Tcl-URL! - weekly Tcl news and links (Apr 17)
Cameron Laird
K. Fellows, caught in an unguarded moment
"In order to create a business around an open-source package, there needs
to be a truly huge user community (in the millions), such as Linux or
MySQL." - John Ousterhout in an ArsTechnica interview
http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/free-software-summit-10th.ars/6
POTW:
ANNOUNCE: Tcl Windows API aka TWAPI 2.0.9 (alpha) released
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/d2d45dfa86e3b723
Announcing another work-in-progress release of the Tcl Windows API
extension (TWAPI). The commands new to 2.0 are still subject to change
(although not likely).
If you are using Tcl 8.5, you are strongly encouraged to upgrade from
earlier releases. If you are still using 8.4, upgrading from 1.1 is
still recommended as several bugs have been fixed in addition to the
enhancements.
V2.0 changes
Major features since V1.1 include support for writing Windows services
in Tcl, interfaces to the MS Installer, clipboard and device
monitoring, Crypto/SSPI interfaces and power management. On the
downside, NT 4.0 support has
been dropped.
See http://twapi.magicsplat.com/versionhistory.html for a full list.
Need volunteers
If you can run the TWAPI test scripts on Vista, please post back here.
I don't have access to any Vista systems.
Homepage:
http://twapi.magicsplat.com/
Downloads:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=90123
ANNOUNCE: WISH Superscriptorium 2008
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/9df19e8386d307ee
by David McClamrock <mcclamr...@locl.net>
Based on "Words" by William Whittaker and "Glossator" by Mike Polis
WISH Superscriptorium 2008 is a simple computer-aided Latin-English
translation program, using plain-text grammar and vocabulary data
files derived from William Whittaker's "Words" program by way of Mike
Polis's "Glossator." It requires Tcl and Tk 8.5 (or greater, when
there is an even greater version). The main program window consists
basically of three scrolling text widgets side by side, with the
headings "ORIGINAL TEXT," "TRANSLATION OPTIONS," and "TRANSLATION,"
below some menus and mini-toolbar buttons.
Available for download at "Pa Penguin's Icebox"
Homepage, Downloads:
http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock
ANN:Fve Ver5.2 (Editor for "Mac OS X"/Cygwin/Unix/Windows) Tcl/Tk script
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/cac291a4d35d1233
File Viewer Editor_Version Fve 5.2
For Tcl/Tk 8.4,8.5: TclTkAqua 8.4: Tcl/Tk-cygwin 8.4.
Please use ActiveTcl 8.4.18 binary packages
or "TclTkAqua 8.4.10 binary packages".
Homepage, Downloads:
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/kazuo/sasagawa/
WARN:
TLS bug: empty reads
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/msg/7d1035c089c25010
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/e50488021c5ba560
MEET:
EVT '08 Call For Papers Deadline Approaching
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/e4e235de65698fb1
We're writing to remind you that the submissions deadline for the 2008
USENIX/ACCURATE Electronic Voting Technology Workshop is approaching.
Please submit all work by 11:59 p.m. PDT on Friday, April 11, 2008.
EVT is a leading publication venue for research on electronic voting
technologies. The Program Committee seeks to bring together researchers
from a variety of disciplines, ranging from computer science and
human-computer interaction experts through political scientists, legal
experts, election administrators, and voting equipment vendors. EVT
seeks to publish original research on important problems in all aspects
of electronic voting.
Paper submission guidelines can be found at
http://www.usenix.org/evt08/cfpb
Symposium on dynamic languages by Arjen Markus
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/18e08d114b53100f
today I received this short announcement from the ACM:
****************************
* Dynamic Languages Symposium
Date: July 8, 2008
Location: Paphos, Cyprus
URL: http://www.swa.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/dls/dls08/
Submission Deadline: April 25, 2008
Notification Date: May 23, 2008
****************************
I just thought to post it here, just in case.
ORBI: or what happened on comp.lang.tcl
Enhance [proc] for anonymous functions and closures
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/ffa48b75264ae4db
gzip/zlib in tcl and BLT overhaul
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/2a9317f4aeb26920
after ids
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/d406a9e139c9ee78
SCIM: kbd stops responding
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/8df5a9401270cee6
WM_SAVE_YOURSELF... how to use?
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/39465bd26d274558
Bignum Type Question
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/2cf626e8eebff3aa
TIPX: new, used and discarded Tips
TIP 315 by Hai Vu : Add pathSeparator to tcl_platform Array
http://www.tcl.tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/315.html
is a new TIP
OOTW: Orphan of the week or questions nobody answered yet:
Mixed Sync/Async communications pattern
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/d3626525fe8966e7
C API for "info frame"
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/a2fcb0d3bc7f5630
PMAG: Tcl in printed or other media
Article: Ousterhout on open source, Tcl
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/thread/e314095b62bd0941
Article:
http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/free-software-summit-10th.ars/6
Thanks to Arjen Markus for his weekly summary of Wiki action:
Probably your chronicler's bias, but there seems to be a lot
of interest in communication between processes - if the Wiki
is any reliable measure. Well, let's see ...
What's in a name
- Anyone else with a good name for the one new syntactical
element in Tcl 8.5? <http://wiki.tcl.tk/19707> discusses
various possibilities to call {*} ... uh, something.
- If you have some Latin homework, that is, translate Latin
text to English, check this out: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/20997>
Tools for your kit
- Convert an XML file into a PostScript file for printing ...
<http://wiki.tcl.tk/2741>
- An arms' race in compression algorithms. Can anyone beat
Lempel-Ziv-Markov? <http://wiki.tcl.tk/12749>
- Multiple ways to protect your source code - for various
reasons: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/3698> lists a new kid on the
block - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/21001>.
- Creating a stardll instead of a starkit - embedded Tcl
made even easier: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/15969>
Talking back and forth
- What methods do we have to let programs communicate
amongst each other? A lot as shown by <http://wiki.tcl.tk/1228>
- A very old (in terms of computerspeak) method can be found
here: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/4885>
- But nowadays you can simply start a lot of the same processes
on different machines by a single incantation: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/14734>
- Or set the parameters for a TCP connection: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/14722>
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.
To receive a new issue of this posting in e-mail each Monday, ask
<cla...@phaseit.net> to subscribe. Be sure to mention "Tcl-URL!".
--
Phaseit, Inc. (http://phaseit.net) is pleased to participate in and
sponsor the "Tcl-URL!" project.