ActiveTcl 8.5.14.0 released

[AndreasK]

ActiveState is pleased to announce the release of ActiveTcl 8.5.14.0,
a
patchlevel release of the complete, ready-to-install Tcl distribution
for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, AIX and HP-UX; based on the
Tcl/Tk 8.5.14 core.

For detailed information or to download these releases, see:
http://www.activestate.com/activetcl

== New in ActiveTcl 8.5.14.0 ==

A patchlevel release with updates, including:

* Updated Tcl/Tk 8.5.14 core
* Updated teacup package management application
* Updated packages
** TclOO 1
** csv 0.8
** fileutil 1.14.5
** http 2.7.11
** msgcat 1.5.1
** platform 1.0.11
** sqlite 3.7.16
** struct::list 1.8.2
** struct::queue 1.4.5
** struct::stack 1.5.3
** tcltest 2.3.5
** vfs 1.4.2
** vfs::zip 1.0.4.1
** widget::all 1.2.4
** widget::calendar 1.0.1
** widget::dateentry 0.96

Download ActiveTcl 8.5.14.0 now:
http://www.activestate.com/activetcl

For access to more packages, use the included [teacup] application.

=== Getting Started ===

Whether you're a first-time user or a long-time fan, our free
resources
will help you get the most from ActiveTcl.

User forums and FAQs:
http://community.activestate.com/activetcl

Mailing list archives:
http://code.activestate.com/lists/#Tcl

Documentation:
http://docs.activestate.com/activetcl/8.5/

=== On what platforms does ActiveTcl run? ===

ActiveTcl includes installers for the following platforms:

- Windows (x86 or x64)
- Mac OS X (x86 or x86_64)
- Linux (x86 or x86_64)
- Solaris (sparc or x86) (Business or Enterprise Edition)
- HP-UX (PA-RISC or IA64) (Business or Enterprise Edition)
- AIX/PowerPC (Business or Enterprise Edition)

Custom builds are available in Enterprise Edition:

http://www.activestate.com/activetcl/enterprise/

=== Feedback ===

Everyone is encouraged to participate in making Tcl an even better
language. For bugs related to ActiveTcl, please use:

http://bugs.ActiveState.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=ActiveTcl&version=8.5.14.0

Tcl/Tk is maintained by the Tcl community, with the sources and bug
database at SourceForge:
http://tcl.SourceForge.net/

Enjoy!

- The Tcl Team
ActiveState Software Inc.

[de...@scratters.com]

On Friday, May 10, 2013 4:00:47 AM UTC+8, AndreasK wrote:
> ActiveState is pleased to announce the release of ActiveTcl 8.5.14.0,

Are there any practical alternatives to ActiveTcl? I've been trying to get an OEM distribution quote from ActiveState for 2 weeks now, but it seems they just can't be bothered to talk to me. I have to go back to my boss later today and tell her that the acknowledged world experts in the language won't even tell us how much their product costs, let alone sell it to us. I'm a contractor who's supposed to be providing solutions, and ActiveState have made me look a right idiot.

What are the alternatives? I need a full build of the latest stable Tcl/Tk, with TLS, XML and Tcllib, to run on Windows, Linux and OS X. My application is being delivered as a Starkit, so I need the Tclkits and libraries for commercial redistribution. Do ActiveState have competition, or do we little choice but to deal with them?

[Kevin Walzer]

You don't need an OEM license with ActiveState unless you are
distributing the entire kit and caboodle of ActiveTcl. The community
license allows you to include individual components in a wrapped
application, per section 3.b:

" You may: (i) copy the Software for archival purposes, (ii) copy the
Software for personal use purposes, (iii) use, copy, and distribute the
Software solely for Your organization's internal use and or internal
business operation purposes including copying the Software to other
computers or workstations inside Your organization, (iv) redistribute
parts of the Software outside of Your organization only as part of a
Wrapped Application utilizing executable generators such as PerlApp,
Perl2Exe, PAR, TclApp, py2app, or py2exe. Any copy must contain the
original Software's proprietary notices in unaltered form. 'Wrapped
Application' means a single-file executable wherein all binary
components are encapsulated in a single binary however You may not
expose the base programming language as a scripting language within your
own application program to end users."

As I read it, this means that you can use the AS basekits, and install
the necessary libs (tcllib, TLS, etc) from teapot, with no problem, and
then deploy wrapped apps via SDX to your target platform.

As an alternative, if you need the entire distro and not just bits and
pieces of it, then just point end users to the free version of ActiveTcl.

As yet another alternative, Roy Keene maintains free builds of TclKit
for a number of platforms at http://kitcreator.rkeene.org/fossil/index.
This could provide the core of your app distributions for Windows, Linux
and OS X. Tcllib is cross-platform and freely downloadable from
SourceForge. This would leave you the task of building versions of TLS
and XML (do you mean tDom here?) for the three platforms--not a trivial
task, but likely not a dealbreaker either.

I wouldn't waste further time with seeking an OEM license from AS.
That's for the big boys like Cisco that bundle the entire distro
internally in their products. That's not the use case that you've
described.

--Kevin

--
Kevin Walzer
Code by Kevin/Mobile Code by Kevin
http://www.codebykevin.com
http://www.wtmobilesoftware.com

[tomás zerolo]

de...@scratters.com writes:

> On Friday, May 10, 2013 4:00:47 AM UTC+8, AndreasK wrote:
>> ActiveState is pleased to announce the release of ActiveTcl 8.5.14.0,
>
> Are there any practical alternatives to ActiveTcl?

Yes, there are. But you've got to tinker a bit.

I actually managed to cross-build Tcl and Tk on Linux, targeting (MinGW)
Windows, the build is fairly straightforward. For OSX, there's a Tcl/Tk
on-board. Of course, there's some tinkering involved until you get all
the libs running smoothly to your needs. But nothing insurmountable, I'd
think.

> I've been trying to get an OEM distribution quote from ActiveState
> for 2 weeks now, but it seems they just can't be bothered to talk
> to me.

This is strange. I had once the pleasure to deal with AS and my
experience was thoroughly positive. Alas, at this time my customer was
rather stingy. I'd liked to see this (albeit small) business going to AS.

Just try again, I think they deserve it (not associated with AS in any
way).

Regards
-- tomás