**Disambiguation** There is another ActiveTcl around, this one can be found at [ActiveTcl (Frankinet)] instead. **Description** Product by [ActiveState]. Originally, a [Batteries Included] effort to bring together in one binary distribution a variety of Tcl extensions. In the past few months, a transition to a [repository] model (conceptually similar to [CPAN], as used by [Perl], or the various Linux distribution package repositories) has occurred. ActiveState offers the ActiveTcl in 3 variations. More info at http://www.activestate.com/business_solutions/compare/. * Community Edition is the freely available version of the latest release for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. * Business Edition provides access to archival versions and binaries for Solaris, HP-UX and AIX, as well as support. * Enterprise Edition provides enhanced support, indemnification and custom builds. They have a section on Tcl mailing lists, with archives for a number of popular lists at http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Tcl/Mail. The http://aspn.ActiveState.com/ASPN/Tcl/Reference/ page is a great online Tcl reference section, with links to papers from the Tcl'2002 US and European conferences as well as other resources. See http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/ for mailing list subscription information. Details about the product appear at * http://www.activestate.com/activetcl/ * http://docs.activestate.com/activetcl/8.4/at.pkg_index.html * http://docs.activestate.com/activetcl/8.5/at.pkg_index.html * http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Tcl/ **Current Versions** * ActiveTcl 8.5.8.1 * ActiveTcl 8.4.19.3 * ActiveTcl 8.6.0.0b2 **Contents** *** 8.5.x *** As of the 8.5.x releases, 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. *** 8.4.x *** With the 8.4.x releases, you got the Tcl/Tk 8.4.x core, a very large number of extensions, to the point of being fat, as well as additional tools such as * [TkCon] * [Teacup] client of the TEApot repository system ***Miscellanea*** An ActiveTcl 8.6 beta distribution is available. A few extensions are available only through the TEApot. **Notes** ***General*** ActiveTcl sometimes uses sources (along with other extensions) directly from the CVS repository, which may not correspond to an exact "official" release. But then, there are a number of Tcl packages which no longer appear to make ''official'' releases, pointing people to their CVS (svn, whatever) repositories if they want the 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 % parray activestate::config or % 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], includes a variety of useful developer tools, work 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 bundle of [Komodo], [Tcl Dev Kit], [Expect for Windows] and more. * 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. ---- [IL] Is there someplace where someone can retrieve earlier distros of ActiveTcl? [JH]: Earlier versions of ActiveTcl are available via Business Edition http://www.activestate.com/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 * 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 in which you can create files. ---- See also: * [Getting Tcl/Tk] * [Installing Tcl/Tk on Ubuntu] ---- [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... <> Category Application | Category Distribution | Category Package