Visual Tcl

Installation

Prerequisites:

• Tcl/Tk 8.3.2 or later required (8.4.4 recommended)to run Visual Tcl. If you haven't already done so, you can get a copy from Tcl Developer Xchange

Unix

• Unzip or untar Visual Tcl into a permanent location. I recommend /usr/local/vtcl or /usr/vtcl.
• edit "vtcl" shell script Change PATH_TO_WISH to the location of the wish binary Change VTCL_HOME to the directory from last step.
• Put vtcl in your path (/usr/local/bin or /usr/bin) or change your path to include $(VTCL_HOME)
• Make sure your display is set and type "vtcl".

Windows XP and NT

This install was tested with ActiveState's free ActiveTcl distribution release: ActiveTcl 8.4.12

• Download and install Visual Tcl from the projet download page, you should grab the newest release.
• My file was named: tcl-1.6.0.tar.gz
• Unpack the file. In my case, I used WinZip to extract to: c:\
• Rename c:\vtcl-1.6.0 to c:\vtcl
• Go into your vtcl directory and double-click on "vtcl.tcl" icon.

Windows 95

• Unzip Visual Tcl into a permanent location. A good default s "C:\vtcl"
• If you wish to create "shortcuts" to the vt.tcl icon, make sure you edit the "startup directory" to the base installation directory for Visual Tcl.
• You will need to associate all ".tcl" files with the Wish appplication.
• Double-click on "vt.tcl" icon.

MACINTOSH

• Once you've decompressed and unarchived it, your done. You must start the wish shell by double clicking it. Then "cd" to the base installation directory for Visual Tcl and type "source vt.tcl".

Getting Started with Visual Tcl

Under construction. Comments and feedback welcome.

Hints and Tips

• To attach a scrollbar to a scrollable widget (listbox, text, etc), first select the scrollbar with a single left click then shift-click the target widget.
• If performance seems a bit slow, kill the Attribute Editor window. You can always bring it back later from the "Window" menu.
• Right-clicking gives you the "Option" menu.
• Try using the arrow keys to move widgets in the place or grid layouts. Use the shift key + arrow keys to resize widgets.
• To control whether a toplevel can be resized, click on the "width" and "height" labels in the Geometry Info window when "Window" is selected.
• Tcl/Tk's performance on Win95 is not exceptional. NT4.0 seems to have a 5x improvement in GUI speed.
• For users of Fvwm95, a mini-icon for Visual Tcl is in the images directory named "mini-vtcl.xpm"