2005-05-23:
<pre>
QOTW:  "[T]his being the internet means that there are a myriad of other
possible failure modes." -- Donal K. Fellows, on ... well, it hardly matters

"My #1 rule of thumb when processing data: whenever possible, treat data like
tcl code and eval it in a safe interp." -- Bryan Schofield

"Whatever you do, don't roll your own XML parser."  Neil Madden


POTW:  COMet is a handy COM browser.
    http://wiki.tcl.tk/comet
    

    While we sometimes make the point that REs are overused, Donald
    Arsenau clearly explains an example in which a regular expression
    is a considerably better solution the corresponding string-match.
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/index/browse_frm/thread/6144ad6132db594f

    Rolf Ade and Neil Madden introduce XML programming.
        http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/986ce42e413323ea/

Thanks to Arjen Markus for his report from the Wiki(s):
  The emphasis for this week's summary? Graphics, if any. And useability.
  And natural languages.
  
  Using the canvas 
  - Ever thought about tuning the performance of your Tk application?
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/393> may have some good advice regarding the
    canvas.
  
  - Raytracing is a well-known, computationally intensive technique
    for dealing with 3D pictures. Beyond Tcl's capabilities because
    of that? Hm, not necessarily: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/10857>
  
  Interact with the computer
  - Chinese characters are not found on western keyboards, making
    it more difficult to work with them ... <http://wiki.tcl.tk/14153>
    is an attempt to make it easier. 
  
  - Not fond of them myself, I do see some use for "modal" widgets
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/14152> if you need such widgets beyond the
    simple dialogue boxes.
  
  - Wikis, notebooks (personal wikis, I mean), so useful to many of us, 
    but you need to have them in the right human language with the 
    right capabilities ... The French Wiki describes David Cobac's
    attempts to use these techniques for his school kids -
    <http://wfr.tcl.tk/961> and <http://wfr.tcl.tk/962>
  
  Miscellany
  - Tcl may not have a switch statement with ranges, but that does
    not mean there is no other way to get the effect ...
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/11790> reuses existing software for a 
    new purpose.
  
  - OO-package of the week? Well, at least it is simple and fits
    the writer's purpose. BOOP at <http://wiki.tcl.tk/8296> is
    very basic and only a 100 lines of code.
    

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

    deli.cio.us presents an intriguing approach to reference commentary.
    It already aggregates quite a bit of Tcl intelligence.
        http://del.icio.us/tag/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.

</pre>