Tcl/Tk 8.3b1 Release Announcement
December 22nd, 1999

We are pleased to announce the 8.3b1 releases of the Tcl scripting
language and the Tk toolkit.  This is the first beta of the 8.3 minor
upgrade release.  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 8.3b1 are freely available in open source from the
Scriptics web site at
	http://www.scriptics.com/products/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 Scriptics Web site.
       http://www.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://www.scriptics.com/products/tcltk/contributors.html

Summary of Changes / New Features since Tcl/Tk 8.2.3:
--------------------------------------

The following were the main changes in Tcl/Tk 8.3b1. 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.

1. improved error message for common mistakes (ie: invalid octal
numbers and misplaced comments)

2. new lsort -unique switch

3. enhanced glob command - easier and more powerful cross-platform
file listing functionality

4. file date stamping, through 'file atime' and 'file mtime' is
now supported

5. new file channels command to obtain list of open channels

6. scan command can now be used inline to return a list of values

7. new array unset command

8. Img patch from Nijtmans, et al was adopted.	This includes a
Tcl_Obj-based image command, support for binary in -data args, adds
an alpha channel to all photo types, as well as GIF write capability.

9. Major portions of Dash patch from Nijtmans, et al was adopted.
This includes a Tcl_Obj-based canvas command, dashed canvas item
support, enhanced canvas tag searching capabilities, pointer warping
with event -warp, entry widget validation routines, -state for areas
of the text widget (TkMan runs on 8.3 without a patch), several
new canvas item arguments, as well as postscript printing support
for images and windows in the canvas.

10. Listboxes support a -listvariable and have a new itemconfigure
command to color individual items.

11. Standard Unix dialogs have been updated to use color icons and
have improved behavior.

12. new -milliseconds granularity option to 'clock clicks'.

13. Tcl optimization improvements, as well as numerous bug fixes.

14. new 'tk useinputmethods' command.  This changes the behavior of
Tk on X where X Input Methods (XIM) were recognized and used without
question.  With 8.3, they will be recognized and initialized, but
not used unless XIM is turned on (tk useinputmethods 1).  This should
only affect users with special input methods, and the new default
behavior should be more beneficial to the average user.
	 **** BEHAVIOR CHANGE ****

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