Subject: Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! - weekly Tcl news and links (Oct 24)
From: Cameron Laird
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 22:37:11 +0000
To: "Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL distribution" :;
CC:
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl

QOTW:  "Don't fight with the WM; it will always win." --Joe English

"I don't think I would ever advertise specifically for a Tcl programmer,
[...] just as I don't advertise for people who can use a pocket calculator:
if you don't know how today, you will by next week." -- Steve Blinkhorn


POTW:  Despite the density of buzzword compliance in its advertising,
NetKitWorks is a real and useful (Tcl-based!) product for management
of networks and their components.
    http://www.netkitsolutions.com/web/products/netkitworks.html


    If you have *any* practical way to get to Portland, do yourself
    a favor and join the Twelfth Tcl/Tk Conference.  The Tutorials
    alone are sure to give great value.
        http://wiki.tcl.tk/13846

    Bryan Oakley provides "a solution of ease and elegance" which
    illustrates use of validatecommand.  Make sure you read through
    to the explanation of resetting -validate.
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/215d99b59b9d0b9f/
    Bryan also describes sensible scrollregion management.
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/98a31a0d3d40e779/

    Microsoft--or at least some of its workers--is aware of Tcl.
        http://arstechnica.com/guides/other/msh.ars/6

    Tcl twiddles bits.
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/764742ce5ddc4de/

Thanks to Arjen Markus for his so-accurate summary of Wiki activity:
  Quite a few pages on topic from the field of artifical intelligence
  surfaced last week and there is quite some interest in the text
  widget ...
  
  Artificial intelligence
  - Data structures in AI are quite different than in, say, OO.
    Care to have a look at Petri nets or Retes? Here is 
    the page on the latter: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/8365>
  
  - AI has its own specific needs for a development environment.
    SOAR is such an environment - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/7447>
  
  - Talking of IDEs ... here is one for web-development:
    Myrmeco - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/2129>
  
  The text widget
  - Let us start with a French contribution: VisualSQLite
    - <http://wfr.tcl.tk/240> - allows you to manipulate 
    your SQLite database.
  
  - Autocorrecting typed text - or alternatively using it
    as a shorthand - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/9022>
  
  - Get the contents of a text widget and examine it
    - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/3246>
  
  - And then: how do you know the contents has changed?
    Easy, as the bottom of this page shows:
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/881>
  
  From text to mere strings 
  - The revival of a very old page: there are never 
    enough functions for strings - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/44>
  
  - A flat file and the need to jump to the right place
    - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/14025>
  
  A game to take our mind off of things
  - Just an old game, but nice anyway: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/4236>
  

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
    comp.lang.tcl is a crucial resource for Tcl practitioners.
    An interesting perspective on its traffic appears at
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/about

    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.

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