Customer Reviews

Tcl/Tk Programmer's Reference

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This reference is incredible. All of the Tcl and Tk commands are covered. Examples and tips for many of the commands are presented. And then, the price - almost 1/2 of most computer books. This is a book I carry to work with me almost every day - and when I forget, I always regret it. This book fills a need that many Tcl programmers have expressed - an encyclopedia of Tcl commands.

The Programmer's Reference is a useful reference guide for the user that wants to quickly look up how a function can be used. Dubbed 'man pages on steroids', it is true to the claim, providing the full set of man pages together in alphabetical order, enhanced for better effect. Enhancements include helpful examples and tips for the programmer, as well as caveats to watch out for.

All in all, I would recommend this as a good second book. It is easier to refer to when you know more precisely what you want, but is not intended to be a book that you read from cover to cover (although if you did, you'd know all the commands there are in Tcl/Tk). It is written for Tcl/Tk 8.2.

Minor nits (that last star) are that I'd like to see even more real world examples, as well as better indication for each command/variable header on whether it is for Tcl or Tk (an icon is used, but it could be improved), whether it is Mac/Win/Unix specific, as well as if it is a command or variable. Having everything in alphabetical order is handy, but these header boxes could be a little more helpful.

This book fills the niche for a complete collection of TCL/TK man pages. However, I was suprised at the many typos and misordered items that I found unintentionally. There are references in the index to pages beyond the last page in the book. The order of commands is almost alphabetical but not quite exactly so. There are grammatical mistakes. The cover page proudly lampoons that it is covers through version 8.2 while the introduction meekly says that it was not tested on 8.2. I also found it officious that an authors name appears on the book since the book is essentially a digested man page document with notes. This book is useful to me but not of lasting historical value.

This book provides a dictionary-like listing of Tcl commands and Tk widgets. The explanations of options and commands for each item is excellent and cross-references to other Tcl command are very useful. This book should be used as a reference, if you are new to Tcl programming you should look into other books that offer more step-by-step instuction.

Myself and other co-workers find the examples and other tips a welcome addition. This is the first complete reference book that I've seen for Tcl/Tk with many helpful examples!

This book is a dictionary of Tcl/Tk commands. If you are looking for *any* more information than that, good luck. I was forced into consulting this book by a need for information on the Tk geometry managers and configuring various widgets, but got more information from the O'Reilly title 'Perl In A Nutshell', which has a single chapter on Perl/Tk that is of greater use than this entire worthless tome. A waste of time and money.

Experienced programmers expect this kind of reference: brief but clear explanations of basics, and all the major language features listed alphabetically. It's the "sensible shoes" of Tcl language guides.

Tcl itself is a scripting and integration language, a little like Perl without string processing, and with syntax almost as simple as Forth. That makes it a fair candidate for running way in the innards of complex tool suites. Like other scripting languages, variables are untyped, and available types form a very short list. And, like other interpreted languages, many of its features border on self-modifying code. For example, runtime generation of variable names comes as easily as array subscripting - which it rather resembles, if you're used C-like syntax - and can serve many of the same purposes. I'm using on-the-fly script generation, a crossover of code and data that Lisp lovers will recognize (but without the mathematical elegance).

I can't think of an application where Tcl would be my tool of choice, given what's available today. But, I don't always get to choose. If you're thrown in at the deep end and don't have time to learn the language you're programming in, you'll want a reference like this one.

-- wiredweird

This is the first book I bought about Tcl/Tk. Why? It was the only one they had at the store I went to. I've since bought others (three to be exact), but this is the one I always go back to. Information on the Tcl and Tk commands is easy to find and each example I've tried works. Which, from my experience with books on programming, is amazing! I highly recommend this book!

Mike

If you have programmed in other languages (especially Perl) and you want to learn Tcl, then this book is for you.

I tried to use a couple of other Tcl books but they were too basic. I couldn't find good examples that showed the syntax in those books.

This book is mainly a command reference book. So, if you know Perl you can just look up the corresponding Tcl commands which are mostly named the same, and get the Tcl syntax.

This book is great for looking up the details of command you are familiar with as well as learning Tcl/Tk command for the first time. The format of the book allows for quick and easy reference, while the summaries and examples are detailed enough for confident use of commands which are new to the user.