Tcl 8.0b2/Tk 8.0b2 Release Announcement June 30, 1997 John Ousterhout Sun Microsystems, Inc. john.ousterhout@eng.sun.com This message is to announce the 8.0b2 releases of the Tcl scripting language and the Tk toolkit. These releases consist mostly of bug fixes; there are only a few small feature changes. The "b2" in the release names indicates that these are the second beta releases. "Beta" means that we consider the releases to be feature- complete: we won't make any changes to interfaces, either at the level of Tcl commands or C APIs, unless we find major problems with the current interfaces. These releases are likely to have bugs (that's why they're still beta instead of final). Please let us know immediately about any problems you uncover with the releases. Where to get the new releases: ------------------------------ Tcl 8.0b2 and Tk 8.0b2 are currently available by public FTP from ftp.sunlabs.com in the directory /pub/tcl. The easiest way to retrieve them is via the Web page for the 8.0 releases: http://sunscript.sun.com/TclTkCore/8.0.html For additional information: --------------------------- See the Web site for SunScript, the Sun team dedicated to Tcl and Tk. This site contains a variety of information about Tcl/Tk in general, the core Tcl and Tk distributions, and applications such as SpecTcl and the Tcl plugin. Visit the following URL: http://sunscript.sun.com Changes in Tcl 8.0b2: --------------------- Here is a summary of the most important feature changes in Tcl 8.0b2 relative to Tcl 8.0b1. There are also many bug fixes in this release, which aren't listed below. For a summary of the major feature changes since Tcl 7.6, see the README file in the distribution. For a complete list of all changes, see the file "changes" in the source distribution. 1. There is a new "registry" package available under Windows for accessing the Windows registry. 2. It is no longer allowable to omit the "eval" in "namespace eval" commands. This avoids potential confusion between namespace names and namespace command options, and makes it possible to abbreviate option names in the "namespace" command. 3. The "http" command has been converted to a package, so you have to say "package require http" before using it. 4. Tcl_Obj objects can no longer have both a NULL string value and a NULL typePtr. If the typePtr is NULL, then there is always a valid string value. It is no longer allowable to directly ckfree the string representation; you must call Tcl_InvalidateStringRep. 5. The interface to channel drivers changed slightly again, to pass an interp argument down to Tcl_DriverGetOptionProcs. 6. The procedure Tcl_ExprStringObj has been renamed Tcl_ExprObj. Changes in Tk 8.0b2: -------------------- Here is a summary of the most important feature changes in Tcl 8.0b2 relative to Tk 8.0b1. There are also many bug fixes in this release, which aren't listed below. For a summary of the major feature changes since Tk 4.2, see the README file in the distribution. For a complete list of all changes, see the file "changes" in the source distribution. 1. The "-default" option for buttons now takes one of three values: normal, active, or disabled. In the "normal" state, the button claims enough space for the default ring but doesn't actually display the ring. 2. The default border widths under Unix were changed back from 1 to 2 again, restoring the Tk 4.2 behavior. 3. The way highlights are drawn in the text widget was changed so that the margin space at the left of each line is drawn in the same fashion as the first character of the line. Credits: -------- Everyone in the Sun Tcl/Tk team contributed to the Tcl 8.0 and Tk 8.0 releases. Here is a list of a few of the most important contributions and the people who made them: Bytecode compiler, namespaces: Brian Lewis PC port (native look and feel etc.): Scott Stanton Mac port (native look and feel etc.): Ray Johnson, Jim Ingham Font mechanism: Colin Stevens Native menus: Syd Polk, John Ousterhout Safe-Tcl improvements: Jacob Levy, Brent Welch Application embedding: John Ousterhout, Scott Stanton, Ray Johnson Http library: Brent Welch Text images, gridder support: Stephen Uhler Binary I/O, fcopy: Scott Stanton