** Disambiguation **
[ActiveTcl (Frankinet)]: an unrelated project
** Description **
'''[http://www.activestate.com/activetcl/%|%ActiveTcl]''', by [ActiveState] is
a distribution of [Tcl] and [Tk], coupled with a [repository] (conceptually
similar to [CPAN], as used by [Perl], or the various Linux distribution package
repositories). It started out as a [Batteries Included] effort to bring
together in one binary distribution a variety of Tcl extensions
ActiveState offers the ActiveTcl in
[http://www.activestate.com/languages/compare-editions%|%3 variations]
[http://www.activestate.com/activetcl/downloads%|%Community Edition]: a freely-available version of the latest release for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
[http://www.activestate.com/business-edition%|%Business Edition]: offers commercially-available access to archival versions and binaries for Solaris, HP-UX and AIX, as well as support.
[http://www.activestate.com/enterprise-edition%|%Enterprise Edition]: offers commercially available enhanced support, indemnification and custom builds.
Some packages that are available in other editions of ActiveTcl are not
available in the Community Edition, and there are some packages, e.g. [Snack],
in the 32-bit Community Edition that are not available in the 64-bit Community
Edition. There doesn't seem to be any official list of the difference in
available packages between editions.
** Licensing **
See [http://www.activestate.com/activetcl/license-agreement%|%license-agreement]
** Current Versions **
* ActiveTcl 8.6.7
* ActiveTcl 8.6.6
* ActiveTcl 8.5.19
* ActiveTcl 8.5.18
** Contents **
*** 8.6.x ***
Currently, the distribution of ActiveTcl 8.6 (approx. 220 MB) includes [[fill in the details here]]
* Core OO system
* [Coroutines]
* Core [zlib] support
* [PNG] image format
* [ttk::spinbox] Widget
* Tcl DataBase Connectivity ([TDBC])
* Built in canvas text rotation
*** 8.5.x ***
As of the 8.5.x releases (approx. 210 MB), you get the Tcl/Tk 8.5.x core, a number of
extensions, as well as additional tools such as
* [Teacup], a client of the [TEApot] repository system, with which you can install the remainder of the extensions.
** Documentation **
[http://aspn.ActiveState.com/ASPN/Tcl/Reference/%|%ActiveState online documentation] for Tcl: a convenient and easy-to-read layout
[http://docs.activestate.com/activetcl/8.4/at.pkg_index.html%|%ActiveTcl 8.4]:
[http://docs.activestate.com/activetcl/8.5/at.pkg_index.html%|%ActiveTcl 8.5]:
[http://docs.activestate.com/activetcl/8.6/at.pkg_index.html%|%ActiveTcl 8.6]:
** Resources **
The [http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Tcl/Mail%|%ActiveState Tcl mailing lists]: including archives for a number of popular lists.
[http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Tcl/%|%Tcl Solutions: ActiveTcl, Tcl Dev Kit, Komodo IDE for Tcl, Tcl Training and Consulting]: links to product info, downloads, IDE's and development kits, and training
** Obtaining **
[http://downloads.activestate.com/ActiveTcl/%|%downloads.activestate.com]: an alternative location for the Community Edition downloads.
*** Miscellanea ***
A few extensions are available only through the TEApot.
** Notes **
*** General ***
ActiveTcl sometimes uses sources (along with other extensions) directly from
the package's CVS repository, which may not correspond to an exact "official"
release. There are also a number of Tcl packages which no longer make
''official'' releases, pointing people to their CVS (svn, whatever)
repositories when they want the source code.
*** Threading / Thread-enabled ***
* In ActiveTcl 8.5 the Tcl core is thread-enabled for all platforms.
* In ActiveTcl 8.4 the Tcl core is thread-enabled for Windows and OS X only.
** Trouble-Shooting **
When reporting problems under ActiveTcl, make use of
======none
% parray activestate::config
======
or
======none
% parray activestate::ActiveTcl
======
which both provide you with information about the specific build number, date
the build occurred, platforms, etc. These arrays should be available in both
the tclsh and the base-tcl (or base-tk) that is bundled in ActiveTcl.
** Related **
Other products offered by [ActiveState] are
[Tcl Dev Kit]: aka Tcl Developer's Kit. Based upon [TclPro], a commercial product, including a variety of useful developer tools, and works with whatever [ActiveTcl] it finds.
[Expect for Windows]: [http://www.activestate.com/Products/Expect/%|%an up-to-date] port of Expect to Windows for Tcl 8.4, now a part of ActiveTcl for Windows. [ActiveTcl Pro Studio]: a commercial bundle of [Komodo], [Tcl Dev Kit], [Expect for Windows] and ma subscription to ActiveState's ASPN (ActiveState Programmers Network).
ActivePerl:
ActivePython:
** Questions and Answers **
Can [Tcllib] be updated through [Teacup]?
[LV]: Certainly teacup can update - if the newer items are available within
the [teapot] repository you specify. If the repository owner hasn't updated to
contain the latest version, then you can't update that way. In theory, you
could also download and build yourself, and then install it somewhere for tcl
to find.
----
How does ActiveTcl Business Edition impact what parts of ActiveTcl one will be
permitted to freely access via teacup?
[JH]: The commodity platforms still have free access. The big iron platforms
require a Business Edition license to run ActiveTcl.
----
[IL]: Is there someplace where someone can retrieve earlier distros of
ActiveTcl?
[JH]: Earlier versions of ActiveTcl are available via
[http://www.activestate.com/business_edition/%|%Business Edition].
----
I've just started playing with TCL and I have a REAL newbie question. I have
two machines; one has ActiveState's tcl batteries included dist and the other
machine I compiled myself from source. Question is why is it that with the
ActiveState dist I can go to my command line and just type the name of script
(e.g helloworld.tcl) and it runs, however, on the machine where I compiled the
sources i have to use the tclsh84 shell from the command line to get it to run.
Did I do something wrong when I compiled and installed the sources myself?
[MG]: Depends on several things, the most important of which is probably which
OS you're using. But on Windows, at least, the ActiveTcl installer associates
the .tcl file extension with wish automatically (and may well do on other
platforms).
[LV] Most tcl scripts start with a line similar to:
======
#! /bin/tclsh
======
or perhaps
======
#! /bin/sh
======
and some additional lines to find tclsh.
It sounds to me like the ActiveState tclsh is being found in your path, while
the one that you are building is being installed in a directory that either
isn't in your path, or at the very least, isn't being found '''FIRST''' in your
path.
----
Recently on comp.lang.tcl someone asked how to install ActiveTcl on Linux. A
rough outline of the steps are:
* Download the appropriate tar.gz file
* Extract the contents using "gtar xfz ActiveTcl.whatever.the.numbers.and.words.are.tar.gz" (where you would replace "whatever.the.numbers.and.words.are" with the actual information in the file name you downloaded.
* Change directory (via cd) to the newly created ActiveTcl.whatever.the.numbers.and.words.are folder
* Read the README text file in that folder
* Execute the install.sh application in that folder.
* The application will begin providing you with information and asking you questions.
* Probably the most important question will be the second question (the first question being "do you accept this license"). This is the question of where ActiveTcl should be installed. The location to provide needs to be one which either your account can create, or in which your account can create files.
----
[MHo] 2010-02-05: I could not find the activestate-html-help-files for
ActiveTcl any more. Maybe I am blind.
----
[IDG]: Seems to be there at
http://downloads.activestate.com/ActiveTcl/releases/ - better hidden than
before...
----
[MHo] 2013-01-19: How should we install - first uninstall 8.5, then install
8.6, or can we install 8.6 on top of 8.5 without uninstalling first?
[AK] 2013-01-21 18:17:33: Both ways, uninstalling, then re-installing, and
over-install are possible. In case of the latter the installer should detect
the existing lib/teapot and ask for advice on how to handle it (keep as is,
overwrite, merge). One thing the over-install is not so good at is later
removal of 8.5. The 8.6. uninstaller overwrites the 8.5 one. On the third hand,
removing by deleting the directory is mostly ok too, leaving only the
start-menu entries behind.
----
[TJ] 2013-02-20 22:10:11: I am using teacup to install a missing package.
However, the "teacup list" generated the following error message on Windows 7:
======none
0 entities found
======
Problems which occurred during the operation:
======none
* http://teapot.activestate.com :
Error in constructor: Not a repository: Index database
"//agth.xgh.net/ag102$/Teapot/D%3a%2fProgramme%2fTcl.win32-x86_64/indexcache/teapot.activestate.com/INDEX":
Read access is denied
The home directory is H:, which synchronizes with a network driver.
======
Any one can help me? Thanks.
----
[AK] 2013-02-21 01:15:40: The message of 'Read access is denied' seems to be
pretty clear. Something thinks that it has no read permissions for the file,
and thus using the index fails.
You could try to 'teacup cache off'. That puts teacup into a mode where it
ignores the local INDEX cache and does everything over the network. That makes
it slower, of course.
Note "teacup help cache" for the integrated help on the command.
** See Also **
[Getting Tcl/Tk]:
[Installing Tcl/Tk on Ubuntu]:
[http://docs.activestate.com/activetcl/8.5/full_toc.html%|%ActiveTcl 8.5 Help Documentation]:
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