Tcl 8.4 for Windows

RCS: @(#) $Id: README,v 1.30.2.2 2007/12/14 20:55:29 hobbs Exp $

1. Introduction
---------------

This is the directory where you configure and compile the Windows
version of Tcl.  This directory also contains source files for Tcl
that are specific to Microsoft Windows.

The information in this file is maintained on the web at:

	http://www.tcl.tk/doc/howto/compile.html#win

The above URL includes a lengthy discussion of compiler macros necessary
when compiling Tcl extensions that will be dynamically loaded.

2. Compiling Tcl
----------------

In order to compile Tcl for Windows, you need the following:

	Tcl 8.4 Source Distribution (plus any patches)

	and

	Visual C++ 6 or newer

	or

	Msys + Mingw [http://www.mingw.org/download.shtml]

	http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/msys_mingw8.zip

	This Msys + Mingw download above is the minimal environment needed
	to build Tcl/Tk under Windows. It includes a shell environment and
	gcc. The release is designed to make it as easy a possible to build
	Tcl/Tk. To install, you just download the zip file and extract the
	files into a directory. The README.TXT file describes how to launch
	the msys shell, you then run the configure script in the tcl/win
	directory.

In practice, this release is built with Visual C++ 6.0 and the TEA
Makefile.

If you are building with Visual C++, in the "win" subdirectory of the
source release, you will find "makefile.vc".  This is the makefile for the
Visual C++ compiler and uses the stock NMAKE tool.  Detailed directions for
using it, are in the comments of "makefile.vc".  A quick example would be:

	C:\tcl_source\win\>nmake -f makefile.vc

There is also a Developer Studio workspace and project file, too, if you
would like to use them.

If you are building with Msys, you can use the configure script that lives
in the win subdirectory. The Msys based configure/build process works just
like the UNIX one, so you will want to refer to ../unix/README for
available configure options. An error will be generated by the configure
script if you try to compile Tcl with the Cygwin version of gcc instead of
the Mingw version. Check your PATH if you get this error. Be aware that gcc
will generate lots of compile time warnings when building Tcl. Warnings are
not errors, so please don't file a bug report about them.

Use the Makefile "install" target to install Tcl.  It will install it
according to the prefix options you provided in the correct directory
structure.

Note that in order to run tclsh84.exe, you must ensure that tcl84.dll
and tclpip84.dll are on your path, in the system directory, or in the 
directory containing tclsh84.exe.

Note: Tcl no longer provides support for Win32s.

3. Test suite
-------------

This distribution contains an extensive test suite for Tcl.  Some of the
tests are timing dependent and will fail from time to time.  If a test is
failing consistently, please send us a bug report with as much detail as
you can manage.  Please use the online database at

	http://tcl.sourceforge.net/

In order to run the test suite, you build the "test" target using the
appropriate makefile for your compiler.