Graphical Applications with Tcl & TK [Paperback]

Eric Foster-Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 1997 | ISBN-10: 1558515690 | ISBN-13: 978-1558515697 | Edition: 2nd

Tcl is a freely distributed and easy-to-learn scripting language that runs under Windows and UNIX. Tk is an associated toolkit that allows you to quickly generate graphical applications. This book helps developers quickly get up to speed creating cross-platform applications with these tools. Covering the newest release of Tcl/Tk (version 8.0), the book begins with the basics of scripting, then shows how to build interfaces, create menus and windows, edit text, and deal with lists, files, and directories. Advanced topics include launching with/bin/sh, debugging Tcl files, regex searches, font selection mechanism, and embedding Tcl in applications.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Graphical Applications with Tcl and Tk is an accessible introduction to Tcl and Tk that is ideally suited to beginners. Although the title suggests that the book focuses primarily on graphical applications, Johnson provides a thorough, if not exhaustive, introduction to the most important commands in Tcl and Tk. The clean, well-laid-out text makes it easy to find the information that you need quickly. Simple examples illustrate almost all of the commands and ideas presented in the book.

Graphical Applications with Tcl and Tk covers Tcl 7.5 and Tk 4.1. Although there are newer versions of Tcl and Tk, the material covered in this book should satisfy all but the most advanced programmers. The enclosed CD-ROM contains versions of Tcl/Tk for Windows 95, 3.1, and NT, as well as several Unix versions. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Eric Foster-Johnson is a veteran programmer and computer book author. Faced with incompatible and problematic systems, his main goal is to ensure others don't experience the same pains he did. His books include Cross-Platform Perl, Graphical Applications with Tcl and Tk, and UNIX Programming Tools.

Product Details

• Paperback: 802 pages
• Publisher: M&T Books; 2nd edition (October 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558515690
• ISBN-13: 978-1558515697
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,892,630 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for the 2nd step, January 17, 2001

By 

Marc Lauterbach (Richmond, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Graphical Applications with Tcl & TK (Paperback)

This is definitely an excellent book for the beginner or even "advanced" beginner. After reading Ousterhout this book helps to find out about various ways to use Tcl in a more practical manner. Section-1 introduces into all the basic stuff that people usually want to use Tcl for. Section-2 gives good hints on how to write more complex applications. The last chapters though are getting somewhat superficial. But that is when you already became a more sophisticated programmer and need more sophisticated books.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction to TCL/Tk programming, August 25, 1999

By 

Jason Peacock (Bellevue, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Graphical Applications with Tcl & TK (Paperback)

Simple and numerous examples demonstrate the many tcl/tk commands, presented for both unix and windows. Very good for reading and doing cover to cover The emphasis is on graphical layout, which I have found to usually be the most difficult part to quickly become proficient at.

Its organization does not lend to rapidly looking up commands or syntax, but that is what the man pages are for.

Overall it is well written and easy to follow, and very exhaustive in its coverage.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful Book, August 12, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Graphical Applications with Tcl & TK (Paperback)

I'm an electronic engineer and I view programming as a peripheral skill necesssary to get the job done. This normally involves knowing what you want the program to do and researching existing literature till you find how to make it happen. Graphical Applications with TCL/TK made the job of creating custom GUI's relatively easy. The book is well written with working code modules for generating various widgets. The later chapters tie these modules together into standalone working programs. The CD has a contributions directory with programs from different authors that was helpful. It would have been nicer to have a few more Windows based contributions but I believe that is a symptom of TCL's UNIX ancestry. I've read some other TCL/TK programming books that were a waste of time, don't bother this is the tool you need.