July 2002 The Active State of Tcl

July 2002 The (Active) State of Tcl

The (Active) State of Tcl Jeff Hobbs Active. State Corporation July 2002

Agenda • Introduction • What has happened… • Developments in the Tcl community • Developments of the Tcl/Tk core • Future directions July 2002

About Active. State • Active. State provides multi-language, crossplatform software & services – Tcl, Perl, PHP, Python, XSLT – Linux, Solaris, Windows, HP-UX, AIX, … • We make it easy to use new technologies – Web Services and. NET • Mission: Make Programming Easier – Our IDEs – Active distributions – ASPN July 2002

History of Tcl 1. Tcl created as general-purpose command/scripting language by John Ousterhout 6. 0 Sept 1988 1989 1990 1991 4. Scriptics formed: • Evolve and extend Tcl platform • Create development tools 7. 0 Sept 1992 1993 7. 4 July 1994 7. 6 Oct 8. 0 Aug 1995 1996 1997 7. Active. State introduces Tcl support and services 8. 1 Apr 1998 8. 3 Feb 1999 2000 2001 … 8. 2 Aug 2. Open source distributions from U. C. Berkeley: • Easy GUIs under Unix • Extensible applications 1000 5. Tcl Core Team formed (August) 6. Scriptics/Ajuba Acquired by Interwoven (Nov. ) 3. • • • Tcl enhanced at Sun Microsystems: Windows, Macintosh ports Web/Internet support Java support 10, 000 July 2002 100, 000 You are here 500, 000 1 M ?

Recent History of Tcl 6. Active. State introduces Tcl support and services (Feb) 1. Tcl’ 2 K in Austin (Feb) 2. Scriptics becomes Ajuba (May) 8. 3. 1 Apr 9. 8 th Tcl Conference (July) 8. 3. 2 Aug 8. 3. 3 May 2000 8. 3. 0 Feb ( 8. 4. 0 ) 8. 4 a 3 Mar 2001 2002 8. 4 a 3 July 8. 4 a 1 June 8. 4 a 2 Nov 8. 3. 4 Oct 7. Tcl’Europe 2001 (June) 3. Tcl’Europe 2000 (June) R. I. P 4. Tcl Core Team formed (August) 5. Scriptics/Ajuba acquired by Interwoven; Tcl/Tk core moves to Source. Forge; Tcl. Pro open sourced (Nov. ) July 2002 10. Active. State Tcl. Pro (Dec) 8. 4 b 1 11. Active. Tcl 8. 3. 4. 3 (July) 12. Active. State Tcl. Pro 2. 0 beta (July) You are here

Tcl Usage • Tcl usage is still growing • Used extensively for mission-critical applications: – Cisco, Motorola, Lucent, Nortel, etc. : • Automated hardware testing • Coordinate different pieces of test equipment • Tcl soon to be standard on all Cisco routers – AOL Digital City, Travelocity: • Dynamic Web content • Integrate information from different sources • Content developers are not programmers July 2002

Tcl Usage, Cont’d • More mission-critical applications: – NBC: • Digital broadcast control system • Mix programming content, control transmission through satellites to local stations – Pixar: • Used in animation tools (Render. Man software) • Technical directors write Tcl scripts to animate characters – Shell Oil: • Real-time control for offshore oil platforms • Coordinate, manage various systems July 2002

Status As of 8 th Tcl Conference • At O’Reilly Open Source Convention, San Diego, July 2001 • Tcl/Tk 8. 3. 3 was the stable version (8. 3. x now standard in Linux distributions) • 8. 4 a 3 was just released • Active. State was just establishing with Tcl expertise July 2002

Tcl Core Team • Formed in August 2000 with 14 charter members based on community voting to collectively manage development of the Andreas Kupries core Mo De. Jong Donal Fellows Karl Lehenbauer Mark Harrison Michael Mc. Lennan D. Richard Hipp Jan Nijtmans Jeffrey Hobbs John Ousterhout George Howlett Don Porter Jim Ingham Brent Welch Kevin Kenny July 2002

TCT: TIP Initiatives • TIP page for Tcl http: //www. tcl. tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/ • TIPs are intended to guide and document development on the core – The focus is on new or changing features, not bugs – Voted on by the TCT following community discussion using the TYANNOTT process • Currently over 100 TIPs – Divided into process, informational & project TIPs • TCT discussion is open on the public mailing list: tcl-core@lists. sourceforge. net July 2002

Tcl/Tk Maintainers • Tcl/Tk maintainers are separate from the TCT • Maintainers oversee a specific area of the core, as defined in TIP #16 for Tcl and TIP #23 for Tk • They assist, but are not solely responsible for, fixing bugs and adding documentation in their area • They are responsible for reviewing code and approving code changes to their area • Open to anyone willing to learn the core • New volunteers always welcome July 2002

The Maintainers… • Tcl (TIP #24): Daniel Steffen Jim Ingham Kevin Kenny Jeff Hobbs Miguel Sofer Andreas Kupries Rolf Schroedter Vince Darley Don Porter Jan Nijtmans Donal Fellows Mo De. Jong • Tk (TIP #30): Allen Flick Peter Spjuth Todd Helfter Jeff Hobbs George Smith Frédéric Bonnet Kevin Griffin Vince Darley Chengye Mao Jan Nijtmans Donal Fellows Mo De. Jong Joe English YOUR NAME HERE • Other contributors as well July 2002

Scriptics/Ajuba… R. I. P • Scriptics became Ajuba Solutions in May 2000 – New focus as a B 2 B infrastructure company • Interwoven: content management company in need of B 2 B… – Ajuba assimilated on Nov 1, 2000 – Tcl/Tk moved to Source. Forge: http: //tcl. sf. net/ – Further open source work not continued at Interwoven • Most other projects at Ajuba moved to Source. Forge July 2002

Tcl/Tk at Source. Forge • Source. Forge provides a wealth of services for open source projects – Bug and patch database – Mailing lists – CVS repositories – File server – Web pages • Managed by TCT and Tcl/Tk maintainers • Not the Tcl Developer Xchange July 2002

Tcl @ Active. State • Active. State established 1997 – “Programming for the People” – Used to be Perl specific • Well known Active. Perl distribution – Added Python and XML/XSLT expertise in 2000 • Jeff Hobbs hired in Feb 2001 • Andreas Kupries follows soon after – Other knowledgeable Tcl’ers on staff • Wealth of scripting knowledge at Active. State July 2002

Active. State and Tcl • Active. State provides the Tcl community with… – Improvements to open source Tcl core – Host of the Tcl Developer Xchange – Commercial support infrastructure http: //www. Active. State. com/Products/Enterprise/Tcl. Direct/ – Professional services for Tcl (Tcl. Direct) – High quality development tools • Active. Tcl http: //aspn. Active. State. com/ASPN/Tcl/ • ASPN Tcl (Tcl. Pro + Komodo IDE) http: //www. Active. State. com/Products/ASPN_Tcl/ July 2002

Active. Tcl 8. 3. 4. 3 • Based on the 8. 3. 4 Tcl core • Enhanced with several popular extensions – [incr Tcl], Tcl. X, expect, tcllib, Bwidgets, iwidgets, tktable, tkcon • A standard batteries-included distribution for Tcl users • Code repository (still) in the works July 2002

Tcl Developer Xchange July 2002

Tcl Cookbook July 2002

ASPN Tcl: Tcl. Pro + More • Introduced December 2001 • Resuscitated Tcl. Pro as a commercial quality development environment – Debugger: source-level debugger with nice GUI – Checker: find errors without running application – Wrapper: create self-contained applications for distribution – Compiler: protect your source code July 2002

ASPN Tcl: Komodo • An IDE for scripting languages – Mozilla framework based – Cross-platform (Windows & Linux) – Modern IDE features – Several unique Tcl editing features – Tight integration of Tcl. Pro tools with Komodo – Komodo 2. 0 in development July 2002

Komodo IDE July 2002

ASPN Tcl: Future • Continuing development of Tcl tools • Tcl. Pro 2. 0 now in beta – – Enhanced debugger with integrated checker Code coverage and hot-spot analysis tool Added user-friendly GUIs to Wrapper and Compiler Checker updated for 8. 4 (and corrected for 8. 3) • GUI Builder in development – Based loosely on Spec. Tcl – Will be integrated with other tools July 2002

In the Community… • The Tcl’ers Wiki has increased in activity: – http: //wiki. tcl. tk/ – Now with interactive chat Check out the wiki! • The Tcl Developer Xchange official URL: – http: //www. tcl. tk/ – http: //tcl. Active. State. com/ • Tcl-URL! continues to provide weekly news: – http: //www. ddj. com/topics/tclurl/ – Or subscribe to tcl-announce@listserv. activestate. com • Lots of extension updates July 2002

Tcl/Tk Today • Download rate steady: – Windows: 55% – Unix: 40% – Mac: 5% Active. Tcl downloads Data point: -~2 x Active. Python d/ls • Only patch releases since 2000 -~1/7 th Active. Perl d/ls • Stable release now at 8. 3. 4 – Completely new I/O core (added in 8. 3. 2) – High degree of stability – Improved locale support in Tk • Ports now exist for Windows/CE and Palm July 2002

Tcl/Tk 8. 4 • Development release, now at 8. 4 b 1 -rc • Has just been feature-frozen • New spinbox, labelframe, panedwindow widgets • Several core feature enhancements – VFS, lset, command tracing • Significant work on performance – Near or better than 8. 0, with unicode and thread safety. • Inclusion of numerous TIPs • More later in 8. 4 overview July 2002

User Poll: Versions • Versions in use – – – • Response (out of 65) – – – Pre-8. 0 8. 2 8. 3 8. 4 July 2002 0 8 1 64 6

User Poll: Platforms • Develop/Deploy: – – – – • Response (out of 65) – – – – Windows Macintosh OS 9 Macintosh OS X Linux Solaris HP-UX Other unix … July 2002 60%/30% 0/2 0/1 50%/50% 8/30% 6/10 8

Tcl’Europe 2001 • Hamburg, June 8 -9, 2001 • 14 Original papers and tutorials – From using Tcl with Cobol to Tcl on the Web to Tcl on a PDA… • Thanks to Carsten Zerbst http: //www. tu-harburg. de/skf/tcltk/ July 2002

Future Directions • The core is guided by community input – Anyone can write a TIP – Anyone can be a core maintainer • What issues are most pressing? • Active. State will continue to work with the Tcl community and build more Tcl related products • Demos to follow July 2002

Ideas in the Pipeline • (More) improved Tcl performance • Archive file support (. jar/. zip) • Larger source / binary distributions • Tcl Installer • Stand-alone executable support in core (*wrap) • 64 -bit overhaul • Smaller, modular core • Drag & Drop • Windows Tk Performance • Printing support • Tk abstraction layer (Tk. GS) • Megawidgets (roll your own) • New Widgets • … July 2002

Conclusion • Tcl core is robust, feature-rich – … and still pushing the boundaries • Future emphasis on packages and modularization • Community is the key to an even more successful future July 2002