Getting Started with Tcl

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Tcl Introduction (1 page)

Download Tcl/Tk 8.6.14

Sample Program | Network Server

Tcl for Web Nerds (short tutorial)

Binaries, development tools, enhanced documentation, and more

Tcl (Tool Command Language) is easy to learn and you can create a useful program in minutes! You are free to use it however you wish, even in commercial applications. If you need more information about Tcl, check out the main Tcl/Tk page.

Getting Tcl Software

Tcl/Tk 8.6 is the latest release of the Tcl/Tk open source scripting language. There are binary installers for Windows and Macintosh, and source releases for UNIX platforms.

The Tcl/Tk download ranges in size from 2 to 3.5 Megabytes. Download!.

Books

The following books are a good introduction to Tcl/Tk.

Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk by Brent Welch. Prentice Hall, 2003. 4th Ed ISBN: 0130385603.
This best-selling book covers Tcl/Tk 8.4 in detail, and includes chapters on C programming for Tcl, the Tcl Web Server, the Tcl Web Browser plugin, threads, starkits and much more. It comes with a CD-ROM that has all the sources for the examples.
Buy it from Amazon.com

Tcl and the Tk Toolkit by John Ousterhout, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-63337-X Although it only covers Tcl 7.3 and Tk 3.6, it has excellent sections on the philosophy of using Tcl. It also covers C programming for Tcl. German translation, Tcl und Tk ISBN: 3-89319-793-1. Japanese translation ISBN: 4-89052-819-9.
Buy it from Amazon.com

Graphical Applications with Tcl and Tk by Eric F. Johnson, M&T Books, 1997, ISBN: 1-55851-569-0 (First edition: 1-55851-471-6). 2nd edition covers Tcl/Tk 8.0. The book focuses on cross-platform development on Windows and UNIX.
Buy it from Amazon.com

Tcl/Tk in a Nutshell This is a nice reference book for Tcl/Tk commands and the following extensions: Expect, incr Tcl, Tix, TclX, BLT, Oratcl, Sybtcl, and Tclodbc. If you already know Tcl/Tk and these extensions, this book is very handy. ISBN 1-56592-433-9.
Buy it from Amazon.com

Effective Tcl/Tk Programming by Mark Harrison and Michael Mclennan, Addison-Wesley, 1997. This book shows you how to build Tcl/Tk applications effectively and efficiently through plenty of real-world advice. It clarifies some of the more powerful aspects of Tcl/Tk, such as the packer, the canvas widget, binding tags, and sockets. Throughout the book, the authors develop numerous applications and a library of reusable components. Learn from their approach, follow their strategies, and steal their code for your own applications! ISBN: 0-201-63474-0.
Buy it from Amazon.com

There are many good Tcl/Tk books, but we don't want to list them all here. For a comprehensive list of books about Tcl/Tk, check out our Tcl book list.

Tutorials

The following tutorials give you step by step guides on how to use Tcl.

Tcl for Web Nerds provides a nice brief introduction to the language from Abelson, Greenspun, and Sandon. They use Tcl in their work with AOLserver.

How To...
There are many "How To" guides that focus on particular tasks that include: compiling Tcl, using Tcl namespaces, creating object commands, and integrating Tcl/Tk scripts with the Windows NT shell.

TclTutor
TclTutor is a Tcl/Tk application that implements a series of on-line lessons for Tcl. This is packaged as a self-installing ZIP file for Windows and Windows NT, a binhex archive for Macintosh, and a gzip'd tar file for UNIX.

Other Useful Resources

There is a wealth of information about Tcl available from the Tcl community. The following sources are good places to start.

Release Notes
Here are links to announcements for recent Tcl and Tk releases.

Tcl Software Catalog
Our database catalogs a wealth of information about Tcl and related Tcl software.

More Tcl Web Sites
Our database also lists many more Tcl-related web sites.

comp.lang.tcl
This is the primary newsgroup for Tcl. It is quite active with postings about bugs and patches, new user questions, and general discussion.

The Tcl URL
The Tcl URL is a weekly newsletter that summarizes the week's key discussions on comp.lang.tcl. The new edition of the newsletter will be released each Monday.

Tcl Success Stories
Read the Tcl Success Stories for examples on how others have used Tcl.