Tcl/Tk For Dummies?

Unix users like to write scripts--automated routines that perform tasks more quickly or efficiently than manual labor but are easier to write than full-fledged compiled programs. You can use scripts to automate many routine tasks, such as the process of creating hundreds of new user accounts. Two of the newest scripting languages are Tool Command Language and Tool Kit, most often referred to collectively as Tcl/Tk. Tcl/Tk for Dummies effectively introduces this utilitarian suite of tools and promises to have you writing useful scripts quickly.

Authors Webster and Francis begin with Wish, the editor-with-training-wheels of Tcl/Tk development. They promptly move ahead into writing source code with a text editor, requiring the reader to write a simple Tclet in the process. The authors then document the language, devoting chapters to commands, variables, substitution, control structures, lists, and strings. After that, Webster and Francis document procedures, functions, and widgets--which you use to create graphical interfaces for Tcl/Tk programs--and their exposed services.

The final portion of this book will prove useful to those attempting to solve simple problems with Tcl/Tk. The authors assemble a menagerie of Tclets (on the companion CD-ROM) that you can use as they are or modify to fit slightly different purposes. These canned Tclets include some Internet-ready samples, which illustrate the languages' capacities to work with URLs and network data.