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@@ -1,401 +0,0 @@ -README: Tcl - - Tcl is maintained, enhanced, and distributed freely as a - service to the Tcl community by Scriptics Corporation. - -RCS: @(#) $Id: README,v 1.16 1999/04/16 00:46:29 stanton Exp $ - -Contents --------- - 1. Introduction - 2. Documentation - 3. Compiling and installing Tcl - 4. Summary of changes in Tcl 8.1 - 5. Development tools - 6. Tcl newsgroup - 7. Tcl contributed archive - 8. Tcl Resource Center - 9. Mailing lists - 10. Support and bug fixes - 11. Tcl version numbers - -1. Introduction ---------------- - -Tcl provides a powerful platform for creating integration -applications that tie together diverse applications, protocols, -devices, and frameworks. When paired with the Tk toolkit, Tcl -provides the fastest and most powerful way to create GUI applications -that run on PCs, Unix, and the Macintosh. Tcl can also be used for a -variety of web-related tasks and for creating powerful command -languages for applications. - -This directory contains the sources and documentation for Tcl. The -information here corresponds to release 8.1b3, which is the third -beta release for Tcl 8.1. This release is mostly feature complete but -may have bugs and be missing some minor features. This release is for -early adopters who are willing to help us find and fix problems. -Please let us know about any problems you uncover. - -Tcl 8.1 includes four major new features: Unicode support (all internal -strings are now stored in UTF-8 form), a new regular expression matcher -with most of the Perl features, support for multithreading, and a new -message catalog package. For details on features, incompatibilities, and -potential problems with this release, see the Tcl/Tk 8.1 Web page at -http://www.scriptics.com/software/8.1.html or refer to the "changes" file -in this directory, which contains a historical record of all changes to -Tcl. - -Tcl is a freely available open source package. You can do virtually -anything you like with it, such as modifying it, redistributing it, -and selling it either in whole or in part. See the file -"license.terms" for complete information. - -2. Documentation ----------------- - -The best way to get started with Tcl is to read about Tcl on the -Scriptics Web site at: - - http://www.scriptics.com/scripting - -Another good 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/ - -There is also an official home for Tcl and Tk on the Scriptics Web site: - - 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! - -2a. Unix Documentation ----------------------- - -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 on Unix, 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 - -2b. Windows Documentation -------------------------- - -The "doc/help" subdirectory in this release contains a complete set of -Windows help files for TclPro. Once you install this Tcl release, a -shortcut to the Windows help Tcl documentation will appear in the -"Start" menu: - - Start | Programs | Tcl | Tcl Help - -3. Compiling and installing Tcl -------------------------------- - -This release contains everything you should need to compile and run -Tcl under UNIX, PCs (either Windows NT, Windows 95, or Win 3.1 with -Win32s), and Macintoshes. - -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. - -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 8.1 --------------------------------- - -Here are the most significant changes in Tcl 8.1. 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. Internationalization. Tcl has undergone a major revision to - support international character sets: - - All strings in Tcl are now represented in UTF-8 instead of ASCII, - so that Tcl now supports the full Unicode character set. The - representation of ASCII characters is unchanged (in UTF-8 anything - that looks like an ASCII character is an ASCII character), but - characters with the high-order bit set, such as those in ISO-8859, - are represented with multi-byte sequences, as are all Unicode - characters with values greater than 127. This change does not - affect Tcl scripts but it does affect C code that parses strings. - Tcl automatically translates between UTF-8 and the normal encoding - for the platform during interactions with the system. - - In Tcl scripts the backslash sequence \u can be used to enter - 16-bit Unicode characters. \o and \x generate only 8-bit - characters as before. - - There is a new "encoding" command that allows scripts to determine - what encodings are available as well as to convert strings between - different encodings. The fconfigure command now supports a - -encoding option for specifying the encoding of an open file or - socket. Tcl will automatically translate between the specified - encoding and UTF-8 during I/O. - - There are several new C APIs that support UTF-8 and various - encodings. See the manual entry Utf.3 for procedures that - translate between Unicode and UTF-8 and manipulate UTF-8 strings. - See Encoding.3 for procedures that create new encodings and - translate between encodings. See ToUpper.3 for procedures that - perform case conversions on UTF-8 strings. - - 2. Binary data. Binary data is handled differently in Tcl 8.1 - than in Tcl 8.0. Tcl 8.1 uses the UTF-8 facilities to represent - binary data: the character value zero is represented with a - multi-byte sequence, so that (once again) strings in Tcl 8.1 never - contain null bytes. This means that binary data is now accepted - everywhere in Tcl and Tk (in Tcl 8.0 the support for binary data - was incomplete). If you have C code that needs to manipulate the - bytes of binary data (as opposed to just passing the data through) - you should use a new object type called "byte array". See the - manual entry ByteArrObj.3 for information about procedures such as - Tcl_GetByteArrayFromObj. - - 3. Regular expressions. Tcl 8.1 contains a brand new - implementation of regular expressions from Henry Spencer. The - regular expression syntax has been greatly expanded to include - most of the features in Perl. In addition, the regexp engine - supports Unicode and binary data. See the doc/regexp.n manual - entry for more details. - - 4. Threads. If configured with the --enable-threads flag, Tcl can - now be compiled for use in a multi-threaded application. - Individual threads are allowed to use one or more interpreters as - long as each interpreter (and any slave interpreters) is only - accessed by one thread. Each thread runs its own event loop, and - you can post events to other threads. There are new C APIs for - mutexes, condition variables, and thread local storage. See the - doc/Thread.3 manual entry for more details. Tk 8.1 is not yet - multi-thread safe. There is not yet support for tcl level use of - threading except for a test command. (Compile tcltest and try - testthread.) - - 5. Message catalog. There is a new message catalog package which makes - it easy to localize the strings in a script. See the doc/msgcat.n - manual entry for more details. - - 6. Stubbs library for building extensions. There is now a new - way to build extensions for Tcl. Instead of linking with the - tcl shared library you can now link to a stubs library that gets - built in this release. By linking with the stubs library it - is possible to use dynamically loaded extensions in staticlly - built applications. It will also be possible for some extensions - to work for both Tcl 8.0 & 8.1 with out having to recompile. - -5. Development tools --------------------- - -A high quality set of commercial development tools is now available to -accelerate your Tcl application development. Scriptics' TclPro -product provides a debugger, static code checker, packaging utility, -and bytecode compiler. Visit the Scriptics Web site at: - - http://www.scriptics.com/tclpro - -for more information on TclPro and for a free 30-day evaluation -download. - -6. Tcl newsgroup ----------------- - -There is a network news group "comp.lang.tcl" intended for the -exchange of information about Tcl, Tk, and related applications. The -newsgroup is a greata place to ask general information questions. For -bug reports, please see the "Support and bug fixes" section below. - -7. 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. - -8. Tcl Resource Center ----------------------- - -Visit http://www.scriptics.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 development tools, extensions, -applications, binary releases, and patches. You can also recommend -additional URLs for the resource center using the forms labeled "Add a -Resource". - -9. Mailing lists ----------------- - -A couple of Mailing List have been set up to discuss Macintosh or -Windows related Tcl issues. 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 Smith - -Replacing Joe Smith 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). - -10. Support and bug fixes -------------------------- - -Scriptics is very interested in receiving bug reports, patches, and -suggestions for improvements. We prefer that you send this -information to us via the bug form on the Scriptics Web site, rather -than emailing us directly. The bug form is at: - - http://www.scriptics.com/support/bugForm.html - -The bug form was designed to give uniform structure to bug reports as -well as to solicit enough information to minimize followup questions. -The bug form also includes an option to automatically post your report -on comp.lang.tcl. We strongly recommend that you select this option -because someone else who reads comp.lang.tcl may be able to offer a -solution. - -When reporting bugs, please provide full information about the Tcl/Tk -version and the platform on which you are running Tcl/Tk. Also, -please include 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? - -We will log and follow-up on each bug, although we cannot promise a -specific turn-around time. 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/Tk turns into a kitchen sink). -It's very difficult to make incompatible changes to Tcl/Tk at this -point, due to the size of the installed base. - -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/Tk support and training are available -commercially from Scriptics at: - - http://www.scriptics.com/training - -Also see the following Web site for links to other organizations that -offer Tcl/Tk training: - - http://www.scriptics.com/resource/commercial/training - -11. 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., 8.0.5). -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 now have a suffix such as ".4" or ".5". Prior to -version 8.0.3, patch releases had the suffix "p1" or "p2". 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 continue to use the 'a' and 'b' letters in their -tcl_patchLevel. Patch releases normally contain bug fixes only. A -patch release (e.g Tcl 8.0.5) should be completely compatible with the -base release from which it is derived (e.g. Tcl 8.0), and you should -normally use the highest available patch release. - -12. Thank You -------------- - -We'd like to express our thanks to the Tcl community for all the -helpful suggestions, bug reports, and patches we have received. -Tcl/Tk has improved vastly and will continue to do so with your help. |