Subject: Tcl-URL! - weekly Tcl news and links (Dec 1)
From: Tcl-URL
Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2007 01:40:11 +0000
To: "Tcl-URL distribution" :;
CC:
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl

QOTW:  "[H]aving to use sleep in expect usually is a good sign of not
expecting the right stuff." - Uwe Klein

"OK, the sheer in-depth quality of Tk's geometry managers (same sorts of
things, different name) has spoilt me.  They are so good you don't know
how bad things can be until you try someone else's!" -  Donal K. Fellows


Thanks for Arjen Markus for his weekly summary of Wiki action:
  Existential questions on the Wiki. But of course
  the answers all exist - on that same Wiki.
  
  No changes necessary
  - While people want software to work "out-of-the-box", they
    also want changes: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/19877> on Expect's
    remarkable stability shows no change is needed!
  
  - And Tk is yet another body of code that is simply stable
    enough to do its job: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/4145>
  
  - Remarkably, yes, your Wiki chronicler is proud of this one,
    no changes were needed to use Plotchart in a very interactive
    application either: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/20353>
  
  No changes wanted
  - From time to time you do need to watch out for unwanted
    or unexpected changes in, say, the set-up of your machine.
    Here is a little program that checks for them:
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/20354>
  
  - Okay, you develop interactively, fine, can be done easily
    with "wish". But then you are finished and you want to 
    reuse the code you typed ... Here is a little helper:
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/17098>, though perhaps not always useable.
  
  No surprises wanted
  - Autorepeating keypresses is not always what you want - 
    for instance in games. Here are a few ways of handling
    the situation: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/20299>
  
  Comparisons required
  - There is a wealth of database abstraction layers out there!
    And given the recent TIP 308, why not have a closer look:
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/14972>
  
  - Brackets, braces, parentheses and what not! All those 
    grouping characters can make life tough to a programmer.
    Is there a tool to properly handle them? 
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/8785> perhaps?
  
  - When you are not clear enough, the answer to a seemingly 
    simple question may surprise you. What do you mean by
    comparing lists? <http://wiki.tcl.tk/15489>
  
  
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

    "La Gazette du Técleux" is an important monthly publication.
	http://wfr.tcl.tk/1159

    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/

We're working on more useful archives of past installments.  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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