Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk: Amazon.co.uk: Brent B. Welch: Books

Product Description

61683-9 Completely-updated Tcl/Tk best-seller! Extensive new coverage of UNIX, Windows and Macintosh Tcl/Tk. Authored by a member of the Tcl/Tk development team, Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk is the most comprehensive, practical guide to Tcl and Tk available. Beginners can rely on this book for a thorough, well-organized introduction-and experts will gain insight from the extensive programming tips and examples. Tcl/Tk insider Brent Welch begins by introducing Tcl and the fundamental mechanisms that characterize it. It presents both basic and advanced coding techniques, describes Tcl's interface to the operating system, and the script library facility. He introduces Tk and the relevant aspects of graphical interface programming, presenting examples and sample widgets. Along the way, he shows experienced developers how Tcl and Tk have evolved-and how to take full advantage of its new capabilities. You'll find extensive coverage of user interface development, including techniques for creating user interfaces that run on all major desktop platforms. Welch reviews Tcl's improved network support, as well as Safe Tcl and its recent enhancements.He also covers advanced topics such as C programming with the Tk toolkit. Finally, the book covers the new Tcl 8.0 compiler and the Tcl/Tk plug-in for both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Explorer. The accompanying CD-ROM includes all the source code in the book, plus an extensive library of Tcl/Tk and Tcl freeware for Windows 95, UNIX, Macintosh, Windows 3.1 and Windows NT. Whether you're a current Tcl/Tk programmer, or a developer searching for a convenient, powerful multiplatform scripting language, Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk delivers exactly what you're looking for. "This is an excellent book, loaded with useful examples. Newcomers to Tk will find the widget descriptions particularly helpful." John Ousterhout, Professor of Computer Science, University of California at Berkeley and Creator of Tcl and Tk "Brent Welch fills an important need for an introduction to Tcl/Tk with an applied focus and with coverage of many of the useful extensions available ...I recommended this book to my new students ...and I keep a copy handy for my own use." Joseph A. Konstan, Professor of Computer Science, University of Minnesota

From the Author

The 2nd edition is up-to-date with Tcl/Tk 8.0
The 2nd edition describes Tcl/Tk 8.0 and has chapters that summarize the changes between Tcl 7.4/Tk 4.0 and the current releases. I note that my publisher says the book covers the "new Tcl 7.5 / Tk 4.1" releases, which are actually quite old. I work in the Tcl/Tk group at Sun and have the inside track on what it offers.

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Good examples and reference book - badly put together 12 Jan 2000

By "col_ford"

Format:Textbook Binding

Mr Welch has provided a book with good examples for someone with good tcl/tk experence. It goes into detail in some places and others it just glosses over. For example the C API for Object handling is very poorly documented where as the tcl for setting up sockets for server clients is very good. One really bad thing that has nothing to do with Mr Welch but everything to do with the publisher is that the books spine and pages are so badly put together that my copy started to fall apart after only 3 months of use.

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The worst instructional book I've ever read! 9 Dec 1998

By A Customer

I agree with Chris Schock's review (above). Whenever Mr. Welch begins explaining a new command, instead of starting with simple, clear, to-the-point examples and building up to more complex ones, he foregoes simple examples entirely and dives right into complex, "flashy tricks" examples. For instance, on pg.75 he begins explaining how to create and use procedures in Tcl. Instead of starting with a straight-forward example, though, he begins with an example illustrating the use of default parameters in a proc declaration.

Perhaps, if you are already familiar with the language, this book may serve as a decent reference to the more subtle aspects of Tcl/Tk. However, I really wouldn't reccomend this book to anyone..especially someone just beginning in the wonderful field of computer programming. You really do need experience with a more low-level language to understand Mr. Welch's style of explanations.

The book is average, at times needlessly confusing. 5 July 1998

Mr. Welch's book is nice in the way the examples tie together from many different sections. However, I feel that he has too much time devoted to flashy tricks, immediately followed by stern "don't do this" warnings. While the examples are rich, they often are not explained thoroughly. I have found myself looking at ambiguous examples several times, which frustrated me. My suggestion is to include a brief question-and-answer section at the end of each chapter, especially in the intro. Between five and ten short questions would dramatically improve retention and also help solidify concepts.