This tutorial is designed for those with experience in one or more programming or scripting languages. While Tcl/Tk is available on several platforms, including Win32 and MacOS as well as several of the *NIX environments, this tutorial is written in the context of running on a GNU/Linux installation.
Starting out, I'll introduce Tcl/Tk and summarize a small part of the language's history. Then, I'll review key features of the Tcl/Tk scripting language and interpreter, discuss some of the extensions to the language, and examine several examples of Tcl/Tk in action. The text is accompanied by code fragments and occasionally an image of the resulting output (since Tk is a GUI toolkit, after all).
Finally, I'll wrap up with a presentation of some external resources, both Web and print, to help you deeper into the Tcl/Tk environment.
Origins of Tcl/Tk
Tcl stands for Tool Command Language. Tk is the Graphical Toolkit extension of Tcl, providing a variety of standard GUI interface items to facilitate rapid, high-level application development. Development on Tcl/Tk, pronounced "tickle tee-kay", began in 1988 by John K. Ousterhout (shown in the image), then a Professor at U.C. Berkeley (UCB). Tcl was designed with the specific goals of extensibility, a shallow learning curve, and ease of embedding. Tk development began in 1989, and the first version was available in 1991. Dr. Ousterhout continued development of Tcl/Tk after he left UCB, then going to work for Sun Microsystems for a stint. Now at Tcl Developer Xchange (which begat Ajuba Solutions, which was purchased by Interwoven), he keeps on improving the language, currently in version 8.3.2 stable and 8.4 development, as of this writing.
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