I am just starting out in Tcl and am trying to properly configure an editor and interpreter for use. On Tcl's download page it is recommended to use ActiveState's ActiveTcl, but I am learning Tcl for possible production use and want to avoid paying for it.
I tried setting up Eclipse's DLTK to use for learning, but from what I found I need to direct it to the tclsh executable to use it as the interpreter. In Tcl version 8.6.6, I can't find anything that will work. The supposed formats (I'm on Windows) should follow what's seen here, as I've seen this a few examples/tutorials.
As a last resort, I tried following the Windows instructions here to use my MS Visual Studio 2015 work with this, but there is no such vcvars file (what's asked for when reading makefile.vc after downloading Tcl).
I would really like to use Eclipse for this, so I guess my question is as follows: How do you use tclsh as a Tcl interpreter in Tcl 8.6.6?
ActiveTcl isn't a pay-for product. (ActiveState have some of those, but their language distribution isn't one of them as long as you're not after a support plan.)
To configure Eclipse to use the right installed version of Tcl, go to the Tcl → Interpreters page in the main Preferences panel. That lets you Add… an interpreter, which essentially just requires you to find where the tclsh you want to use is on your filesystem, and to give it a name. I use names like “Tcl 8.6” in my installation, so it isn't exactly rocket science. The DLTK system can find out pretty much everything else once it knows where the interpreter implementation is, but if you have several set up (e.g., I have both 8.5 and 8.6) then you'll need to say which one is default using the checkboxes in the list in the Interpreters pane.
(I've verified the above against Eclipse Neon running on OSX, but I don't think it will vary very much with other versions or platforms.)
Related
Recently I though about scaffolding a little CLI with Ruby, but was concerned about using it on a machine with no Ruby installed. I've searched for examples of popular CLI's and found that Docker CLI is built with Go language. I'm able to use this CLI on my computer with no Go installed. How can one build a tool that will not require you to install Ruby?
My guess is that there's a build process involved and it might be compiled to something present on most systems, like shell or smth. Sorry if this is a lame guess/question!
(note: this is not a detailed answer, just a summary of how it works)
Cli programs are just as other programs, there is nothing special about them.
Go is a compiled language - a program called "compiler" takes the go code and translate it directly to machine language, following the conventions imposed by an operative system. It becames pure 0 and 1, no references to anything else. The main advantage is that is self-contained, but you have to recompile it on every different architecture (32bit, arm processors, ...) and operating system (windows, linux, macos) - it's the operating system that take cares of redirecting input and output on cli.
Ruby, instead, is interpreted. There is a program called "Ruby interpreter" which translates your code to the appropriate machine code on the fly. It's a different approach, it's more "high level".
The advantage is that you don't need to recompile the code. However, the "Ruby interpreter" itself must be written in some compiled language.
Similar to this question What programming languages are installed by default on Windows 7?. Is the environment any differnt for Windows 10?
For some programs like MS OFfice you get the VBA, Chrome you would get Javascript, if you activate the Bash for Ubuntu on Windows then you can get bash. Not sure if that is default.
In particular, if you didn't have administration rights over a Windows 10 laptop but needed a programming language... what could you use or do about it?
ie I wanted Ruby installed but I needed our tech team to help me. I want to avoid someone else with higher access but also not breach policy.
Out of the box no install solutions include:
(To be written using text file editing software like the preinstalled notepad)
Batch (.bat)
Visual basic script (.vbs)
HTML (.html)
CSS (^Use a style tag for the HTML doc)
JavaScript (.js)
Some quick gets include:
Bash (Ubuntu from Windows Store)
AutoHotKey (from autohotkey.com)
#Code (Windows Store. Apparently supports 12 different languages)
Hope this helps!
Edit: If you really wanna try, you can edit .exe files directly but yeesh.
Edit 2: repl.it is a website that lets you code in tons of different languages, possibly Ruby. With repl.it you can do all the things I've listed and more! (As long as you have alright internet.)
what could you use
You could use pretty much any languages. Any compiled executables looks the same to the OS as any other.
The only catch is that some languages' runtime libraries are quite big, so it's common for smaller programs not to include the entire language runtime and instead expects it to be preinstalled on the machine to keep its own download size small.
However, even high level scripting languages that requires huge runtime support libraries can often be packaged into standalone executable, so that you don't need to install the runtime yourself.
Ultimately it depends on what you wanted to do. If you wanted to just make simple scripts, probably .bat scripts will do just fine. If you wanted something simple and fast, then you can write native executable in C, otherwise if you want to do something a bit more complex and you're fine with the larger download size if you can keep your own program simple, or if you can later get admin to preinstall your preferred runtime on your target machines, then high level languages like Python or Ruby would be great options.
Instead of having a different download of a program for Windows and Linux, would it be possible to make the download be a cross-platform script/executable that can download the correct installer from an FTP server and start that? What language should I write it in? The only one I can think of would be Java, but I don't want to take the time to learn it. I can't write it in Python or BASH, because most Windows machines don't have these installed. How should I do this?
Cross-platform executable(like an exe or a.out or ELF) is out of question. An executable is never cross-platform when Windows is involved. The scripting languages(or JIT compiled) have to be brought in for this purpose. We are in a CHICKEN-AND-EGG paradox. You may have to detect the OS the downloader is using, using a Javascript script in your website page and decide on what is to be done next etc...
Although not exactly what you are looking for, below are some pointers.
The best tool I know of, for multi-platform installers, is Flexera Software's InstallAnywhere. That might be a bit costly. For free options I would look into options like:
PERL
PYTHON (but this is out of question as per your post, but look at the end of my post for more options for Python)
Although writing the installer in any of the above languages might mean a lot more work, they provide you unmatched flexibility and complete control.
Perl requires that you install Perl interpreter and modules on Windows. But this also seems to be out of question for you. So you may avoid the headache by looking into:
PAR
pp
For Python go through:
py2exe
pyinstaller
I would like to create a terminal based installer/wizard.
Ideally, it'd be like the Ubuntu server installer, or the Arch Linux installer - a ncurses (?) heavy GUI with lots of form and arrow key goodness.
Second best would be a simpler question/answer type thing, similar to the "adduser" command prompting for password, username, etc.
I am Ruby biased, and would prefer a scripting language (not C), but I'm open to anything. It will only run on Ubuntu server, if that helps.
What are my options?
I'm not certain what you're asking. If you're looking for an implementation tool, you could look at urwid, which is a Python-based GUI toolkit library. It lets you write programs using GTK-style widgets and event interfaces for a text-based interface. If you're a decent scripter, it shouldn't be too hard to start from there and write the code to drive an installation process.
InstallJammer can do what you want in the second form. No ncurses interface to speak of though. 0-] It's written in Tcl/Tk, so it meets your scripting requirement though obviously not in your language of choice. We all have our language of choice, I suppose. 0-]
It would be easier to answer if you specified what you're trying to do. If you're installing something, it might make sense to just create a debian package and use install time configuration options available via debhelper.
If bash or shell scripting is okay, I'd suggest looking at package "dialog". Just put "dialog" as pre-depends for your package and you can use dialog features for your deb installer.
Another possibility could be the "pdmenu" package (origin: http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/pdmenu/).
I'm now learning Tcl/Tk, but as I'm running Windows, I want to create a fully featured(professional) development environment for this language, but I need to know:
Which tools I need to install(first of all)?
What are the IDEs that support Tcl/Tk development?
What is the best text editor to develop in?
Where I can find some librarys for it(if exists)?
It's possible to do some web applications with it?
It uses CGI?
Start off by installing ActiveTCL. It is free and includes TCL and TK bindings. If you have a favorite text editor you can use that. Make sure you have syntax highlighting. If you want something more advanced, I'd recommend Komodo. It is by active state and has a free version. It semantically understands TCL, so it is more intelligent than a standard text editor. For example it highlights syntax errors while you code.
Now write some code and spread the TCL love!
For an interactive Tcl shell, use TkCon
For an editor, I use Komodo or Vim
For web apps, there are FrameWorks, servers: TclHTTP, Aol Server, Apache modules, and of course CGI
For a text editor I would recommend trying jEdit; it has TCL syntax highlighting. When installed I would also recommend installing the following plugins (which can be done via the built-in plugin manager):
Project Viewer: Allows you to organise your files into projects, which gives it more of an IDE feel.
Editor Scheme: Gives you a set of pre-defined syntax highlighting colour schemes to choose from. My preference is for "zenburn".
As Byron mentioned, ActiveTCL is the place to start when using TCL on Windows. As for a text editor, I personally like SciTE, but any text editor that will do syntax highlighting will do (code folding helps as well).
The TCL wiki has the following page regarding IDEs: http://wiki.tcl.tk/998
If you are in need of a library providing specific functionality, I would first check the TCl wiki. There is no central repository of TCL extensions, but the wiki seems to be the central repository of TCL knowledge.
Yes, you can use TCL for web-based projects. You can find a bit of info here regarding CGI and TCL. Some webservers (AOLServer for instance) have a built-in TCL interpreter.
Others have already mentioned TkCon but most people don't utilise the full power of TkCon. It is much more than a REPL loop (for that you could have just used tclsh or wish). My favourite feature is TkCon's edit command.
Basically:
edit some_file.txt
lets you view and edit files.
set my_variable "some value"
edit my_variable
lets you view and edit the content of a variable, even arrays
proc my_function {} {}
edit my_function
lets you view and edit the body of a proc. In fact, this is how I usually write non-trivial procs in TkCon.
If you're going to write code that needs Windows-specific functionality, you will definitely want to get TWAPI the Tcl Windows API library.
With regards to the mentions of ActiveTcl - ActiveState (the creators of ActiveTcl) have been developing an extension repository. Certainly there are extensions which do not (yet) appear there, but there are over 3000 entities in their repository at this time, so many extensions are present there. ActiveTcl comes with a program called "teacup" which provides a command line interface to the repository, allowing you to install specific extensions (or, if you are like me, allowing you to install all the extensions relevant to your platform).
The Tcler's wiki has a number of references to additional tools and extensions. However, your favorite web search engines are likely to turn up utilities, tools, extensions, and applications not yet documented on the wiki or added to the ActiveState repository.
MyTcl is a fairly nice IDE with a Tcl environment included, autocomplete, syntax highlighting, debugging, etc. It has a similar look and feel to Visual Studio. The homepage is in Korean, but it's not too hard to find the download.