objects") that can hold both a string value and an - internal form such as a binary integer or compiled bytecodes. The - new objects make it possible to store information in efficient - internal forms and avoid the constant translations to and from - strings that occurred with the old interpreter. We have not yet - converted all of Tcl to take full advantage of the compiler and - objects and have not converted any of Tk yet, but even so you - should see speedups of 2-3x on many programs and you may see - speedups as much as 10-20x in some cases (such as code that - manipulates long lists). Future releases should achieve even - greater speedups. The compiler introduces only a few minor changes - at the level of Tcl scripts, but it introduces many new C APIs for - managing objects. See, for example, the manual entries doc/*Obj*.3. - - 2. Namespaces. There is a new namespace mechanism based on the - namespace implementation by Michael McLennan of Lucent Technologies. - This includes new "namespace" and "variable" commands. There are - many new C APIs associated with namespaces, but they will not be - exported until Tcl 8.1. Note: the syntax of the namespace command - has been changed slightly since the b1 release. See the changes - file for details. - - 3. Binary I/O. The new object system in Tcl 8.0 supports binary - strings (internally, strings are counted in addition to being null - terminated). There is a new "binary" command for inserting and - extracting data to/from binary strings. Commands such as "puts", - "gets", and "read" commands now operate correctly on binary data. - There is a new variable tcl_platform(byteOrder) to identify the - native byte order for the current host. - - 4. Random numbers. The "expr" command now contains a random number - generator, which can be accessed via the "rand()" and "srand()" math - functions. - - 5. Safe-Tcl enhancements. There is a new "hidden command" - mechanism, implemented with the Tcl commands "interp hide", "interp - expose", "interp invokehidden", and "interp hidden" and the C APIs - Tcl_HideCommand and Tcl_ExposeCommand. There is now support for - safe packages and extension loading, including new library - procedures such as safe::interpCreate (see the manual entry safe.n - for details). - - 6. There is a new package "registry" available under Windows for - accessing the Windows registry. - - 7. There is a new command "file attributes" for getting and setting - things like permissions and owner. There is also a new command - "file nativename" for getting back the platform-specific name for a - particular file. - - 8. There is a new "fcopy" command to copy data between channels. - This replaces and improves upon the not-so-secret unsupported old - command "unsupported0". - - 9. There is a new package "http" for doing GET, POST, and HEAD - requests via the HTTP/1.0 protocol. See the manual entry http.n - for details. - - 10. There are new library procedures for finding word breaks in - strings. See the manual entry library.n for details. - - 11. There are new C APIs Tcl_Finalize (for cleaning up before - unloading the Tcl DLL) and Tcl_Ungets for pushing bytes back into a - channel's input buffer. - - 12. Tcl now supports serial I/O devices on Windows and Unix, with a - new fconfigure -mode option. The Windows driver does not yet - support event-driven I/O. - - 13. The lsort command has new options -dictionary and -index. The - -index option allows for very rapid sorting based on an element - of a list. - - 14. The event notifier has been completely rewritten (again). It - should now allow Tcl to use an external event loop (like Motif's) - when it is embedded in other applications. No script-level - interfaces have changed, but many of the C APIs have. - -Tcl 8.0 introduces the following incompatibilities that may affect Tcl -scripts that worked under Tcl 7.6 and earlier releases: - - 1. Variable and command names may not include the character sequence - "::" anymore: this sequence is now used as a namespace separator. - - 2. The semantics of some Tcl commands have been changed slightly to - maximize performance under the compiler. These incompatibilities - are documented on the Web so that we can keep the list up-to-date. - See the URL http://www.sunlabs.com/research/tcl/compiler.html. - - 3. 2-digit years are now parsed differently by the "clock" command - to handle year 2000 issues better (years 00-38 are treated as - 2000-2038 instead of 1900-1938). - - 4. The old Macintosh commands "cp", "mkdir", "mv", "rm", and "rmdir" - are no longer supported; all of these features are now available on - all platforms via the "file" command. - - 5. The variable tcl_precision is now shared between interpreters - and defaults to 12 digits instead of 6; safe interpreters cannot - modify tcl_precision. The new object system in Tcl 8.0 causes - floating-to-string conversions (and the associated rounding) to - occur much less often than in Tcl 7.6, which can sometimes cause - behavioral changes. - - 6. The C APIs associated with the notifier have changed substantially. - - 7. The procedures Tcl_CreateModalTimeout and Tcl_DeleteModalTimeout - have been removed. - - 8. Tcl_CreateFileHandler and Tcl_DeleteFileHandler now take Unix - fd's and are only supported on the Unix platform - - 9. The C APIs for creating channel drivers have changed as part of - the new notifier implementation. The Tcl_File interfaces have been - removed. Tcl_GetChannelFile has been replaced with - Tcl_GetChannelHandle. Tcl_MakeFileChannel now takes a platform- - specific file handle. Tcl_DriverGetOptionProc procedures now take - an additional interp argument. - -5. Tcl newsgroup ------------------ - -There is a network news group "comp.lang.tcl" intended for the exchange -of information about Tcl, Tk, and related applications. Feel free to use -the newsgroup both for general information questions and for bug reports. -We read the newsgroup and will attempt to fix bugs and problems reported -to it. - -When using comp.lang.tcl, please be sure that your e-mail return address -is correctly set in your postings. This allows people to respond directly -to you, rather than the entire newsgroup, for answers that are not of -general interest. A bad e-mail return address may prevent you from -getting answers to your questions. You may have to reconfigure your news -reading software to ensure that it is supplying valid e-mail addresses. - -6. Tcl contributed archive --------------------------- - -Many people have created exciting packages and applications based on Tcl -and/or Tk and made them freely available to the Tcl community. An archive -of these contributions is kept on the machine ftp.neosoft.com. You -can access the archive using anonymous FTP; the Tcl contributed archive is -in the directory "/pub/tcl". The archive also contains several FAQ -("frequently asked questions") documents that provide solutions to problems -that are commonly encountered by TCL newcomers. - -7. Tcl Resource Center ----------------------- -Visit http://www.scritics.com/resource/ to see an annotated index of -many Tcl resources available on the World Wide Web. This includes -papers, books, and FAQs, as well as extensions, applications, binary -releases, and patches. You can contribute patches by sending them -to <patches@scriptics.com>. You can also recommend more URLs for the -resource center using the forms labeled "Add a Resource". - -8. Mailing lists ----------------- - -A couple of Mailing List have been set up to discuss Macintosh or -Windows related Tcl issues. In order to use these Mailing Lists you -must have access to the internet. To subscribe send a message to: - - wintcl-request@tclconsortium.org - mactcl-request@tclconsortium.org - -In the body of the message (the subject will be ignored) put: - - subscribe mactcl Joe Blow - -Replacing Joe Blow with your real name, of course. (Use wintcl -instead of mactcl if your interested in the Windows list.) If you -would just like to receive more information about the list without -subscribing put the line: - - information mactcl - -in the body instead (or wintcl). - -9. Support and bug fixes ------------------------- - -We're very interested in receiving bug reports and suggestions for -improvements. We prefer that you send this information to the -comp.lang.tcl newsgroup rather than to any of us at Scriptics. We'll see -anything on comp.lang.tcl, and in addition someone else who reads -comp.lang.tcl may be able to offer a solution. The normal turn-around -time for bugs is 3-6 weeks. Enhancements may take longer and may not -happen at all unless there is widespread support for them (we're -trying to slow the rate at which Tcl turns into a kitchen sink). It's -very difficult to make incompatible changes to Tcl at this point, due -to the size of the installed base. - -When reporting bugs, please provide a short tclsh script that we can -use to reproduce the bug. Make sure that the script runs with a -bare-bones tclsh and doesn't depend on any extensions or other -programs, particularly those that exist only at your site. Also, -please include three additional pieces of information with the -script: - (a) how do we use the script to make the problem happen (e.g. - what things do we click on, in what order)? - (b) what happens when you do these things (presumably this is - undesirable)? - (c) what did you expect to happen instead? - -The Tcl community is too large for us to provide much individual -support for users. If you need help we suggest that you post questions -to comp.lang.tcl. We read the newsgroup and will attempt to answer -esoteric questions for which no-one else is likely to know the answer. -In addition, Tcl support and training are available commercially from -Scriptics (info@scriptics.com), NeoSoft (info@neosoft.com), -Computerized Processes Unlimited (gwl@cpu.com), -and Data Kinetics (education@dkl.com). - -10. Tcl version numbers ----------------------- - -You can test the current version of Tcl by examining the -tcl_version and tcl_patchLevel variables. The tcl_patchLevel -variable follows the naming rules outlined below (e.g., 8.0.4). -The tcl_version just has the major.minor numbers in it (e.g., 8.0) - -Each Tcl release is identified by two numbers separated by a dot, e.g. -6.7 or 7.0. If a new release contains changes that are likely to break -existing C code or Tcl scripts then the major release number increments -and the minor number resets to zero: 6.0, 7.0, etc. If a new release -contains only bug fixes and compatible changes, then the minor number -increments without changing the major number, e.g. 7.1, 7.2, etc. If -you have C code or Tcl scripts that work with release X.Y, then they -should also work with any release X.Z as long as Z > Y. - -Alpha and beta releases have an additional suffix of the form a2 or b1. -For example, Tcl 7.0b1 is the first beta release of Tcl version 7.0, -Tcl 7.0b2 is the second beta release, and so on. A beta release is an -initial version of a new release, used to fix bugs and bad features before -declaring the release stable. An alpha release is like a beta release, -except it's likely to need even more work before it's "ready for prime -time". New releases are normally preceded by one or more alpha and beta -releases. We hope that lots of people will try out the alpha and beta -releases and report problems. We'll make new alpha/beta releases to fix -the problems, until eventually there is a beta release that appears to -be stable. Once this occurs we'll make the final release. - -We can't promise to maintain compatibility among alpha and beta releases. -For example, release 7.1b2 may not be backward compatible with 7.1b1, even -though the final 7.1 release will be backward compatible with 7.0. This -allows us to change new features as we find problems during beta testing. -We'll try to minimize incompatibilities between beta releases, but if -a major problem turns up then we'll fix it even if it introduces an -incompatibility. Once the official release is made then there won't -be any more incompatibilities until the next release with a new major -version number. - -(Note: This compatibility is true for Tcl scripts, but historically the Tcl -C APIs have changed enough between releases that you may need to work a bit to -upgrade extensions.) - -Patch releases have a suffix such as p1 or p2. These releases contain -bug fixes only. A patch release (e.g Tcl 7.6p2) should be completely -compatible with the base release from which it is derived (e.g. Tcl -7.6), and you should normally use the highest available patch release. - -As of 8.0.3, the patch releases use a second . instead of 'p'. So, -the 8.0 release went to 8.0p1, 8.0p2, 8.0.3, 8.0.4, and 8.0.5. The -alphas and betas will still use the 'a' and 'b' letters in their -tcl_patchLevel. - |