Customer Reviews

Tcl and the Tk Toolkit

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Although more detailed books like Welch's 'Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk' are very useful, Ousterhout's original book is still the best way to learn the language. His style is clear and concise, and he covers the core of the language with good examples and thorough explanatory text.

The layout is clean and easy to read, without any space wasted on fancy graphics or eye-candy. Instead, you get clear tables laying out what happens, or listing the commands in a certain functionality area. For example, page 122 has a table I've gone back to many times that lists the different return values from catch.

Even though I have and use other Tcl books, when I just want to check a point of syntax or verify functionality, this is the one I go to. It's an invaluable book for a Tcl/Tk developer.

This is the best tutorial on Tcl/Tk. It is wonderfully clear and well organized.

The book deals with earlier versions of Tcl and Tk but I've yet to run across an example that doesn't work. (I'm sure there are some.)

This book helped me greatly when I decided to learn Tcl/Tk, and it is a pleasure to read.

The author is the creator of Tcl/Tk and a superb educator as well.

The book has a UNIX orientation though I tried on the software on my Windows 98 machine and found that his examples work. He uses the X-windows system as a basis but his explanation of X is so simple and clear I did not find my ignorance of it a problem. Also the Tk I'm using (8.2) on Windows 98 works great with his examples.

I've read other books written by the authors of the language, and found them to be lacking. But this author's book is really well organized, thoughtful, clear, and has great explanations. I was up and running creating widgets, etc. in a matter of no time.

I think this book is more of an instructional guide (and a damn good one too), but I don't believe it is oriented as a reference guide. I know that there were a few gripes on this should be both, but I wouldn't want that. Technology changes, so I prefer references to remain online. Gone are the days to cart a wheel-barrel of reference material for a given project, only to be obsoleted in a few years.

This book opened the doors to the great wonderful world of Tcl/Tk. And I am confident it will help others in years to come.

This book does a good job of explaining the fundamentals to Tcl, Tk, and the C API. However, after a decade between editions, it's missing too much material about more modern features. Specifically there is no information on the Threads package; for this you will instead need to refer to chapter 21 of Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk, 4th ed.

This is a super "How-To" book, but very different from the first edition. If you are looking to learn TclTk from scratch or want a great TclTk reference book, don't start here (read Brent Welch's book). If you have a fair or extensive Tcl background & want a nuts-n-bolts how-to book, this is it.
But why learn TclTk?
Tcl is the Zen of computer languages (easy to get started, impossible to totally master). The abstraction level is very much like the human mind (e.g. you can write apps that generate or modify their own code based on what's coming into the apps environment (via substitutions & eval, etc.) and because there is no compile cycle, you can write apps that can run for years and be updated (via source command) without ever shutting down.
Tcl can be embedded into or run on top of other languages or apps (saves a lot of programming time). One complaint I've heard about Tcl is it's slow for some purposes, but because Tcl is built on C there's always the option of using C code (or Java, whatever) where it's needed. Almost always there's a faster solution in Tcl when speed is an issue (e.g. lists (now also dicts) are fast, big arrays are slow).
Tk is the graphical side of the TclTk team and can be used with other languages as a graphics builder.
If you like rigid computer languages (PLC programming or BASIC) you may find the infinite "open-ended-ness" of Tcl a little scary. However, if you wanna' use a language that would be great for running a starship, give Tcl a try.

An excellent book. Easy to read, good practicle examples, clear concise discussion of each subject. Quite simply the best book on Tcl/Tk around even if it doesn't cover all the nuts and bolts.

I purchased this book in 1994 and it is still one of the most used books in my office. I'm probably going to get a second copy. It has everything a TCL/Tk programmer needs to get started, learn about more advanced features, and create your own low-level commands for TCL. Most of the other good TCL/Tk books reference this one... and why not it's by the man who created TCL/Tk, John K. Ousterhout.
-Richard J. Finn

It is an excellent start to learn tcl and tk. I purchase other books, but they are more advanced than I would like to start with. Many of my co-workers recommand this book to me.

I read this book in a matter of days. It flies by quite fast. It lacks examples but I thought it gave me enough information to be able to figure out the other things. Besides by working out problems do you learn best and this book gives you the basics to do that. Explains well and doesn't go on and on and on. Good starter if you want to learn Tcl/Tk

The second updated edition of John K. Outserhout and Ken Jones' TCL AND THE TK TOOLKIT has been fully updated for Tcl/Tk8.5 and is a must for any graphics programming library. It uses simple scripts to introduce Tcl/Tk basics and provides a fine coverage of its commands, functions and more. All of its latest, newest improvements are revealed along with real-world run-time environments and applications. Very highly recommended for serious developer's libraries.