ANN: Tcl For PI Project

[Gerald Lester]

Tcl For PI

This project is intended to group the discussion and artifacts needed to
create a Debian distribution package that either contains or depends on
pieces that make programming in Tcl/Tk on the PI simple an easy. Such
will include Tcl/Tk itself, the piio, libtclpy and pyman packages at a
minimum.

This project is in a pre-alpha state.

The project repository is at:
https://chiselapp.com/user/gwlester/repository/TclForPi/index

--
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Gerald W. Lester, President, KNG Consulting LLC |
| Email: Gerald...@kng-consulting.net |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

[rhobart/popple]

Wonderful news!
I followed a link the other day for using tcl for the pi and its not being maintained anymore.
It also looked to be difficult to get up and going.
I bought a pi for my grandson to play with a few years back and we used python because it was there.
Also the manuals and small books have sample code using python; and even java.
Also installed java on the pi and it worked (older pi now).
So it would be nice as you stated "make programming in Tcl/Tk on the PI simple..."
I am rather new to the tcl/tk language (almost 1 year), but I can see the greatness in this language that can
run and be embedded on any OS system.
I also noticed that tcl went up in the https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/ - up to 49th!

[Gerald Lester]

Well right now to really get going with Tcl on the PI is straight
forward for anyone who has done development on Linux.

You just need to use apt-get (or the GUI package manager) to install
Tcl/Tk, TclLib and TkLib.

Then pull down some zip files for libtclpy and piio packages, then
unpack them, do a make and move the libraries to the "normal" places for
Tcl to find them.

The aim of the project is to make it trivial by only having to pick one
"package" in the GUI package manager (or in apt-get).

[Robert Heller]

Two things that should be included: an armv7l Tclkit and sdx.kit. This would
allow wrapping Pi Tcl/Tk code for shipment to other Pis that might be
"lacking"...

--
Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Linux Administration Services
hel...@deepsoft.com -- Webhosting Services

[Gerald Lester]

Please go to the repo
(https://chiselapp.com/user/gwlester/repository/TclForPi/wiki?name=Packages)
packages page and add that comment.

[Robert Heller]

I added it as an anonymous comment.

[Gerald Lester]

On 02/02/2018 08:17 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
> At Fri, 2 Feb 2018 18:08:52 -0600 Gerald Lester <Gerald...@KnG-Consulting.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> On 02/02/2018 03:48 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
>>> At Fri, 2 Feb 2018 14:49:59 -0600 Gerald Lester <Gerald...@KnG-Consulting.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 02/02/2018 02:37 PM, rhobart/popple wrote:
>>>>> On Friday, February 2, 2018 at 10:23:22 AM UTC-6, Gerald Lester wrote:
>>>>>> Tcl For PI
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This project is intended to group the discussion and artifacts needed to
>>>>>> create a Debian distribution package that either contains or depends on
>>>>>> pieces that make programming in Tcl/Tk on the PI simple an easy. Such
>>>>>> will include Tcl/Tk itself, the piio, libtclpy and pyman packages at a
>>>>>> minimum.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This project is in a pre-alpha state.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The project repository is at:
>>>>>> https://chiselapp.com/user/gwlester/repository/TclForPi/index
>>>>>>

Thank you!

[jsunth...@gmail.com]

I wanted to mention that someone in IRC mentioned the other day that they were working on a tcl interface to the Multi-Media Abstraction Layer (MMAL) on the pi. Some that isn't me should try to find out who it was, and see if they want to join forces.

[ifind...@gmail.com]

I ported quite a few of my own Tcl extensions to the PI some time back. In particular, the TclFltk package runs out of the box on a PI and makes development of GUI applications pretty trivial. My TclFltk project on SF has the ported extensions.

Generally, I find the PI to be an incredible computer considering the cost.

Sounds like your project is a great step forward.

[ifind...@gmail.com]

On Friday, February 2, 2018 at 11:23:22 AM UTC-5, Gerald Lester wrote:

The link to TclFltk and my other extension packages is:https://sourceforge.net/projects/tclfltk/?source=directory

[jsunth...@gmail.com]

That's very cool!

[William J Giddings]

On 02/02/18 16:23, Gerald Lester wrote:
> Tcl For PI
>
> This project is intended to group the discussion and artifacts needed to
> create a Debian distribution package that either contains or depends on
> pieces that make programming in Tcl/Tk on the PI simple an easy.  Such
> will include Tcl/Tk itself, the piio, libtclpy and pyman packages at a
> minimum.
>
> This project is in a pre-alpha state.
>
> The project repository is at:
>    https://chiselapp.com/user/gwlester/repository/TclForPi/index
>

Hi,

I've a working distribution of Gnocl, the Tcl/Gtk+ bindings which
successfully runs on My Raspberry PI model 3, under UBUNTU Mate. This
means, of course, Gnocl apps are native Gtk+ and conform to themes etc.

For the Gtk+ developer there are added benefits in using Gnocl as it
offers enhanced Gtk+ widget support, including pango markup in text widgets.

Check gnocl.org for more details.

Let me know if you want to progress this option further.

WJG
Gnocl Developer & Maintainer 2008-present

[Casey]

Gerald,

This is amazing! Thank you so much!

You referenced piio; I'm not entirely familiar with Pi yet, but I take it that this library can interact with data from sensors?

[Gerald Lester]

On 02/04/2018 01:35 PM, Casey wrote:
> On Friday, February 2, 2018 at 4:23:22 PM UTC, Gerald Lester wrote:
>> Tcl For PI
>>
>> This project is intended to group the discussion and artifacts needed to
>> create a Debian distribution package that either contains or depends on
>> pieces that make programming in Tcl/Tk on the PI simple an easy. Such
>> will include Tcl/Tk itself, the piio, libtclpy and pyman packages at a
>> minimum.
>>
>> This project is in a pre-alpha state.
>>
>> The project repository is at:
>> https://chiselapp.com/user/gwlester/repository/TclForPi/index
>>

> Gerald,
>
> This is amazing! Thank you so much!
>
> You referenced piio; I'm not entirely familiar with Pi yet, but I take it that this library can interact with data from sensors?
>

Yes, it can do the following:
piio for general purpose I/O, also known as gpio.
twowire for Inter-Integrated Circuit, also known as i2c.
spi for Serial Peripheral Interface bus.

It also has several Tcl Modules for particular devices.

You also might want to check out pyman, this opens up a lot of Python
libraries for use from Tcl.

[jsunth...@gmail.com]

Okay, so Debian has 8.6.8 for armhf in the sid repos. To facilitate easy installation, and make Tcl for Pi actually available for use say, tomorrow, I propose this. A 8.6.8 tclkit for pi + a Tcl for Pi starpack which includes

A) a command to add a repo to the local machine, so that "apt install pyman" works just as it would if pyman were in the official repos

B) offer command(s) "ensembles" maybe, to be used as a package manager, using deb files, but maybe offer alternatives to what it should do with them. So like [tcl4pi apt install ..] for a system installation of actual debs, just in every way exactly like $> apt .. , and a [tcl4pi install ..] which rather than globally installs them, drops their contents into a $PWD subdir, to be locally sourced or required from a script.

And a distinct starpack
C) Offer a fat starpack of batteries-included Tcl for Pi, self-contained and ready to deploy.

How does that sound? As a start. There should still be an effort of downstreaming pr whatever to a mainline and friendly Debian partner, but make that a follow up - catch up issue instead of a blocking issue.

[Gerald Lester]

On 02/05/2018 02:09 PM, jsunth...@gmail.com wrote:
> Okay, so Debian has 8.6.8 for armhf in the sid repos. To facilitate easy installation, and make Tcl for Pi actually available for use say, tomorrow, I propose this. A 8.6.8 tclkit for pi + a Tcl for Pi starpack which includes
>
> A) a command to add a repo to the local machine, so that "apt install pyman" works just as it would if pyman were in the official repos
>
> B) offer command(s) "ensembles" maybe, to be used as a package manager, using deb files, but maybe offer alternatives to what it should do with them. So like [tcl4pi apt install ..] for a system installation of actual debs, just in every way exactly like $> apt .. , and a [tcl4pi install ..] which rather than globally installs them, drops their contents into a $PWD subdir, to be locally sourced or required from a script.
>
> And a distinct starpack
> C) Offer a fat starpack of batteries-included Tcl for Pi, self-contained and ready to deploy.
>
> How does that sound? As a start. There should still be an effort of downstreaming pr whatever to a mainline and friendly Debian partner, but make that a follow up - catch up issue instead of a blocking issue.
>

My gut says, go with (C) for now.

Next step, go with "A". What do we need exactly to do this step?

Then when we find "a mainline and friendly Debian partner", we switch to
that and eliminate "A".

How does that sound as a plan?

[jsunth...@gmail.com]

Okay, totally cool, and sounds funky fly fresh. But I'm here for the debian angle, and if it's all just going into a starpack, you don't need me at all for that, so I'll bow out of that effort, but I would love to see it!

As for A, it's really simple. We need to self-host a deb repository. You can see how easy it is to do with ec2 and s3 and stuff with a quick googling. Then dropping a file in a /etc subdir of the local machine of the willing, and running $> su/sudo apt update Boom, repo is good to go. When that happens, we should put all the sid armhf tcl goodies into it, so we get cutting edge compiled everything with the latest upstream release, plus our own stuff, with which we should target the same. Not just Tcl for Pi, best tcl for pi too, by default.

[jsunth...@gmail.com]

Please don't hear me copping out here, I'm still gonna make pyman debs tonight :)

[jsunth...@gmail.com]

And worst case scenario, they can be installed with dpkg -i downloadedsomehow.deb

[Gerald Lester]

I thought your initial post was saying "A" was too much work for now.