2004-12-09
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QOTW:  "... everything that's happened in Office since about 1995 has been
more or less user interface churn. " -- Joel Spolsky, former Excel program
manager
    http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2004/12/09/spolsky/index2.html

"I still think the best *general* advice to newbies is to get comfortable
with Tkcon."  -- Roy "debugger free for 5 years" Terry 


    To Kick off this week's Tcl-URLs, discussions on GUI management:

    Georgios Petasis asks for a solution to a tricky geometry problem with
    an embedded window. Many agree that this is a ripe area for development.
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/5a54f7b5619fc710/
        http://snipurl.com/tkembedded
    
    Helmut Giese would like to see support for OPC because, "working with
    Tcl is so much nicer."
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/9cc6507c9b99c20a/636de8276f0746f1
        http://snipurl.com/obcwithtcl
    
    Is anyone else a newbie at Tk? I am. This week had many educational
    posts about Tk traps and pitfalls
    
    Is your GUI frozen? "after" puts the event loop to sleep.
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/c869edb9fcdefe97/
        http://snipurl.com/managetkupdates
    
    Mixing pack and grid Geometry Managers
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/262be7d2fe521fc6/a12d0136fa5fc27c
        http://snipurl.com/packwithgrid
    
    Brian Oakley explains how grid and pack propogation can affect resizing.
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/b4f3dba6a9e4ac6c/
        http://snipurl.com/geometrypropogation
    
    For the GUI Tcl-URL finale, a simple question; but the newbie in me
    appreciated the followups. How does one move onscreen images?
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/2174b3d16310f0bc/
        http://snipurl.com/moveoncanvas
    
    Onto the topic of patterns. Andreas Leitgeb suggests a proxy class for
    delegating access to a singleton by multiple objects.
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/msg/67d22b862c4feb0c
        http://snipurl.com/proxyxotcl
    
    Some bugs are infuriating but fun. Was it an i18n problem? I hope the
    original poster tells us his solution.
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/ad656da6d9bd4564/
    and
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/86e42884b2b67b41/
        http://snipurl.com/i18lntclbug1> and <http://snipurl.com/i18lnbug2
    
    Your editor apologizes for missing this interesting article by Michael
    A. Cleverly due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Thanks for a thoughtful
    post on using databases to handle test management in an extensible
    manner.
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/e7a4dc0e06ec5ba8/d0ef05b8ab2e9cb7
        http://snipurl.com/tcltestdatacleverley
    
    The Shootout invites Tcl updates; we can show off what 8.4.7,
    for example, does.
        http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/
	http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/e4c84e1e5c581ca1/cf1d60e2e7a2c022

Thanks to Arjen Markus for his report from the Wiki(s):
  We are well on our way into December now and the Wiki continues 
  showing its usual potpourri of subjects ... So here we are, picking
  a haphazard bouquet!
  
  Functional programming
  - Going back to - perhaps - the source, Richard Suchenwirth reports
    about John Backus - <http://wiki.tcl.tk.13125>. It is but one page
    on the subject of functional programming ...
  
  - With all the attention for implementing functional programming in Tcl,
    one might forget a functional programming language needs a GUI toolkit
    too - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/13109> presents one 
  
  - There is nothing truly magic about it, but you might think it is,
    TclMagick does wonderful things to your pictures - 
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/9775>
  
  Random numbers 
  - Every so often people need a random number or two - and there are many
    ways to produce them. The problem is there are only a few good ways.
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/13120> discusses this exotic realm.
  
  - Every so often people don't need random digits trailing at the end of
    their results. Will BigFloat be a solution to push these renegades 
    over the edge? <http://wiki.tcl.tk/13107> promises at least more 
    digits!
  
  Old friends
  - An update for an old scripted widget: enter dates according to your
    own conventions - <http:/wiki.tcl.tk/3019>
  
  - A game was lost and this led to ... the same game! Find this
    resurrected solitaire on <http://wiki.tcl.tk/13092>
  

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

    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

    "Yahoo! 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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