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1.1     ! root        1: The Tk Toolkit, Version 2.3
        !             2: 
        !             3: by John Ousterhout
        !             4: University of California at Berkeley
        !             5: 
        !             6: 1. Introduction
        !             7: ---------------
        !             8: 
        !             9: This directory contains the sources and documentation for Tk, which
        !            10: is an X11 toolkit that provides the Motif look and feel and is
        !            11: implemented using the Tcl command language.
        !            12: 
        !            13: For an introduction to Tcl and Tk you may wish to read two papers:
        !            14: ``Tcl:  An Embeddable Command Language'', in the Proceedings of the
        !            15: 1990 Winter USENIX Conference, and ``An X11 Toolkit Based on the Tcl
        !            16: Language'', in the Proceedings of the 1991 Winter USENIX Conference.
        !            17: A copy of the first paper is present in Postscript form in the file
        !            18: "tcl/usenix.ps";  Postscript for the second paper is in "doc/usenix.ps".
        !            19: Both Tcl and Tk have evolved quite a bit since these papers were
        !            20: written so the papers are no longer complete or correct, but they will
        !            21: give you an introduction to the systems.
        !            22: 
        !            23: The following things are present in this directory and its subdirectories:
        !            24: 
        !            25:     1. Tk, a toolkit for X11 windowing applications.
        !            26:     2. Tcl, an embeddable command language on which Tk is based.
        !            27:     3. Wish, a simple windowing shell that uses Tk and Tcl.
        !            28:     4. A collection of demonstration scripts to illustrate the use
        !            29:        of various features of Tk.
        !            30: 
        !            31: The enclosed code is known to run on most versions of SunOS and Ultrix
        !            32: in combination with the X11R4 and X11R5 window servers from MIT.  It
        !            33: should also run with few or no changes on H-P and IBM workstations.
        !            34: 
        !            35: 2. What's New In This Release
        !            36: -----------------------------
        !            37: 
        !            38: Tk 2.2 is a major new release with a number of new features relative
        !            39: to the 2.1 release.  Here is a summary of some of the most significant
        !            40: improvements:
        !            41: 
        !            42: - There is now a text widget.  It will display multiple lines of text
        !            43:   and allows the text to be edited (but the set of bindings for
        !            44:   editing isn't very rich yet).  It also includes a tagging mechanism
        !            45:   that allows you to change the fonts, colors, etc. on a character-
        !            46:   by-character basis, and you can associate bindings with tags to
        !            47:   implement hypertext-like features.  It handles large texts
        !            48:   efficiently.
        !            49: 
        !            50: - Canvases have been improved in many ways, including new item types
        !            51:   (arcs, bitmaps, and subwindows), Bezier spline support for lines
        !            52:   and polygons, "coords" and "bbox" widget commands, and many other
        !            53:   improvements and bug fixes.
        !            54: 
        !            55: - There is a new "grab" command that can be used to create modal dialog
        !            56:   boxes.
        !            57: 
        !            58: - There is a new "tkwait" command for waiting for particular events to
        !            59:   occur (such as modal dialog box to complete its task).
        !            60: 
        !            61: - The menu bindings have been completely reworked to have better Motif
        !            62:   compliance, such as keyboard traversal.
        !            63: 
        !            64: - Individual menu entries can now have their own colors and fonts.
        !            65: 
        !            66: - Most widgets (e.g. buttons, entries, text) now have a "-state" option
        !            67:   that can be set to "disabled" to make the widget insensitive.
        !            68: 
        !            69: - A new "-disabledForeground" option allows you to request that disabled
        !            70:   buttons and menu entries be displayed in a dimmer color rather than with
        !            71:   a stippled version of the original color.
        !            72: 
        !            73: - Entries and messages can now be tied to a variable so that either is
        !            74:   updated if the other changes.
        !            75: 
        !            76: A good way to try out the new features is to run the "widget" demo;
        !            77: there are a number of new demonstrations to illustrate the new features.
        !            78: This release also contains many bug fixes.  For a complete description
        !            79: of the changes in this release, see the file "changes".  As far as I
        !            80: know there should not be any compatibility problems with respect to the
        !            81: 2.1 release.
        !            82: 
        !            83: 3. Documentation
        !            84: ----------------
        !            85: 
        !            86: Manual entries for Tk are in the "doc" subdirectory as a set of files
        !            87: with ".man" extensions.  Man pages whose names start with capital letters
        !            88: are for the procedures in Tk's C library.  All other man pages document Tcl
        !            89: commands provided by Tk.  To print any of the man pages, cd to the "doc"
        !            90: directory and invoke your favorite variant of troff using the normal
        !            91: -man macros, for example
        !            92: 
        !            93:                ditroff -man <file>
        !            94: 
        !            95: where <file> is the name of the man page you'd like to print.  If you'd
        !            96: like a complete set of hardcopy manual entries, send me a message with
        !            97: your street address.
        !            98: 
        !            99: Manual entries for Tcl are available in the subdirectory "tcl/doc";
        !           100: see the README file in the "tcl" directory for more information.
        !           101: 
        !           102: Unfortunately, there doesn't yet exist a tutorial-style introduction
        !           103: to the facilities of Tcl and Tk.  The papers give a general introduction,
        !           104: but it may be difficult to make the transition from the papers to the
        !           105: manual entries.  If you are familiar with the Xt toolkit then the Tk
        !           106: facilities will probably be easy to pick up from the manual entries.
        !           107: If you have no experience with X or Xt, you may wish to wait another
        !           108: 6-12 months to use Tk, until a more gentle introduction is available.
        !           109: 
        !           110: 4. Compiling Tk
        !           111: ---------------
        !           112: 
        !           113: Before attempting to compile Tk, personalize Makefile by following the
        !           114: directions at the beginning of the file.  You should also configure
        !           115: Tcl by following the directions in the file "tcl/README".  Then type
        !           116: "make" in the top-level directory (the one that contains this file).
        !           117: This will compile the Tk library and generate a simple windowing shell
        !           118: called "wish".  It will also compile the Tcl library, which is in the
        !           119: "tcl" subdirectory.
        !           120: 
        !           121: 5. Installing Scripts
        !           122: ---------------------
        !           123: 
        !           124: Tk depends on a library of scripts that establish default behaviors
        !           125: for Tk widgets and do many other things.  Tk normally expects the
        !           126: scripts to be in /usr/local/lib/tk.  Create this directory and copy
        !           127: everything in the "library" subdirectory to it, including both files
        !           128: and subdirectories.  Or, if you don't want to create a subdirectory of
        !           129: /usr/local/lib (or if you can't), you can either make a symbolic link
        !           130: from there to the library subdirectory or you can add a "-DTK_LIBRARY"
        !           131: switch to CFLAGS in Makefile;  this will allow you to put the script
        !           132: library anywhere you like.
        !           133: 
        !           134: I also recommend installing the wish binary in /usr/local.  The demo
        !           135: scripts all work best when it is installed there.
        !           136: 
        !           137: 6. Getting Started
        !           138: ------------------
        !           139: 
        !           140: Once wish is compiled you can use it to play around with the Tk
        !           141: facilities.  If you run wish with no arguments, it will open a small
        !           142: window on the screen and read Tcl commands from standard input.
        !           143: Or, you can play with some of the pre-canned scripts in the subdirectory
        !           144: scripts/demos.  See the README file in the directory for a description
        !           145: of what's available.  The file scripts/demos/widget is a script that
        !           146: you can use to invoke many individual demostrations of Tk's facilities. 
        !           147: 
        !           148: If you want to start typing Tcl/Tk commands to wish, I'd suggest
        !           149: starting with the "bind" command.  Then learn about a widget-creation
        !           150: command like "button", and also learn about the "pack" and "place"
        !           151: commands for geometry management.  Note:  when you create a widget,
        !           152: it won't appear on the screen until you tell a geometry manager about
        !           153: it.  The only geometry managers at present are the packer and the placer.
        !           154: If you don't already know Tcl, read the Tcl paper and the Tcl.man manual
        !           155: entry in the tcl subdirectory.
        !           156: 
        !           157: The easiest way to learn about writing new widgets is probably to look
        !           158: at existing widget implementations.  The demos directory contains an
        !           159: example of a trivial widget, which you might find useful as a starting
        !           160: point for writing new widgets.  You might also take a look at main.c,
        !           161: the main program for wish, to see how to write a main program that uses
        !           162: the facilities of Tk and Tcl.
        !           163: 
        !           164: 7. Newsgroup
        !           165: ------------
        !           166: 
        !           167: There is a network news group "comp.lang.tcl" intended for the exchange
        !           168: of information about Tcl, Tk, and related applications.  Feel free to use
        !           169: this newsgroup both for general information questions and for bug reports.
        !           170: I read the newsgroup and will attempt to fix bugs and problems reported
        !           171: to it.
        !           172: 
        !           173: 8. Known Problems
        !           174: -----------------
        !           175: 
        !           176: There are still many imperfections with the system.  Below is a list
        !           177: of some of the more serious omissions and bugs:
        !           178: 
        !           179:     1. The widgets don't look very good on monochrome displays right now,
        !           180:     because I haven't had a chance to figure out how to do the 3-D
        !           181:     effects right without color.  The widgets should look pretty good in
        !           182:     color.  The widgets aren't fully Motif-compliant yet. In particular,
        !           183:     there is no keyboard navigation yet.  The widgets will eventually
        !           184:     become fully Motif-compatible (assuming I can figure out how Motif
        !           185:     widgets are supposed to look and feel).
        !           186: 
        !           187:     2. Tk doesn't work very well with virtual-root window managers such
        !           188:     as tvtwm.
        !           189: 
        !           190: The file ToDo contains a list of various smaller bugs and mis-features
        !           191: that haven't been fixed yet.
        !           192:     
        !           193: 9. Feedback Wanted
        !           194: ------------------
        !           195: 
        !           196: I'm very interested in getting feedback from you both about bugs and about
        !           197: overall design issues.  Send your comments to "[email protected]".
        !           198: I'll do my best to fix show-stopping bugs quickly, but most other things
        !           199: may not get fast turnaround, since I already have a zillion high-priority
        !           200: things to fix or implement.  Before submitting requests for new features
        !           201: you may wish to check the file ToDo, which has a list of things I already
        !           202: know about and plan to implement soon.
        !           203: 
        !           204: 7. The Future
        !           205: -------------
        !           206: 
        !           207: Tk is still young.  I expect it to undergo substantial changes as I learn
        !           208: more about its strengths and weaknesses.  Some of the changes will not be
        !           209: backward compatible:  at this point I think it's more important to fix
        !           210: problems and improve Tk's structure than to maintain compatibility.  At
        !           211: some point in the next year or so there will be a new release with major
        !           212: incompatibilities.  My plan is to save up as many as possible of the
        !           213: incompatible changes that are needed and do them all at once.

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