Tcl 7.6b1/Tk 4.2b1 Release Announcement August 30, 1996 John Ousterhout Sun Microsystems, Inc. john.ousterhout@eng.sun.com This message is to announce new releases of the Tcl scripting language and the Tk toolkit. The new releases are Tcl 7.6b1 and Tk 4.2b1. These releases contain a few new features that are summarized below, plus several bug fixes. The main reason for these releases is to get out a major revision of the grid geometry manager, which is needed by SpecTcl. However, the releases also contain several other useful features, such as commands for deleting and renaming files, plus standard dialog boxes. The "b1" in the release names indicates that these are the first "beta" releases. The "beta" means that the releases have all of the features we expect to appear in the final Tcl 7.6 and Tk 4.2 releases, but they are likely to have bugs and we do not promise to maintain backward compatibility between these releases and the eventual Tcl 7.6 and Tk 4.2 releases (we may make changes in new features if we find problems during beta testing). We would like to get the final releases out as quickly as possible, so we'd appreciate rapid feedback on problems with these beta releases. Barring any major problems, we will move immediately from these beta releases to the final releases. Where to get the new releases: ------------------------------ Tcl 7.6b1 and Tk 4.2b1 are currently available by public FTP from ftp.sunlabs.com in the directory /pub/tcl. The releases should appear on the usual mirror sites within a few days. The following files are available: - tcl7.6b1.tar.gz and tk4.2b1.tar.gz contain the unified source releases for all platforms (there are also .Z and .zip versions of these files). - Easy-to-install binary releases for some Unix platforms (e.g., Solaris and SunOS) may be purchased at the Sun Labs Tcl/Tk Shop: http://www.infohaus.com/access/by-seller/Sun_Labs_TclTk_Shop - win42b1.exe contains a binary release for the PC. This file contains compiled versions of Tcl, Tk, tclsh, and wish, along with libraries, demos, and manual pages (but no sources). The file is a self-extracting executable (run it and it installs everything). - PC sources are also available in the "win" subdirectory of the release area. See the README file in that directory for details. - mactk4.2b1.sea.hqx contains a binary release for the Mac. The file is in binhex format, which is understood by Fetch, StuffIt, and other Mac utilities. The unpacked file is a self-installing archive: double-click on it and it will create a folder containing everything you need to run Tcl and Tk. - Macintosh sources are also available in the "mac" subdirectory of the release area. See the README file in that directory for details. For additional information: --------------------------- There is a set of Web pages on Tcl and Tk maintained by the Tcl/Tk group at Sun Laboratories. They can be accessed via the following URL: http://www.sunlabs.com/research/tcl Changes in Tcl 7.6b1: --------------------- Here are the most significant changes in Tcl 7.6. In addition to these changes, there are numerous small bug fixes. See the "changes" file for a complete list of all changes. 1. New file manipulation commands. There are new options to the "file" command for copying files ("file copy"), deleting files and directories ("file delete"), creating directories ("file mkdir"), and renaming files ("file rename"). 2. The implementation of "exec" has been improved greatly for Windows 95 and Windows NT. 3. There is a new C library procedure Tcl_Ungets for pushing bytes back into the input buffer of an I/O channel. 4. There is a new memory allocator for the Macintosh version, which should be more efficient than the old one. Tcl 7.6 contains one incompatible change, which is a revision of the C interface to channel drivers to eliminate the use of Tcl_File handles in the interfaces. Instead, there are new interface procedures channelReadyProc, watchChannelProc, and getFileProc. This change does not affect Tcl scripts; it will only affect you if you have written a custom channel driver. Changes in Tk 4.2b1: -------------------- Here are the new features in Tk 4.2. The release also includes several bug fixes. See the "changes" file for a complete list of all changes. 1. The grid geometry manager has been completely rewritten: - The layout algorithm produces much better layouts than before, particularly where rows or columns were stretchable. - There is a new "grid update" command to force immediate recalculation of the layout, plus a new -pad option for rows and columns. 2. There are new commands for creating common dialog boxes: tk_chooseColor, tk_getOpenFile, tk_getSaveFile and tk_messageBox. These use native dialog boxes if they are available. Examples of the dialogs are available in the widget demo. 3. There is a new virtual event mechanism for handling events in a more portable way. See the new command "event". It also allows events (both physical and virtual) to be generated dynamically. The Macintosh now generates <>, <>, <>, and <> events from the edit menu. Credits: -------- Gridder revision: Stephen Uhler Virtual events, exec cleanup: Colin Stevens Standard dialogs: Ioi Lam File access commands: Jon Herlocker