path: root/macosx/README

TclTkAqua README 
----------------

RCS: @(#) $Id: README,v 1.1 2002/10/16 23:56:02 das Exp $

This is the README file for the Mac OS X native versions of Tcl & Tk.


1. General
----------

- The tcl-mac mailing list on sourceforge is the canonical place for questions
specific to Tcl & Tk on Mac OS X:
	http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/tcl-mac
(this page also has a link to searchable archives of the list, please check them
before asking on the list, many questions have already been answered).

- For general tcl/tk questions, the newsgroup comp.lang.tcl is your best bet, but
also check the Tcl'ers Wiki for a wealth of information:
	http://wiki.tcl.tk/

- The wiki has a page listing known bugs in Mac OS X Tk (and other tips)
	http://wiki.tcl.tk/MacOS%20X
as well as a page with info on building Tcl/Tk on Mac OS X
	http://wiki.tcl.tk/Steps%20to%20build%20Tcl/Tk%208.4.0%20on%20MacOS%20X

- You should report bugs to the sourceforge bug trackers as usual:
	https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=10894&atid=110894
	https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=12997&atid=112997


2. Using TclTkAqua
------------------

- Mac OS X 10.1 (or higher) is required to run TclTkAqua.

- Tcl built on Mac OS X 10.2 or higher will not run on 10.1 due to missing
symbols in libSystem, however Tcl built on 10.1 will run on 10.2 (but without
prebinding and other optimizations).

- Wish checks the Resources/Scripts directory in its application bundle for a
file called AppMain.tcl, if found it is used as the startup script and the
Scripts folder is added to the auto_path. This can be used to emulate the old
OS9 TclTk droplets.

- If standard input is a special file of zero length (e.g. /dev/null), Wish
brings up the tk console window at startup. This is the case when double
clicking Wish in the finder (or using 'open Wish\ Shell.app').

- Wish accepts drag & drop of text files (i.e. OS type TEXT and other files that
the system recognizes as being of NSStringPboardType). To claim other OS types
or file extensions in your Wish clone, you need to edit
	Wish Shell.app/Contents/Info.plist
for more info on how this works, c.f. the System Overview document:
	file:///Developer/Documentation/Essentials/SystemOverview/index.html

- Tcl extensions will be found in any of:
	$HOME/Library/Tcl /Library/Tcl 
	Network/Library/Tcl /System/Library/Tcl
(searched in that order).

- Tcl.framework contains the Tcl and Tk documentation in html format in the
standard location for frameworks:
	Tcl.framework/Resources/English.lproj/Documentation/Reference/Tcl
(OTOH no manpages are installed by default).
Tk.framework contains no documentation.

- the frameworks Tcl.framework and Tk.framework can be placed in any of the
system's standard framework directories:
	$HOME/Library/Frameworks /Library/Frameworks
	/Network/Library/Frameworks /System/Library/Frameworks
and 'Wish Shell' as well as /usr/bin/tclsh will work.

- /usr/bin/wish is a script that calls 'Wish Shell' in its default location
	/Applications/Utilities/Wish Shell.app
it will break if 'Wish Shell' is moved.

- if 'Wish Shell' is started from the Finder or via 'open', $argv contains a
"-psn_XXXX" argument. This is the Wish's carbon process serial number, you may
need to filter it out for cross platform compatibility of your scripts.
Also note that the env array is different when Wish is started from
the Finder, in particular PATH may not be what you expect.
(Wish inherits the Finder's environment variables, which are essentially
those set in $HOME/.MacOSX/environment.plist).

- Quickdraw text antialiasing is enabled by default when available (from 10.1.5
onwards). Changing the global boolean variable '::tk::mac::antialiasedtext'
allows to dis/enable antialiasing on the fly from tcl (even for existing text).

- the format of binary extensions expected by [load] is that of ordinary shared
libraries (.dylib) and not MachO bundles, at present loading of MachO bundles is
not supported.


3. Building TclTkAqua
---------------------

- Apple's Developer Tools CD needs to be installed (the version matching your OS
release). This CD should have come with Mac OS X retail or should be present as
a disk image on new macs that had OSX preinstalled. It can also be downloaded
from http://connect.apple.com (free ADC membership required).

- Mac OS X 10.1.5 with the April 2002 Developer Tools update (or higher) is
required to build TclTkAqua.

- Tcl and TkAqua are built as Mac OS X frameworks using Apple's ProjectBuilder
IDE, but you do not have to deal with the IDE if you don't want to: there are
Makefiles available in tcl/macosx and tk/macosx that take care of calling the
ProjectBuilder command line tool with all the details taken care of. 

- If you're only interested in _building_ TclTkAqua and don't plan on doing
development with the ProjectBuilder projects, using the Makefiles is easiest.
The following steps will build Tcl and Tk from the Terminal (assuming you are
located in the directory above the tcl and tk source trees):
	make -C tcl/macosx
	make -C tk/macosx
and the following will then install Tcl and Tk onto the root volume (admin
privileges required):
	sudo make -C tcl/macosx install
	sudo make -C tk/macosx  install
you can also pass an INSTALL_ROOT argument to 'make install', e.g.
	make -C tcl/macosx install INSTALL_ROOT=$HOME
	make -C tk/macosx  install INSTALL_ROOT=$HOME
will install into you home directory (useful if you're not an admin on your
machine)

- The default Makefile targets will build _both_ debug and optimized versions of
the Tcl and Tk frameworks with the standard convention of naming the debug
library Tcl.framework/Tcl_debug resp. Tk.framework/Tk_debug.
This allows to dynamically link to the debug library at runtime by setting
	setenv DYLD_IMAGE_SUFFIX _debug
(c.f. man dyld for more details)

If you only want to build/install the debug resp. optimized build, use the
'develop' resp. 'deploy' target variants of the Makefiles, e.g.
	make -C tcl/macosx deploy
	make -C tk/macosx deploy
	sudo make -C tcl/macosx install-deploy
	sudo make -C tk/macosx  install-deploy
will build and install only the optimized versions.

- The Makefiles can also build a version of 'Wish Shell' that has the Tcl and Tk
frameworks embedded in its application package, this allows for standalone
deployment of the application with no installation required, e.g. from read-only
media. To build & install in this manner, use the 'embedded' target variants of
the Makefiles, i.e.
	make -C tcl/macosx embedded
	make -C tk/macosx embedded
	make -C tcl/macosx install-embedded INSTALL_ROOT=`pwd`/embedded
	make -C tk/macosx  install-embedded INSTALL_ROOT=`pwd`/embedded
will build a standalone 'Wish Shell.app' in ./embedded/Applications/Utilities
(this only requires a relink if you've already built standard TclTkAqua).

Note that the embedded frameworks include only optimized builds and no
documentation.
The standalone Wish has the directory Wish\ Shell.app/Contents/lib in its
auto_path, this can be used to embed tcl extensions into the app package and
have them automatically available via [package require].

- To build from the IDE using the projects directly without going through the
Makefiles you need so setup a common build folder for the projects. A simple way
to achieve this is to make symbolic links
	ln -fs ../../build tcl/macosx/build
	ln -fs ../../build tk/macosx/build
(this location of the build folder is compatible with the Makefiles).

Another way is to set the build folder location directly in
tcl/macosx/Tcl.pbproj and tk/macosx/Wish/pbproj using ProjectBuilder's
"Project->Show Info" on the topmost icon in the filelist. Switch to "Place build
products in a separate location" with a setting of "$SRCROOT/../../build"
(this gets stored in Tcl.pbproj/$USER.pbxuser & Wish.pbproj/$USER.pbxuser).