QOTW: "An important lesson was learned here, don't quiz quants while they're
watching 'Numb3rs', they are liable to agree with anything you say if they
think it will make you go away." - Dan "Quant Quizzzzer" Smart on c.l.t
"It may not matter much, but from my high school and university years I know
this function as the 'entier' function, pronounced as a French word and a
Dutch accent. So, I for one did not recognise it as any kind of
misspelling!" - Arjen Marcus in reply on c.l.t.
POTW:
A Busy Developer's Guide to Tcl/Tk 8.5 by Mark Roseman
This document is intended to quickly introduce "mainstream" developers
who have been using earlier versions of Tcl/Tk to the most important
new features in Tcl/Tk 8.5 that they need to know about.
This isn't a manager's high-level guide, but covers things that affect
your code on a daily basis. It's also not something that would interest
the type of people who follow daily commits to the Tcl/Tk CVS repositories.
Read: http://www.markroseman.com/tcl/guide85.html
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/eaf382322deedf45
ANNOUNCE: Tclkit with TIP 280 and 290 by Eckhard Lehmann
for anyone who is interested in how TIP 280 (extended [info frame],
http://www.tcl.tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/280.html) and TIP 290 (custom
exception handlers, http://www.tcl.tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/290.html) work -
I have built Tclkits with these TIP's integrated.
They can be downloaded from
http://e-lehmann.de/index.php/tcltk/tclkit/. It's for a sneak preview
on these features and testing/using without the need to patch and
recompile Tcl.
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/cbf6700b5143ca1b
ANN: Julian dates by Rob in a Tin
In keeping with the spirit of D.R. Hipp's "blessing", and specifically for
those who use Tcl/SQLite, but hopefully not limited to those, I've
released an old (ie: well used) relatively portable C library of Julian
date routines, and a Tcl binding for it under an open source license. Man
pages are provided for the Tcl bindings, and but the C source will have to
suffice for the C library documentation.
download: http://www.controlq.com/OpenSource/Tcl_Julian.tgz
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/c5fe22675b45b72e
ed: now what do i use Julian Dates for? Lead Me!
ANN: TkHelpBrowser 1.3 by Kevin Walzer
TkHelpBrowser is a Tk widget based on the htmllib package and sample
browser client developed by Stephen Uhler and maintained by Clif Flynt
(the Flynt version is available at http://noucorp.com). TkHelpBrowser is
designed to function as a drop-in widget, callable from a Tcl/Tk
application with no modification required.
Download: http://tk-components.sourceforge.net/helpbrowser/index.html
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/dc1a15b98941bb59
ANN: Fileicons 1.0 available by Kevin Walzer
The fileicons package provides a simple and convenient way to display
file information with an icon in a Tk GUI. The package defines commands
that will retrieve icons for specific file extensions and/or type
(directories, executable files, etc.). The package is also easily
extended if you want to ship a different icon theme than the base
packages. The fileicons package allows developers to provide a richer
GUI without taking the trouble to assemble their own icon/mimetype theme.
Download: http://tk-components.sourceforge.net/fileicons/
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/c510373a1f41c57a
ORBI: or what happened on comp.lang.tcl
Continuations in Tcl, an attempt to implement it
A rejuvenated effort is now available for those interested:
URL: http://jacqkl.perso.chez-alice.fr/
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/17d1213c4c09bc1
How to use the Google SOAP API
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/f448d37ea9f7600e
Why don't variables work in switch patterns?
not the first, not the last to stumble here:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/307112f36fafccdc
TIPX: new, used and discarded Tips
TIP 293 by Miguel Sofer : Argument Expansion with Leading {*}
http://www.tcl.tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/293.html
State has changed from Accepted to Final
TIP 174 by Kristoffer Lawson : Math Operators as Commands
http://www.tcl.tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/174.html
State has changed from Draft to Accepted
TIP 272 by Donal K. Fellows : String and List Reversal Operations
http://www.tcl.tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/272.html
State has changed from Accepted to Final
To be voted on:
TIP 261 by Martin Lemburg : Return Imported Commands from [namespace import]
http://www.tcl.tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/261.html
TIP 270 by Don Porter : Utility C Routines for String Formatting
http://www.tcl.tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/270.html
New Tips:
TIP 295 by Andreas Leitgeb : Enhance Arguments to lrange
http://www.tcl.tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/295.html
TIP 296 by Andreas Leitgeb : Enhanced Syntax for Pair-Wise Indices
http://www.tcl.tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/296.html
OOTW: Orphan of the week or questions nobody answered yet:
tktray package - System Tray Icon Support for Tk on X11
problems with compiling tktray:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/134b1f15018f0cac
PMAG: Tcl in printed and other Media:
Bryan Okley has been busy with his TclScripting site
and published another article this time
on using TclSOAP to leech google:
http://www.tclscripting.com/articles/nov06/article1.html
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/msg/3be240e588af520c
Thanks to Arjen Markus and friends for this summary of Wiki activity:
While we all eagerly await the moment Tcl8.5 will be there, the
Wiki seems filled with discussions this week ... but let us
avoid those.
Tcl 8.5 and beyond
- The benchmarks have been updated for Tcl 8.5 - <http:/wiki.tcl.tk/1611>
and <http://wiki.tcl.tk/1616>
- Continuations continue to confuse and fascinate:
<http://wiki.tcl.tk/13232> - who knows what the future has install?
- Pages <http://wiki.tcl.tk/9830> and <http://wiki.tcl.tk/2873>
collect all kinds of information on loading external libraries
- material for a TIP?
Applications
- RSS feeds are a rather nice web feature, but they are rather difficult
to work with. Or are they? Maybe a simple approahc suffices ...
<http;//wiki.tcl.tk/17211>
- Another nice web feature is "Flash" - but can one do them from a
Tcl script? <http://wiki.tcl.tk/4398> holds that question, but not
the answer.
- Is Tcl any help for the office worker? <http://wiki.tcl.tk/17196>
could use extra information
Just a few thoughts ...
- You poor chronicler wanted to avoid OO this week, but alas, this
page on reverse Polish notation did have some appeal ...
<http://wiki.tcl.tk/17190>
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.
To receive a new issue of this posting in e-mail each Monday, ask
<[email protected]> 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.