Rating: 
Summary: **Must have book for scripting.Top reference for Tcl users**
Review: Practical Programming in Tcl and TkLet me start by saying I have been 100% satisfied with every book authored by Brent Welch. This new edition is my second book on this topic by him, and I highly recommend it. It is a hand's on book, and something you want next to you when you try Tcl/Tk. Perhaps the title should be Prac-Tcl Programming in Tcl and Tk, because Tcl, is pronounced tickle, and is an acronym for Tool Control Language. Tk, short for Toolkit, is a multi-platform graphical user interface. The two go hand in hand, but you can use Tcl without Tk. What is so great about Tcl/Tk? For one thing it is FREE for private and commercial use, and available on-line! I've used Tcl on Sun Solaris systems, and played around with it on Windows, and it works also on Macintosh. Tcl is a fun and useful scripting language, powerful enough to do anything you might want to do, from short simple scripts to large stand alone GUI applications that run on multiple platforms. A CDROM is included with the book with recent versions. See below for a copy of the CD-ROM index. I've used ksh and csh in the past and found the former's syntax to be a pain in the butt, and the later's to lack the power I needed. Tcl gave me the power I wanted, and was fun and exciting to use. This prompted me to dig deeper into Tcl and now I love it. Although I'm not an expert, I know enough to appreciate Tcl and chose it as an important part of my personal software "toolbox". What is Tk? Tk is a fast method of developing and changing the user interface via a script interface. Here is why: 1) Development is fast because there are no long compilations.
2) It takes just a handful of command to define a user interface. Re-iteration of the process allows you to refine the user interface to make it perfect. 3) The application can be written in Tcl. Following this the user interface development is fast and painless. Normally, I include a copy of the index in my review. Unfortunately that would have taken a week to type up, because of it's detail. Included below is a copy of the HTML from the CD-ROM index for your information. I'm sure you will find the book worth evey penny, and be grateful, as I am, that the authors put together just and outstanding reference for us. This is the only Tcl reference I'd recommend at this time. Enjoy. CONRAD B. SENIOR
23 July 2003 ********************************* CD-ROM Includes: -- The tcl8_3 and tcl8_4 directories contain the source distributions for recent Tcl versions. The latest on this CD-ROM is Tcl/Tk 8.4.2. There are Manual Pages for Tcl and Tk commands and C APIs. -- The ActiveTcl directory contains pre-compiled binary distributions created by ActiveState. This includes the TclDevKit professional toolkit, which includes a debugger, syntax checker, and more. ActiveTcl is free, and the distribution comes with many extensions already configured. TclDevKit requires a license, and you can visit the ActiveState web site to obtain a trail license.
ActiveTcl is a trademark of ActiveState Corporation
-- The tclkit8.4.2 directory contains pre-compiled binaries for the Tclkit application, which is an extended Tcl/Tk shell used to create Starkits. You can also use Tclkit just like Wish or Tclsh, and it comes as a self-contained, single file that is quite convenient. The tclkit8.4.1 directory contains Tclkit builds for additional platforms, including Macintosh, that were not yet available for 8.4.2 when this CD was assembled. There are also complete sources and instructions for building Tclkit yourself.
-- The handheld directory contains Tcl variants that have been created for small handheld devices. These are fairly experimental, but I can recommend the Toucan development environment for creating Tcl apps on PalmOS. Starkits The sdarchive directory contains quite a lot of Starkits, which are packaged Tcl/Tk extensions or applications that are designed to work with Tclkit. Starkits are a great packaging and deployment technology for Tcl/Tk applications. There is a new book chapter on them. TclHttpd The tclhttpd3.4.3 directory contains the TclHttpd distribution. You should be able to run the server directly from this location with a command like: tclsh8.3 /mnt/cdrom/tclbook4/tclhttpd3.4.3/bin/httpd.tcl
tclsh83 D:\tclhttpd3.4.3\bin\httpd.tcl Book Examples The exsource folder contains one file for each example, plus a few sample applications made by assembling some of the examples into one file. You are free to use this sample code for any purpose.
The Tcler's Wiki This wiki directory contains a stand-alone copy of the Tcler's Wiki web site, wiki.tcl.tk. To browse it locally, use the wikit.kit starkit like this:
tclkit wiki/wikit.kit wiki/wikit.tkd -readonly Free Tcl/Tk Software There are more extensions and applications distributed as .zip or .tar.gz source distributions. Some are purely Tcl scripts. Others require a compiler to create binary extensions from C code. The mingw folder contains a free C compiler for Windows. On UNIX systems you can use the free gcc compiler or the compiler distributed by your vendor. The following directories contain Tcl/Tk applications and extensions.
-- applications
-- extensions
Rating:
Summary: **Must have book for scripting.Top reference for Tcl users**
Review: Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk Let me start by saying I have been 100% satisfied with every book authored by Brent Welch. This new edition is my second book on this topic by him, and I highly recommend it. It is a hand's on book, and something you want next to you when you try Tcl/Tk. Perhaps the title should be Prac-Tcl Programming in Tcl and Tk, because Tcl, is pronounced tickle, and is an acronym for Tool Control Language. Tk, short for Toolkit, is a multi-platform graphical user interface. The two go hand in hand, but you can use Tcl without Tk. What is so great about Tcl/Tk? For one thing it is FREE for private and commercial use, and available on-line! I've used Tcl on Sun Solaris systems, and played around with it on Windows, and it works also on Macintosh. Tcl is a fun and useful scripting language, powerful enough to do anything you might want to do, from short simple scripts to large stand alone GUI applications that run on multiple platforms. A CDROM is included with the book with recent versions. See below for a copy of the CD-ROM index. I've used ksh and csh in the past and found the former's syntax to be a pain in the butt, and the later's to lack the power I needed. Tcl gave me the power I wanted, and was fun and exciting to use. This prompted me to dig deeper into Tcl and now I love it. Although I'm not an expert, I know enough to appreciate Tcl and chose it as an important part of my personal software "toolbox". What is Tk? Tk is a fast method of developing and changing the user interface via a script interface. Here is why: 1) Development is fast because there are no long compilations.
2) It takes just a handful of command to define a user interface. Re-iteration of the process allows you to refine the user interface to make it perfect. 3) The application can be written in Tcl. Following this the user interface development is fast and painless. Normally, I include a copy of the index in my review. Unfortunately that would have taken a week to type up, because of it's detail. Included below is a copy of the HTML from the CD-ROM index for your information. I'm sure you will find the book worth evey penny, and be grateful, as I am, that the authors put together just and outstanding reference for us. This is the only Tcl reference I'd recommend at this time. Enjoy. CONRAD B. SENIOR
23 July 2003 ********************************* CD-ROM Includes: -- The tcl8_3 and tcl8_4 directories contain the source distributions for recent Tcl versions. The latest on this CD-ROM is Tcl/Tk 8.4.2. There are Manual Pages for Tcl and Tk commands and C APIs. -- The ActiveTcl directory contains pre-compiled binary distributions created by ActiveState. This includes the TclDevKit professional toolkit, which includes a debugger, syntax checker, and more. ActiveTcl is free, and the distribution comes with many extensions already configured. TclDevKit requires a license, and you can visit the ActiveState web site to obtain a trail license.
ActiveTcl is a trademark of ActiveState Corporation
-- The tclkit8.4.2 directory contains pre-compiled binaries for the Tclkit application, which is an extended Tcl/Tk shell used to create Starkits. You can also use Tclkit just like Wish or Tclsh, and it comes as a self-contained, single file that is quite convenient. The tclkit8.4.1 directory contains Tclkit builds for additional platforms, including Macintosh, that were not yet available for 8.4.2 when this CD was assembled. There are also complete sources and instructions for building Tclkit yourself.
-- The handheld directory contains Tcl variants that have been created for small handheld devices. These are fairly experimental, but I can recommend the Toucan development environment for creating Tcl apps on PalmOS. Starkits The sdarchive directory contains quite a lot of Starkits, which are packaged Tcl/Tk extensions or applications that are designed to work with Tclkit. Starkits are a great packaging and deployment technology for Tcl/Tk applications. There is a new book chapter on them. TclHttpd The tclhttpd3.4.3 directory contains the TclHttpd distribution. You should be able to run the server directly from this location with a command like: tclsh8.3 /mnt/cdrom/tclbook4/tclhttpd3.4.3/bin/httpd.tcl
tclsh83 D:\tclhttpd3.4.3\bin\httpd.tcl Book Examples The exsource folder contains one file for each example, plus a few sample applications made by assembling some of the examples into one file. You are free to use this sample code for any purpose.
The Tcler's Wiki This wiki directory contains a stand-alone copy of the Tcler's Wiki web site, wiki.tcl.tk. To browse it locally, use the wikit.kit starkit like this:
tclkit wiki/wikit.kit wiki/wikit.tkd -readonly Free Tcl/Tk Software There are more extensions and applications distributed as .zip or .tar.gz source distributions. Some are purely Tcl scripts. Others require a compiler to create binary extensions from C code. The mingw folder contains a free C compiler for Windows. On UNIX systems you can use the free gcc compiler or the compiler distributed by your vendor. The following directories contain Tcl/Tk applications and extensions.
-- applications
-- extensions
Rating:
Summary: The Tcl Book
Review: Tcl is a small (read "good" and "orthogonal"), stable, mature, and featureful language. And (to paraphrase Brian Kernighan, referring to his book The C Programming Language), it is served well by a, um, well not a small book, but by one book in particular, this one. The Tcl programming language is perhaps the single most underappreciated and underestimated programming language currently in general use, followed a close second by Ruby (Ruby, is however on the ascent, while Tcl seems to be spiralling downward out of view, this second fact should be considered a criminal occurrence of the highest order, as we shall see). Tcl is, however, the language of choice for a number of very significant projects, AOL Server, IBM's WebSphere, and the data access and analysis system of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory are all Tcl projects of considerable magnitude. Tcl has been shown to be stable and scalable in these environments. I know, because I wrote the management layer for the LIGO data system, in Tcl. Tcl has a few things in particular going for it that should, really, make it the first choice for system administrators and network application developers, in spite of claims made for these areas by another well known language. What makes Tcl special? Well, first of all, the core language contains a nearly perfectly implemented socket abstraction layer that allows one to write network applications that are secure and well-behaved (and fast!) with great ease. Second, the language is designed around a thing called an event-loop that endows the language with almost magical multitasking power (without the hazards of threads). Another attribute of Tcl, which frankly has no interest for me, but is possibly more significant for others than the things I have mentioned so far, is that an enormous effort has been made to make Tcl behave transparently under all flavors of UNIX, under (ugh!) Windows, and under MacOS. This interoperability extends to the Tk graphical windowing toolkit, which makes use of native look-and-feel on all platforms, and does an amazing job of it. The result is that, even more so than for JAVA, Tcl code will run right nearly everywhere. And the particular wonders of unices are leveraged using a single extension library, TclX. Brent Welch understands these aspects of Tcl, and pretty nearly all of the others in great detail. And he makes his knowlege available and readily accessible in this book. Over the course of 4 editions the Tcl language has grown and Brent has kept up to date perfectly. And the quality of the book has grown as well, with an (finally, geez, some of us were chewing off our fingernails over this one) excellent index, and a much improved binding and paper stock (the book lies flat on every page, except the first and last 24; damn good for a nearly 900 page book!) The book is organised into seven logical partitions (with a thumb index printed on the page edges): 1. Tcl Basics - how to get started writing Tcl code in 2 minutes
2. Advanced Tcl - events, security, optimisation, and magic
3. Tk Basics - how to get started writing GUIfied apps in 10 minutes
4. Tk Widgets - the gory details of all options to the widget set
5. Tk Details - things that you can do to change Tk's default appearance
6. Tcl and C - The C API for extending and embedding Tcl
7. Changes - A comprehensive list of changes to the Tcl language and C api from Tcl version 3.6 (1985?) to 8.4 (2003). With porting tips! If you only own one Tcl book (and, frankly, you only need one, because the Tcl language has few dark corners, and because the book is nearly perfect) this has got to be it. If you do not have this book you are not using Tcl to it's full potential. A veritable treasure trove of Tcl code examples and expert help with Tcl and Tk is available at: http://wiki.tcl.tk If you are not using Tcl at all, you are not coding as productively as you could be, and your networked apps are not as secure as they could be, and probably run damn slow (well, Apache with the Perl module is damn fast, but it has been my experience that the typical Perl cgi script is a security nightmare. It is easier to write a secure custom server in Tcl than to do the equivalent in Apache/Perl, though Apache does offer sufficient security options to keep the lid mostly in place, Perl is a sloppy language that seems to attract sloppy coders ;^)).
Rating:
Summary: Best Reference for Tcl/Tk
Review: Tcl/Tk is probably the easiest way to program widgest in X-Windows. The ease of use comes because most widgets are pre-built and all you need is to define their behavious in a simple BASIC like manner. The main problem with Tcl/Tk is the absence of good books. You may find hunderds of books on Java or C++ which are worth reading, but as far as Tcl/Tk is concerned, this book is the bible. Brent Welch was a student of John Ousterhout, the inventor of Tcl/Tk. As a result he can give us a students view of the language, rather than a more techinal look at it. This is very useful for beginning X programmerslik me. The first few chapter are devoted to Tcl programming, which is very detailed and yet understandable. The major part of the book then dwells on using Tk in Tcl. (Tk is actully a toolkit for Tcl). This part of the book is really useful, since Tcl is more or less used only along with Tk. The various properties of different widgets are explained in great detail. Overall, this book is the only one you require if you need to learn Tcl/Tk. Dont rely on one of those dummy books (they really are for dummies).
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference book
Review: This book provides a comprehensive look at TCL and TK. I first picked it up searching for an alternative to socket programming in C, and I soon thereafter realized the potential TCL had for application programming. This is the only book I've read and will ever need on the subject. Thank you Mr. Welch!
Rating:
Summary: TCL/TK
Review: This is a great book not only beginers but for pro's as well. It has great information and helpful examples that contribute to the learning of TCL/TK. Has lot's of stuff on the CD so you can find a whole bunch of utilities for TCL/TK as well.
Rating:
Summary: Solid reference material
Review: This is not the book to start learning Tcl/Tk. Its a fantastic reference guide. The sample code in the book is clearly not beginners material. If you're writing stuff in Tcl/Tk, this book is probably the only book you will need for reference.
Rating:
Summary: Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk
Review: This is one of a small number of Tcl books that I keep handy at all times. I wear two hats with regards to Tcl - one, a site administrator supporting quite a number of Tcl programmers (both classically trained as well as programmers who have learned to make their 'day jobs' doable); the other hat, as one of the comp.lang.tcl Usenet group FAQ maintainers. I find that while there are several dozen books on Tcl, all of which are excellent, I turn to Practical Programming quite frequently for its code examples as well as the appendices discussing the differences between versions. While there may be those who, out of ignorance or just contrariness, dump on Tcl regarding its syntax, etc. several facts are in doubt in my mind. 1. Tcl is freely available code which can be used as the basis of any reasonable project that needs done. 2. The Tcl community is much more open to newcomers than the other 2-3 dozen 'more recent' languages that I use. 3. The Tcl publishing field continues to show that it is a viable business.
Rating: 
Summary: My third edition features Tcl/Tk 8.2 and a new binding!
Review: What's new in the 3rd edition? The book is up-to-date with Tcl/Tk 8.2, and the CD-ROM includes the 8.2.1 releases. There are new chapters on the Tcl Web Server, building Tcl/Tk and extensions from the source, and internationalization. Several chapters got major overhauls, including the ones on regular expressions, eval, C programming, and the Web browser plug-in. The rest of the book got updated to 8.2, and I worked to improve many of the examples. However, maybe even more important is that the book uses a new binding so it won't fall apart (really!). It may sound silly to talk about the cover instead of what's inside, but I've received quite a few complaints about the binding in the 2nd edition. I finally found the worst copy I could find and sent it to my publisher. That got their attention and they've switched to a lay-flat binding. Another issue with a large book like this is finding what you want. To that end I overhauled the index. It is now three times larger and I hope it will help you find the information you are looking for.
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