2004-10-19
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QOTW:  "Isn't Tcl just a cross-platform portability library written in C
that has a builtin facility for parsing config files?" -- rmax

"Hello...just wanted to say I am using Tile on TkAqua and it rules." -- wordtech


POTW:  The chatroom has lately given a lot of attention to Coccinella
and friends.
    http://wiki.tcl.tk/coccinella


    Want to pop up a tk_messageBox to your user, but not have a 'tk'
    window? Easy!
        http://groups.google.com/groups?th=7906d7e1ff47b637

    If you [exec someProgram], you might need both the exit code and the
    output from stdout. You can either use [bgexec], or combine [exec]
    and [catch]
        http://groups.google.com/groups?th=a17c543d738b574e
    
    Looking for the Nth occurrence of a word in a string is quite
    straightforward, but you have to do it right. You should not use the
    list commands, but rather the [string] command!
        http://groups.google.com/groups?th=4b22d0ad11c9eb23
    
    Using COM objects from a starkit? Yes you can, tcom is stubs
    enabled.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?th=554942a874fe9b0e
    
    More and more things can be done with pure Tcl, making your code
    ultimately portable. This week sees the addition of LZW GIF
    compression.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?&th=3cc69d27e7ae0ed2
    
    Backslashes. \\ or \ or \\\\? Always confusing.
        http://groups.google.com/groups?th=92c1d27c9edc101f
    
    Did you know you can [bind] multiple event handler to one event?
        http://groups.google.com/groups?th=cf3f973b535e1201
    
    There are several ways of learning Tcl, and although the conference
    tutorials might not be available for free, excellent material is
    available online. This one will get you started in no time at all,
    for free!
        http://groups.google.com/groups?th=7cc7e5cf016d0df8

Thanks to Arjen Markus for his report from the Wiki:
  Last week's conference generated its own Wiki pages, so that deserves its
  own section. But all is not conference-related, so read on!
  
  The conference
  - First of all, several slide shows are already available:
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/12649>
  
  - The conference stirred a lot of interest in ways to "be there without
    actually being there". So: 
    - an audio channel was set up - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/12643>
    - webcams were polled - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/12683>
    (and we will not detail the chat facilities ...)
  
  - Curious about the winner of the GUI contest? <http://wiki.tcl.tk/4005>
    leads you to this wonderful piece of software ...
  
  - Sometimes one talk leads to a new idea - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/12694> 
    discusses the merits of "virtual framebuffers".
  
  Techniques
  - Watch those global variables come into existence - they can bite, you know:
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/12688>
  
  - Whatever you may think of CVS, it is a widely used version control system.
    And now you even embed into your Tcl application, for instance for automatic
    updating! <http://wiki.tcl.tk/12676>
  
  Murphy's law
  - "Murphy's law" is ubiquitous enough to justify this page:
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/12645>. Add your anecdotes for the benefit of others.
  
  - Here is one application that may have suffered from it:
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/6277> used to retrieve a nice map from whatever
    place on earth you asked for. Now it does not work anymore, apparently,
    due to external changes.
  
  
Everything Tcl-related you want is probably one or two clicks away in these
pages:
    The "Welcome to comp.lang.tcl" message by Andreas Kupries
        http://www.purl.org/net/tcl-welcome

    The Tcl Developer Site is Tcl's "home base".
	http://www.tcl.tk

    The Eleventh Mostly-Annual Tcl Conference will be this October.
	http://www.tcl.tk/community/tcl2004/

    Larry Virden maintains a comp.lang.tcl FAQ launcher
        http://www.purl.org/NET/Tcl-FAQ/

    The Tcl Developer Xchange is a highly organized resource center
    of documents and software with provisions for individuals to
    maintain references to their own software:
        http://www.tcl.tk/resource/
    The TDX sponsor, ActiveState, also keeps info to convince your
    boss Tcl is a good thing
        http://www.tcl.tk/scripting/

    The Tcl'ers Wiki is a huge, dynamic, collaboratively edited repository
    of documentation, examples, tutorials and pontifications on all things 
    Tcl.
        http://wiki.tcl.tk/0
    For the ideal overview of the topics about Tcl most likely to
    interest a newcomer, see "Arts and Crafts ..."
        http://wiki.tcl.tk/969

    ActiveState maintains binaries distribution and development tools
        http://www.activestate.com/Tcl
    along with a Cookbook of Tcl recipes
        http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Tcl

    Cameron Laird tracks several Tcl/Tk references of interest
        http://phaseit.net/claird/comp.lang.tcl/

    Cetus Links maintains a Tcl/Tk page with verified links
        http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_tcl_tk.html

    Google Groups archives comp.lang.tcl.announce posts
        http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tcl_announce/

Previous - (U)se the (R)esource, (L)uke! - messages are listed here:
  http://www.ddj.com/topics/tclurl/
An alternative is
  http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_q=+Tcl-URL&as_ugroup=comp.lang.tcl

Suggestions/corrections for next week's posting are always welcome.

To receive a new issue of this posting in e-mail each Monday, ask
<claird@phaseit.net> to subscribe.  Be sure to mention "Tcl-URL!".
--
Dr. Dobb's Journal (http://www.ddj.com) is pleased to participate in and
sponsor the "Tcl-URL!" project.
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