Subject: Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! - weekly Tcl news and links (Oct 16)
From: Uwe Klein
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 22:43:56 +0000
To: "Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL distribution" :;
CC:
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl

QOTW:  "Good point... well, it wouldn't happen if we didn't put anything OO
into Tcl... then we'd just maintain the status quo of people whining about
not having OO, even when they don't even agree on what that would look
like..." - Larry Virden on c.l.t

"The same thing crossed my mind. I searched quickly for some mental floss
to clean it out." - Kevin Kenny on tcl-core, in response to <example of
multiple assignment inside expr>


POTW:
    ANNOUNCE: GRIDPLUS2 - A Grid/Tile Based Screen Building Tool For Tcl/Tk
    GRIDPLUS2 is a Tile based version of GRIDPLUS. Whereas GRIDPLUS Version
    1 has features to control widget style as well as window layout -
    GRIDPLUS2 assumes that the Tile style engine facilties will be used to
    control widget styles. GRIDPLUS2 instead provides SIGNIFICANTLY
    ENHANCED screen layout/desgin functionality - which can further reduce
    the coding required to achieve the desired widow/widget layout.

    One of the main enhancements is the new GRIDPLUS2 Widget Grid. With
    GRIDPLUS1 it was only possible to create one type of widget in a
    particular Grid (Buttons, checkbuttons, entries etc.). In order to mix
    widgets in a Grid it was neccessary to create additional Grids for the
    other widget types and then "embed" them into a parent Grid. The new
    widget Grid allows all of the GRIDPLUS widget types to be mixed in the
    same Grid.
    homepage: http://www.satisoft.com/tcltk/gridplus2
    readme: http://www.satisoft.com.tcltk/gridplus2/readme.html
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/cffa5865aec1fb94

    ANNOUNCE: moodss-21.3 and moomps-5.3
    Changes from previous version:
    -in moodss GUI:
     -in thresholds dialog box, added "no trace" check button, useful 
	with dashboards displaying colored cells for status, for which a
	threshold message in the trace window becomes disturbing
     -made sure initialization messages, for modules, viewers, ... are always
	visible in the message area (useful when loading big dashboards)
      -significantly improved performance on big dashboards with many colored
    thresholds
     -in preferences predictor section, R statistical engine version 2.3
	caused version checking to fail
     -selection sunken visual effect did not occur every time in adjacent
	colored table cells
     -in snmptrap module, added compatibility with Tnm version 3, added
	source peer address (or host) column and -n (no name lookup) option, 
	removed useless --address and --port options
     -made snmptrap module work on OS X
     -in moomps installation stage, use global variables in makefile to
	generate rc initialization control script
     -in moodss installation stage, use variable in makefile for moomps rc file
    Download:
	http://download.sourceforge.net/moodss/moodss-21.3.tar.bz2
	http://jfontain.free.fr/moodss-21.3.zip
	more and prebuilds see c.l.t posting
    HowTo: http://homepage.mac.com/duling/halfdozen/Moodss-Howto.html
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/b4808b4ea58d9873

    Announce: BWidget 1.8.0 Released
    ABWidget 1.8.0 has been released.  Source bz2 tarball, gzip tarball, and
    zip files are available at:
    This version has numerous bug fixes and a few new commands to existing
    widgets.  There are no new or removed widgets in this release.
    Download: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=12883&package_id=23786&release_id=454676
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/3101a03f08ad07c9

    Ann Getleft 1.2a3
    Getleft is a web site grabber written in Tcl/Tk, given an URL
    it will download the whole site or, at least, the part of it
    that fits the options given by the user.
    homepage: http://personal.iddeo.es/andresgarci/getleft/english/
    download: http://personal1.iddeo.es/andresgarci/getleft/english/download.html
    changes: http://personal1.iddeo.es/andresgarci/getleft/english/changes.html
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/f6200fa85da0039f

ORBI: or what happened on comp.lang.tcl
    new Tcl OO system enhancment suggestion (TIP #257)
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/7edcc5b3db76fca0

    TIP #257 additional introspection options suggestion
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/442ac7dc7305aae2

    Discussion about the D programming language and Tcl/Tk
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/19914df76724614d

    incr and single characters ...
    perlites are everwhere ;-)
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/f4d3a3df10b9bf2c

TIPX: new, used and discarded Tips
        TIP 264 by George Petasis : Add Function to Retrieve the Interpreter of a Window
	    http://www.tcl.tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/264.html
                state has changed from Accepted to Final

        TIP 281 by David Gravereaux : Improvements in System Error Handling
	    http://www.tcl.tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/281.html
                is a new TIP

        TIP 282 by Will Duquette : Enhanced Expression Syntax
	    http://www.tcl.tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/282.html
                is a new TIP

ATTC: At the Core:
    TIP #282: Enhanced Expression Syntax
    reinvigorated a dormant discussion:
	http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum=tcl-core
	the sourceforge list-archive seems to have some problems
	at the moment so no direct url. search for "TIP #282"
	a thread with upwards of 30 mailings.

	info: the following TIPS touch on [expr]
	    123, 133, 182, 201, 232, 255, 273, 282

OOTW: Orphan of the week or questions nobody answered yet:
    Invalid command tixWidgetClass
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/89dd3eeda89360bf

TWIP: or what happened on comp.lang.tcl this week TEN years ago:
    SOFTWARE: Tclmidi-3.1 is released
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.announce/browse_frm/thread/3a4f78f8c66a0f86

    Q: how to add a print option to a graphics viewer?
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/92c14cd2aad7030b

    Juice, A Debugger For Tcl
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/89ffbb70408bd868


Thanks to Arjen Markus for his summary of Wiki activity:
  The conference is over, but Michael Cleverly has taken notes,
  so look at <http://wiki.tcl.tk/15537>, all you readers who were 
  not present!
  
  The heart of the matter
  - The mathematical notation in the [expr] command is called
    "infix", and so are this page and package - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/17040>
    which explore the possibilities in detail.
  
  - One more time: object-orientation. The solution of this week
    is inspired by the SELF language - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/9529>
  
  - Building GUIs in Tcl/Tk has always been rather easy, but this
    page shows they can be beautiful as well - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/16993>
  
  Easy to use 
  - Shape files have become a de facto standard for GIS information.
    And here is a Tcl extension that lets you handle them -
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/17027>
  
  - Your chronicler's current pet project is at <http://wiki.tcl.tk/16662>.
    While not useful right now, the contours are beginning to take,
    uhm, shape.
  
  Eye candy
  - Computers can be taught to read handwritten text ... 
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/9094>
  
  - An impressive number of demos for the Tcl plugin appears
    here: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/10696>
  
  - If you are a parent with small kids, perhaps you should _not_ look at this 
    little toy - even if it is an illusion! <http://wiki.tcl.tk/16345>
  

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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