Updated 2009-02-10 15:46:16 by andy ▲

The definitive web site for the core Tcl and Tk source distributions is SourceForge. Binary installations are sometimes available for a few platforms (Windows and Mac), but other users are served by source code distributions which can be compiled and installed on many different types of platforms.

If you are for some reason unable to easily compile and install the source code distribution, you may want to try out one of the publicly available binary distributions. These are compiled and made available by third parties. Your mileage may vary. When using one of these publically available binary distributions, there may very well be licensing issues over and beyond those of the underlying language, extensions and tools - all such licensing issues need to be carefully evaluated.

(and good luck! - RWT)

Another page that covers much the same territory as this one is "places to find Tcl binaries and sources".

See also Getting Started which lists the most popular binary distributions

Multi-Platform

  • ActiveTcl, binary distribution of Tcl/Tk + commonly used extensions
  • Tclkit, small single-file Tcl/Tk distribution
  • dqkit, Tclkit-like distribution with many more extensions, but a little out of date
  • eTcl, another single-file Tcl/Tk distribution

In detail

  • ActiveState provides ActiveTcl, a binary distribution of Tcl, Tk, and a very large number of extensions, for free download. See http://www.activestate.com/Products/activetcl/ for details. Users can find binaries for Windows, Linux (x86 or x86_64), Mac OS X (Universal PPC/Intel), HP-UX (PA-RISC), and Solaris (SPARC or x86). An alternative download site is [1].
  • TclKit is a single file executable containing Tcl, Tk, IncrTcl, MetaKit, and a few other extensions. It is in fact the basis of this web site! Check Wikit for more details. Available in over two dozen varieties, as summarized here [2]. Steve Landers, Cameron Laird, and several others have a personal preference for this convenient single-file distribution.
  • eTcl also provides a single-file executable containing Tcl, Tk, and selected extensions. As well as Windows and Mac OS X, eTcl is available for a number of constrained platforms, including Windows Mobile, and embedded (µclibc) Linux on x86, MIPSel, ARM, and PowerPC processors.

Windows

  • In the past, the Tcl Core Team made a Windows 95/98/NT binary available - see [3].
  • WinTclTk is an open-source Tcl/Tk distribution for Microsoft Windows (32-bit).
  • Keiichi Takahashi has in the past prepared a Windows binary with some patches and support for Kanji input methods which he made available [4].
  • The Snackamp project provides a nicely installable small Windows 8.3.4 binary [5].

Windows Mobile

Earlier versions of this platform were called PocketPC, Windows CE, etc.

Apple Macintosh MacOS

  • TclTkAquaBi is a binary distribution of Tcl/Tk + commonly used extensions for MacOS X
  • The Tcl Core Team and minions provide space for a MacOS PowerMac binary distribution from the user community - see [6] (dead link 2008-01-09).

escargo 7 Jul 2003 - What versions of MacOS would these correspond to? I want to install a Tk program on my wife's computer, which runs MacOS 9.2.

Lars H, 8 Jul 2003: TclTk 8.4 binaries can be downloaded from SourceForge [7]; the MacTclTk distros are for Mac OS 9 and earlier. Note though that (at least some of) these installers install a couple of bad aliases that may delay startup by a couple of minutes because they point to files on some computer of Daniel Steffen's. All is fine if you just trash those aliases.

Linux

  • Most Linux distributions include Tcl/Tk and a number of extensions.
  • Jean-Luc Fontaine has RPM kits (for RedHat Linux) for Tcl/Tk, BLT, and TkTable at his home page at http://jfontain.free.fr/ It is worth noting that Jean-Luc has separate installations for Tcl and Tk, so the file sizes are under a megabyte. These packages are also supposed to coexist happily with the default Tcl/Tk installation from RedHat.
  • Reinhard Max creates the official Tcl-RPMs for SuSE Linux. Packages for newer versions of Tcl and several extensions on different versions of SuSE Linux (i386) can be found here: ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/max/ . If you have problems or suggestions about SuSE's Tcl packages or if you need current Tcl RPMs for other hardware platforms, feel free to ask max at suse.de.
  • For Linux handhelds such as the Zaurus and the (modified) iPAQ, see http://members.chello.nl/~k.vangelder/ipaq/feed/
  • Expert Tcl, created in 2002 by Steven Gibson, is a small Linux distribution with many Tcl scripts.

FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD

  • The BSDs have a make based package system similar (although superior) to Linux' rpms. All of the tree offer downloading/installing binary packages. Usually at the time of a OS release, the then current packages tree are compiled and uploaded to the respective project's ftp server. Consult your BSD's package documentation on how to install such a binary package.

Solaris

These repositories of Solaris freeware include Tcl/Tk:

Tru64 Unix for Alpha

  • There is a rather out-of-date "Open Source Software Collection" [8] for Tru64 Unix. Its contents [9] include Tcl/Tk 8.3.1.

HP-UX

  • The HP-UX Porting and Archive Center has up to date Tcl, Tk, and many (mostly older) extensions, mirrored around the world. Try one of http://hpux.cs.utah.edu in Utah, USA or http://hpux.connect.org.uk/ in the UK.
  • HP provides a variety of open source software packages for HP-UX 11 through their developer and solution parter portal. The technical resources for HP-UX points to [10] If that link moves, you can probably get there through http://www.hp.com/country/us/eng/support.htm

BeOS version R4.5 for Intel

Getting Tcl/Tk

Category Porting Category Distribution