Tcl/Tk 8.5 Programming Cookbook

Tcl/Tk 8.5 Programming Cookbook

Overview of this book

With Tcl/Tk, you can create full-featured cross-platform applications in a simple and easy-to-understand way without any expensive development package; the only tools required are a simple text editor and your imagination. This practical cookbook will help you to efficiently interact with editors, debuggers, and shell type interactive programs using Tcl/Tk 8. This cookbook will comprehensively guide you through practical implementation of Tcl/Tk 8.5 commands and tools. This book will take you through all the steps needed to become a productive programmer in Tcl/Tk 8. Right from guiding you through the basics to creating a stand-alone application, it provides complete explanation of all the steps along with handy tips and tricks. The book begins with an introduction to the Tcl shell, syntax, variables, and programming best practices in the language. It then explores procedures and the flow of events with control constructs followed by advanced error trapping and recovery. From Chapter 4, a detailed study of string expressions and handling enables you to handle various string functions and use lists to expand the string functionality. The book then discusses in-depth the Tcl Dictionary and how to utilize it to store and retrieve data. File operations and Tk GUI handling are covered extensively along with a developing a real-world address book application to practice the concepts learned.

Tcl/Tk 8.5 Programming Cookbook

Credits

About the Author

Acknowledgment

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Preface

Free Chapter

The Tcl Shell

Introduction

The Tcl shell

Writing to the Tcl console

Mathematical expressions

Tcl expr operands

Mathematical functions

Computing mathematical expressions

Referencing files in Tcl

Variables

Command line arguments

Using the Building Blocks Control Constructs

Introduction

Controlling flow with the if statement

Looping with for

Looping with foreach

Looping with while

Continuing a procedure

Breaking out of a procedure

Nested looping

Error Handling

Introduction

Using the catch command

Using the eval command

Using the error command

Error handling procedure

Handling String Expressions

Introduction

Appending to a string

Formatting a string

Matching a regular expression within a string

Performing character substitution on a string

Parsing a string using conversion specifiers

Determining the length of a string

Comparing strings

Comparing a string of characters

Locating the first instance of a character

Locating the index of a character

Determining the class of a string

Locating the last instance of a string

Determining the size of a string

Replacing values within a string

Locating a pattern within a string

Returning a range of characters from a string

Creating a string of repeated characters

Replacing ranges of characters contained within a string

Creating a reverse string

Converting a string to lowercase

Converting a string to title

Converting a string to uppercase

Trimming a string

Trimming leading whitespace

Trimming trailing whitespace

Locating the word end

Locating the word start

Performing variable substitution

Expanding String Functionality Using Lists

Introduction

Creating a list

Joining two lists

Joining list elements

Appending list elements

Assigning list elements to variables

Retrieving an element from a list

Inserting elements into a list

Determining the number of elements

Getting a list element

Splitting a string into a list

The Tcl Dictionary

Introduction

Creating a dictionary

Appending to a dictionary

Determining if a key exists

Filtering a dictionary

Searching a dictionary

Getting a record

Incrementing a value

Getting the dictionary structure

Getting a list of keys

Appending to an existing record

Merging two dictionaries

Creating a blank dictionary structure

Updating variables from a dictionary

Determining the size of a dictionary

File Operations

Opening a command pipeline

Tk GUI Programming with Tcl/Tk

Introduction

Creating a widget

Writing to the console

Setting the attributes of the window through window manager

Creating an additional window

Configuring and Controlling Tk Widgets

Introduction

Creating a frame widget

Creating a label widget

Creating an entry widget

Creating a button widget

Creating a listbox widget

Creating an image

Creating a simple form

Geometry Management

Introduction

Controlling layout with the pack command

Controlling layout with the grid command

Combining pack and grid

Creating an address book interface

Using Tcl Built-in Dialog Windows

Introduction

Displaying a message box

Displaying a confirmation dialog

Displaying the color picker

Displaying the directory dialog

Displaying the file selection dialog

Selecting a directory and file

Creating and Managing Menus

Introduction

Creating a menu

Adding menu buttons

Displaying a pop-up menu

Data entry application

Creating the Address Book Application

Introduction

Creating the Address Book application

Customer Reviews

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Introduction

So, you've installed Tcl, written some scripts, and now you're ready to get a deeper understanding of Tcl and all that it has to offer. So, why are we starting with the shell when it is the most basic tool in the Tcl toolbox?

When I started using Tcl I needed to rapidly deliver a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to display a video from the IP-based network cameras. The solution had to run on Windows and Linux and it could not be browser-based due to the end user's security concerns. The client needed it quickly and our sales team had, as usual, committed to a delivery date without speaking to the developer in advance. So, with the requirement document in hand, I researched the open source tools available at the time and Tcl/Tk was the only language that met the challenge.

The original solution quickly evolved into a full-featured IP Video Security system with the ability to record and display historic video as well as providing the ability to attach to live video feeds from the cameras. Next search capabilities were added to review the stored video and a method to navigate to specific dates and times. The final version included configuring advanced recording settings such as resolution, color levels, frame rate, and variable speed playback. All was accomplished with Tcl.

Due to the time constraints, I was not able get a full appreciation of the capabilities of the shell. I saw it as a basic tool to interact with the interpreter to run commands and access the file system. When I had the time, I returned to the shell and realized just how valuable a tool it is and the many capabilities I had failed to make use of.

When used to its fullest, the shell provides much more that an interface to the Tcl interpreter, especially in the early stages of the development process. Need to isolate and test a procedure in a program? Need a quick debugging tool? Need real-time notification of the values stored in a variable? The Tcl shell is the place to go.

Since then, I have learned countless uses for the shell that would not only have sped up the development process, but also saved me several headaches in debugging the GUI and video collection. I relied on numerous dialog boxes to pop up values or turned to writing debugging information to error logs. While this was an excellent way to get what I needed, I could have minimized the overhead in terms of coding by simply relying on the shell to display the desired information in the early stages.

While dialog windows and error logs are irreplaceable, I now add in quick debugging by using the commands the shell has to offer. If something isn't proceeding as expected, I drop in a command to write to standard out and voila! I have my answer. The shell continues to provide me with a reliable method to isolate issues with a minimum investment of time.

Tcl/Tk 8.5 Programming Cookbook

Tcl/Tk 8.5 Programming Cookbook

Overview of this book

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Tcl/Tk 8.5 Programming Cookbook

Introduction