Subject: Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! - weekly Tcl news and links (Aug 29)
From: Uwe Klein
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 20:32:51 +0000
To: "Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL distribution" :;
CC:
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl

QOTW:  "Why, that just means it is stable -- or do you know of features it is
missing.  One of the reasons a lot of products/packages in languages like
Java change a lot is to fix all of the bugs and add all of the missing
features." - Gerald.W.Lester on c.l.t, in reply to pdietz:  "It sure would be
nice if the official version of tdom wasn't > 2 years old..."

"It's Lisp v. Fortran in the scripting language world." - Larry Smith, 
probably on Python vs. something


POTW:
    ANN: Open Instrumentation Project

    This announces the Open Instrumentation Project (OIP), 
    which has been formed to support open-source software 
    and low cost hardware for electronic instrumentation.
    The objective is to make electronic instrumentation readily 
    accessible to students, hobbiests, engineers and scientists. 
    This then allows independent circuit development and 
    project-based learning in electronics.
    Three instruments have been completed: 
     - dual channel, 20MSample/sec oscilloscope
     - 100kHz waveform generator
     - low-frequency vector-network analyser
    Screen shots and the software for these instruments are available 
    from sourceforge at:
	homepage: http://sourceforge.net/projects/oip/   
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/4e89055c1d4c739a
	http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.design/browse_thread/thread/723af6108978983a


    ANNOUNCE: KHIM 1.0 added to tklib ( written by Kevin Kenny)

    KHIM is a hack (as the name suggests) to allow for entry 
    of Unicode characters on a keyboard that lacks them.  
    Rather than interact with any host's input methods,
    I wrote KHIM for several reasons:
    - On some machines, I'm not allowed, or don't know how, to change
      the system's input method to get the characters I want.
    - I don't want to have to learn the input methods for all the systems
      I use.
    - I occasionally have use for some pretty bizarre characters, and
      an "Insert Symbol"-style function comes in handy in most
      applications that deal with Unicode text.
    wiki: http://wiki.tcl.tk/16343 
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/fb19b551af083b04

ORBI: or what happened on comp.lang.tcl

    Idea wanted: printing with TCL/TK
    Black on White in perfect harmony (not):
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/8013450bdff1e9c7

    WebServices in Tcl. Help needed. ( and the staleness of tdom )
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/8e4e4da657fbbbd1

    Loading large data sets
    Large Images in abundance may call for  divide and conquer:
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/53408737ea4ad3cc

    NC-Sim Tcl script tool?
    perchance testing your scripts before they block your box for days:
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.cad.cadence/browse_thread/thread/2129303056b84015

    Tcl and UCS-4 support
    does it realy work? breakage in the fringe:
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/4522c2bb2b20450d    

TIPX: new, used and discarded Tips
    TIP 272 by Donal K. Fellows : String and List Reversal Operations
	is a new TIP

OOTW: Orphan of the week or questions nobody answered yet:
    treectrl and item bbox
    Question on supposedly slightly misplaced items:
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/df0584acb74387eb
	
    TclSOAP Authorization
    works perfectly in PHP,  but ...
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/dc8586aec740c7ea

URBI: or what happened on comp.lang.tcl this week TEN years ago:

    [file exists ""] ( and an OS dependent result )
    actually something similar was discussed in recent times:
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/b878ec8b377ad384

    Runtimeless TCL
    the "plus patches" , precursor of  tclkit and siblings:
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/78679ec72af9646a

    Do I have to invent the wheel myself?
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/20046aff6194e7ea

    
    Q: Long "expr" Evaluation
    tcl being "better" than your deskcalculator ;-), duck and cover, but brace your "expr".
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/1ba292578335d12b
    

Thanks to Arjen Markus for his report on the Wiki:
  Miss one week and the number of pages to review increases,
  um, linearly. So without ado: the summary
  
  Programming paradigms
    really necessary to use the ill-fabled "goto"? 
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/8363>
  
  - Here is another tool that should be in every programmer's
    tool chest, flow-based programming, more than just a 
    pipeline - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/16266>
  
  - Why should commands and data be treated differently?
    Join the debate ... <http://wiki.tcl.tk/8703>
  
  Programmer's delight
  - We are so used to general-purpose computers, that we 
    forget that through the ages mechanical engineers had 
    to come up with ingenious mechanical solutions. 
    Here is a beautiful one: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/16330>
  
  - Let us fly! Simply and smoothly - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/9085>
  
  - Here is a game of tetris - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/14923>
  
  - Define three-dimensional scenes and objects -
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/16326>
  
  Earthly matters
  - The angle between the two lines is a simple enough 
    concept. But beware of the complications ...
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/16282> for compass bearings 
    and <http://wiki.tcl.tk/12617> for rotation in 3D.
  
  - If you want to know the distance between two points 
    on a curved surface, you need geodesy - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/9325>
  
  - If you want to draw geographical maps on a canvas,
    "carto" might be a nice starting point - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/13889>
  
  Read/write
  - Typing commands in a console and getting previous commands
    back, that is what "readline" is all about. Now there are
    two solutions in Tcl: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/12192> and
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/16129>
  
  - Searching and retrieving text ... here is a package that 
    does this, scriptable via Tcl and it comes with Tk GUI
    - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/16284>
  
  
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
    There's also a high-quality Wikibook on Tcl:
        http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programming:Tcl

    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 (but
    needs to validate many of the links).
        http://phaseit.net/claird/comp.lang.tcl/

    Years ago, Cetus Links maintained a Tcl/Tk page with verified links
        http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_tcl_tk.html

    "Yahoo! Groups" archives comp.lang.tcl.announce posts--even 
    though clta itself is dormant.
        http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tcl_announce/

Previous - (U)se the (R)esource, (L)uke! - messages are supposed to be
listed at *Dr. Dobbs*, but sysad at CMP has fallen behind.  We're working
with them to restore the archive.
  http://www.ddj.com/topic/tcl/
In the meantime, 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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