Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk (Paperback)

Tcl/Tk survives despite its inelegance ("set x [expr 2 + 2]" rather than "x=2+2") because it was the first practical, well-documented, simple-to-implement solution to the crucial question, "How do I build a GUI for my C program?" Tcl/Tk is available for all major Windows and OS environments, including X11 (native Unix-like windows), Microsoft Windows and Macintosh.

Now with 40 pages of tables of contents, examples and charts, and another 40 pages of newly recompiled indices, Welch's new edition spans 55 chapters divided into seven sections. The sections are divided as follows: two for Tcl, three for Tk, one for the C library and one for updates in Tcl and Tk distributions and functionality. The third edition appears against a healthy backdrop of new Tcl/Tk development. Perhaps the proudest accomplishment of the Tcl community is TclHttpd (chapter 18), a Web server written largely in Tcl. The new server contributes to efforts to unclog the Web server bottlenecks by providing faster client routes to server-side applications while continuing to support the traditional--albeit slower--common gateway interface. The remainder of the book is not new, but it has been augmented and polished.

Welch has expanded discussions and added examples of Tcl's extensibility in C. Tcl/Tk's development scope has grown to include all POSIX internals, such as threads, sockets, TCP/IP interfaces and secure shells.

Recent Tcl/Tk releases enable meta-level execution through eval() and support for Web client plug-ins, all of which are detailed with examples and careful explanation. Functionally, Tcl/Tk lacks nothing compared to modern scripting languages, except lexical flexibility and object-orientated architecture. Nor does it add anything except familiarity, consistency and a long history of above-average documentation.

Welch perhaps wisely omits comparison with his competition, just as Dick Clark never mentions Howard Stern. It is beneath the dignity of ageing market leaders to look back--or even around. --Peter Leopold --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Practical Programming in Tcl/Tk is described as the "bible" for Tcl programmers. It is a guide to the Tcl/Tk programming language and GUI toolkit. This revision includes substantial updates to cover the new version 8.4-giving both an overview of the features, as well as details about every command in the language. The third edition, written on version 8.2, sold over 30,000 copies. Version 8.4 of Tcl - Tool Command Language-provides substantial updates to one of the most popular UNIX scripting languages. The latest release, includes the addition of a virtual filesystem (VFS), many additional programming widgets (spinbox, panedwindow, labelframe),and improved performance of about 20% over 8.3. The book provides a guide to the best ways to use the tooklit. It not only gives accurate details, but includes extensive examples that demonstrate the best way to use the toolkit. The authors are experts that have both developed the technology and used it to solve problems, so they have many valuable insights to relate to the readers.