New release: Tcl 6.2, Tk 1.4
John Ousterhout
I have just released version 6.2 of Tcl and version 1.4 of Tk. These
releases contain almost no new features, but they fix a number of
annoying bugs and portability problems. If you have Tcl 6.1 or Tk 1.3
and aren't having any problems with it then you probably don't need
to upgrade immediately.
Among the portability problems I think I've fixed are one related to the
IBM RS/6000 having to do with AIX's bogus strtoul procedure, and one
related to HP-UX where the config script wasn't setting the TCL_SYS_WAIT_H
#define correctly. I think I've fixed both of these problems now, but
I don't have machines to test them. I'd appreciate it if someone who's
experienced these problems in the past could grab Tcl 6.2, try it out,
and report back to the newsgroup on whether the problems are really
fixed (report to the newsgroup rather than to me so that only one person
has to try each machine).
Here is a copy of the current information file for Tcl/Tk; note that the
location of the files in the Sprite FTP directory has changed slightly
from previous releases.
Retrieving the sources for Tcl and Tk:
--------------------------------------
I have left the sources and documentation for the Tcl command
language library, for the Tk toolkit, and for a few Tcl-based
applications in the public FTP area on sprite.berkeley.edu.
All of these files are in the "tcl" subdirectory of the FTP area.
Here is a catalog of what's available. Most of the files are
compressed tar files ("xxx.tar.Z"). There is some overlap
between the contents of the various packages.
tcl/tk1.4.tar.Z - This is the latest release of the Tk toolkit, released
in January 1992. It includes a complete copy of the
Tcl 6.2 release (the version of Tcl with which it is
compatible) plus a simple windowing shell called
"wish". If you retrieve this file you don't need to
retrieve Tcl separately.
tcl/tk1.4.patch.Z - A patch file to upgrade from the 1.3 release of Tk
to 1.4. Invoke patch in the top-level Tk directory
with the "-p" switch and an uncompressed version of
this file, e.g. "patch -p tk1.4.patch".
tcl/tcl6.2.tar.Z - This is the newest release of the Tcl library.
It became available in January 1992. This
package includes only the Tcl library and its
documentation, plus a simple main program for
testing.
tcl/tcl6.2.patch.Z - A patch file to upgrade from the 6.1 release of Tcl
to 6.2. Invoke patch in the top-level Tcl directory
with the "-p" switch and an uncompressed version of
this file, e.g. "patch -p tcl6.1.patch".
tcl/tcl6.1Xa.tar.Z - Extended Tcl (or NeoSoft Tcl), created by Mark
Diekhans and Karl Lehenbauer, which adds a number
of useful facilities to the base Tcl release.
Among the things in Extended Tcl are a Tcl shell,
many new commands for things like UNIX kernel
call access and math library routines, and an
on-line help facility. This file is based on Tcl
6.1 but will probably work just fine with 6.2
also.
tcl/mx.tar.Z - Sources and documentation for a mouse-based text
editor (mx) and terminal emulator (tx) based on
Tcl. This is a very old release: it uses an old
version of Tcl (which is included) and doesn't
even use Tk; it uses an ancient toolkit called
"Sx". These tools will eventually be replaced
with new tools based on Tk and the newest Tcl.
tcl/tclUsenix90.ps - Postscript for a paper on Tcl that appeared in the
Winter 1990 USENIX Conference. This paper is also
included in the Tcl and Tk distributions.
tcl/tkUsenix91.ps - Postscript for a paper on Tk that appeared in the
Winter 1991 USENIX Conference. This paper is also
included in the Tk distribution.
tcl/tkF10.ps - Postscript for Figure 10 of the Tk paper.
tcl/tcl.archive - An archive of messages posted to the Tcl mailing
list. Now that there is a comp.lang.tcl newsgroup
the mailing list is defunct so this file is becoming
out of date.
To retrieve any or all of these packages, use anonymous FTP to
sprite.berkeley.edu (Internet address 128.32.150.27). Use user
"anonymous"; when asked for a password, type your login name. Then
retrieve the relevant file(s) with the commands like the following:
type image (try "type binary" if this command is rejected)
get tcl6.2.tar.Z
get tk1.4.tar.Z
get mx.tar.Z
What you'll get in most cases are compressed tar files; to get back the
original directory hierarchies, type the commands like the following for
each file you retrieved:
uncompress tk1.4.tar.Z
tar xf tk1.4.tar
This will create a directory named tk1.4 with all the source files and
documentation for that release. There will be a README file in the
tk1.4 subdirectory that tells what to do next.
If you can't get access to sprite, send me mail and I'll find some other
way to get the stuff to you. Some of these packages are also available
via other machines, including at least the following:
ftp.uu.net: languages/tcl/*
export.lcs.mit.edu: contrib/tk*
barkley.berkeley.edu: tcl/*
The barkley FTP area also contains a number of extensions and contributed
Tcl scripts. If none of the above possibilities works for you, send me
mail and I'll find some other way to get the stuff to you.