Tools

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Tcl is managed by the Tcl Core Team (TCT) whose membership is elected by the Tcl community. Like Python, the TCT seeks proposals for enhancements by the development public. Developers can submit TIPs, or Tcl Improvement Proposals, to suggest changes or additions to Tcl [Tcl-TIP]. The version of Tcl used in this chapter (and Chapter 21, Network Code Patterns in Tcl) is version 8.0.

The primary Tcl Web page that provides not only information about Tcl, but also the latest downloads is http://www.tcl.tk.

Interpreter/Tools Used

The standard Tcl distribution is demonstrated here. Tcl operates on a wide range of platforms in a number of different modes. Tcl can be operated via a shell (tclsh) and also as a library that can be integrated into other programs in a large variety of languages. The latest Tcl interpreter can be downloaded at http://www.tcl.tk. Tcl operates on Windows, Linux, and numerous other operating systems. One of Tcl’s primary strengths is its portability between host architectures and languages.

Tcl's lack of some capabilities makes datagram Sockets programming prohibitive. In order to build datagram and multicast applications, the Tcl-DP package must be used [Tcl-DP03]. Tcl-DP (Tcl-Distributed Programming) is an extension to Tcl that provides a range of services, including datagram sockets, RPC, and TCP and IP connection management. Certain examples in this section require the Tcl-DP package, which may be freely downloaded.

Note 

The sample code patterns presented here (and in Chapter 21) and on the CD-ROM will execute on any of the supported environments.

Networking API Used

The Tcl-DP package must be downloaded for some examples presented here. These examples can be identified by their importing of the Tcl-DP package (shown as the line ‘package required dp 4.0’). For these examples, the Tcl-DP package must be downloaded at [Tcl-DP03] and installed (using the teki application). The release used here for Tcl-DP is 4.0.

Where to Download

The Tcl interpreter and tools may be downloaded at the source, http://www.tcl.tk (under “Latest Releases”). This site includes both source and binary versions of the interpreter. A list of the platforms on which Tcl can currently run is available at [Tcl-Platforms]. The Tcl-DP version 4.0 package can be downloaded at http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Info/Projects/zeno/Projects/Tcl-DP.html .

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