Visual Tcl 1.07b
January 9, 1997
Announcing the seventh beta release of Visual Tcl, a freely-available, high-
quality application development environment for UNIX, Windows and Macintosh
platforms. Visual Tcl is written entirely in Tcl/Tk and covered by the GNU
General Public License.
This is a *major* point release with a lot of new functionality and bug
fixes. You will notice immediately that the interface has changed slightly.
A new floating toolbar holds widget icons and the main application bar now
allows changing of frequently use attributes. This new layout and the new
widget abstraction code will make it a lot easier to plug in new widgets.
Another exciting new feature is the ability to generate Tclets which
can run in Netscape and Microsoft Explorer (if you have the TclPlugin).
It's as simple as selecting a Toplevel window then use the menu command
Compound->Save as Tclet. Tclets run in a single window so the selected
toplevel and any procedures and globals will be grabbed. Tclet generation
involves the creation of a compound which means all of your widgets will
be renamed. This means you _must_ use widget aliases instead of their
explicit name when accessing them. The examples that usually come with
Visual Tcl have been converted to Tclets. Tclets can also run standalone
or in a browser. To run a Tclet standalone, though, you must use the
new Tk8.0a.
Compound widgets now support embedded procedures. When you create a
compound, all procedures that begin with "<compound_name>:" will be
bundled. For example, if you create a compound "Fred", then procedures
like "Fred:do_this" and "Fred:do_that" will be included.
The way widgets are saved hs changed; now all widgets are defined before
being packed, placed or gridded. Previously widgets were inserted right
after creation. This change will not affect old Visual Tcl projects. They
will be updated the next time you open/save them. I will add code in the
next release that allows you to insert custom code into the toplevel window
creation procedure.
Some other nicities:
- you can switch modes by clicking on the mode label
- native file and color browsers now used under Tk4.2
- there is a new preference for default geometry manager
- there is a new menu item: File->Source.
- you can now load projects from the command line: vt <filename>
- all application window locations are now saved
- check out the demo directory for new goodies
Changes since 1.06b:
1.06 -> 1.07 (January 9, 1997)
o Moved toolbar outside of main application window. Simplified lib_core.
o Fixed "close" to update status of application -> vTcl(change)
o Cleaned up console code - less platform specific
o Added native file and color browsers for Tk4.2
o Added common attributes on main application bar
o Save location of all application windows and only open last opened
o Fixed custom color browser label update
o Goemetry error workaround for differences in tk4.x and tk8.x
o Fixed menu bug: losing commands when updating the label name
o Changed dump routines to two discrete steps: widgets and geometry
o Fixed window update to update widget handles
o Added grid col/row configure to widget conf, save and compounds
o Fixed scrollbar shift-click bind bug
o Remade some system compounds using grid instead of pack
o Enabled editing of pre/post commands for window pre/post setup
o Added support for embedded functions in compounds
o Added preliminary support for exporting tclets
o Changed globals to support only explicitly added vars
o Cleaned up several buggy occurances of "source"
o Radically improved speed and accuracy of toplevel and global management
o Added File:source
o Added mode switch when clicking mode label
thanks to "Visser, Martin MC" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
o Enabled loading of project files from command-line
o Added message widget support to lib_core
thanks to "Chester, Tony, CHESTEAP" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
o Added rounding to row/col weights to handle tk4.x/8.x incompatabilities
o Added preference for default geometry manager
HOW TO GET IT:
Please choose the location nearest you since my connection can become
saturated at peak times.
Home Site: http://www.neuron.com/stewart/vtcl/
Australia: http://holmes.ccs.deakin.edu.au/vtcl/
United Kingdom: http://www.jessikat.demon.co.uk/vtcl/
Germany: http://www.ifconnection.de/~rjs/vtcl/
US East: http://www.ultra.net/~eugene/mirror/vtcl/
US Mid: http://chaos.uark.edu/vtcl/
AS ALWAYS:
I heartily welcome feedback, criticism and bug-fixes. Please let me know
what I can do to improve Visual Tcl.
--
Stewart Allen
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
