Chapter 1, The Tcl Shell, gives an introduction to the Tcl shell.

Chapter 2, Using the Building Blocks Control Constructs, talks about using control constructs (if statements, for statements, and so on) to perform control program flow.

Chapter 3, Error Handling, talks about using the built-in commands and the Tcl shell to perform error handling.

Chapter 4, Handling String Expressions, explains how to create, manipulate, and manage string variables.

Chapter 5, Expanding String Functionality Using List, shows how to create, manipulate, and manage data in Tcl lists.

Chapter 6, The Tcl Dictionary, explains how to create, manipulate, and manage data in Tcl dictionaries.

Chapter 7, File Operations, tells how to open, read, write, and configure access to files stored on the system.

Chapter 8, Tk GUI Programming with Tcl/Tk, gives an introduction to the Tk shell, creating and managing a widget or window.

Chapter 9, Configuring and Controlling Tk Widgets, explains about creating and managing the most commonly used Tk widgets.

Chapter 10, Geometry Management, talks about managing the layout and design of the window.

Chapter 11, Using Tcl Built-In Dialog Windows, is about the creation and use of the Tcl built-in dialog windows available in Tk.

Chapter 12, Creating and Managing Menus, explains creating and managing menus, menu buttons, and pop-up menus.

Chapter 13, Creating the Address Book Application, gives full code listing and description of an Address Book application that makes use of the information covered in the previous sections.

To complete the recipes covered in this book you will need the following:

If you are a beginner interested in adding Tcl/Tk 8.5 to your list of languages or an experienced Tcl/Tk programmer looking to sharpen your knowledge, be assured you will find your perfect guide in this book. Whether you are developing for your personal use or commercial applications, this book will provide you with a ready reference to the building blocks of Tcl/Tk 8.5.

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: "The catch construct is used to prevent errors from aborting a script."

A block of code is set as follows:

If {[catch {set doubled [expr $value * 2]} errmsg]} {
puts "Script Failed - $errmsg"
} else {
puts "$value doubled is: $doubled"
}

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

% unset x
%

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "If the user clicks on the Cancel button, an empty string is returned."

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