Tcl/Tk 8.3.1 Release Announcement
April 26, 2000

We are pleased to announce the 8.3.1 releases of the Tcl scripting
language and the Tk toolkit.  This is the first patch release of
Tcl/Tk 8.3. More details can be found below.  We'd like to thank all
those that submit bugs and patches as they are the primary source of
information for us to identify problems in the core.

Where to get the new releases:
------------------------------

Tcl/Tk 8.3.1 are freely available in open source from the
Scriptics web site at

        http://dev.scriptics.com/software/tcltk/8.3.html

This web page also contains additional information about the
releases, including new features and notes about installing and
compiling the releases.

For additional information:
---------------------------

Please visit the Tcl Developer Xchange web site:

        http://dev.scriptics.com/

This site contains a variety of information about Tcl/Tk in general,
the core Tcl and Tk distributions, the TclPro tool suite, and much more.

Thank you for your contributions:
---------------------------------
As usual, this release includes contributions from the Tcl community.
We have a page honoring these contributions at:

        http://dev.scriptics.com/software/tcltk/contributors.html

Summary of Changes since Tcl/Tk 8.3.0:
--------------------------------------

The following were the main changes doe Tcl/Tk 8.3.1. A complete
list can be found in the changes file at the root of the source tree.
The more complete ChangeLog is also now included with each release.
This is a patch release, so it primarily included bug fixes and
corrections to erratic behavior.  Below are only the most notable
changes.

1. Overhaul of http package for proper handling of async callbacks,
   including a few new options.

2. Optimized Windows filename handling and ==/!= checks against the
   empty string in expressions.

3. Improved build support for gcc/mingw on Windows, added RPM targets in
   the makefiles for Unix, added --enable-64bit-vis configure option for
   Sparc VIS support on Solaris.

4. Corrected data encoding problem when using the "exec << $data"
   construct.

5. Overhaul of threading mechanism to better support tcl level thread
   command (new APIs Tcl_ConditionFinalize, Tcl_MutexFinalize,
   Tcl_CreateThread, etc, all docs in Thread.3).
   This enables the new Tcl level thread extension.

6. Fixed infinite loop case in regexp -all.

7. Moved tclLibraryPath to thread-local storage to fix possible race
   condition on MP machines.

8. added MacOS X build target and tclLoadDyld.c dynamic loader type.

9. Several fixes for Mac sockets and support for Navigation Services.

10. Fixed hang in threaded Unix case when backgrounded exec process was
    running.

11. Fixed crash in listbox when cursor was configure and then widget was
    destroyed.

12. Added %V substitution to entry widget validation to clarify type of
    validation occuring.

13. Numerous corrections for more correct Unix dialog behaviors.

14. Correct initialization of Windows static builds.

15. Added Unicode aware open/save file dialogs on Windows (NT/2000).

16. Canvas: corrected support for transparency in dashed lines on Windows;
    added support for postscript generation of images on Windows, also
    fixing transparency printing; corrected handling of configure options
    in non-empty canvas.

17. Fixed font name length restriction that prevented the use of long
    named (>16 char) fonts on NT/2000.

18. Fixed Alt-Key event generation and handling of Alt-sequence Windows
    special char generation and (Control|Shift|Alt)_L/_R determination.

19. msgcat now searches up the namespace chain for a match instead of just
    in the local namespace.

20. Improved handling of Windows clipboard to allow for use of
    user-defined types within the Tk application.

21. Improved handling of scale widget, reduced number of redraws.

22. Made shift-selection more Windows-like (intuitive) in text widget.

23. Documented many missing public APIs.

-- 
   Jeffrey Hobbs                          Tcl Ambassador
   jeffrey.hobbs at scriptics.com         Scriptics Corp.