In the comp.lang.tcl newsgroup, I asked:
"Does anyone here have any thoughts or pointers into the Wiki, or
to papers that might help us port our current Tcl-Tk GUIs to a
browser without re-coding in Java?"
I received the following suggestions:
* Martin Backe ([mailto:marty@lucidway.org], [http://www.lucidway.org])
suggested tcljava [http://www.sf.net/projects/tcljava] and swank
http://www.nmrview.com/swank], "particularly the latter."
* Tom Poindexter [mailto:tpoindex@nyx.net], [http://www.nyx.net/%7Etpoindex/]
suggested: "You might try WeirdX, it's an X11 server written in Java, and runs
as a browser applet. I've used this in the past to deliver Tcl/Tk
applications for internal users. It's suitable for running on fast,
secure networks." Tom pointed me toward
[http://wiki.tcl.tk/WeirdX].
* Tom also suggests: "ProxyTk would also be an idea, but to my
knowledge, it never made it into public consumption"
(abstract: [http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/tcl2k/roseman.html],
full paper available for purchase or free to USENIX members). Brian Oakley
[mailto:bryan@bitmover.com]) also offered the same suggestion, continuing: "The short
summary is, you write tk on the server which drives a thin client that translates
the tk commands into java widgets in the client. The software isn't available, but it looks
like a fairly straight-forward thing to reinvent. Unless your guis are
trivial, it may take less effort to reinvent proxytk than it would be to
recode all of the GUIs in Java." He also pointed me to the original
author's pre-publication copy [http://www.markroseman.com/pubs/proxytk.pdf].
* Several folks suggested VNC.
Note that the latest versions are now from RealVNC Ltd., as AT&T has
closed their Cambridge Labs.
* Donal Fellows (Email)
suggested: "If you end up having to do Java GUIs, start by porting
the Tk geometry managers to Java as the standard ones are not really very good
(GridBagLayout sucks a lot more than you might think at first. Trust
me.) That'll save you much frustration.
* Roy Terry (mail)
suggested: "You can run Tcl/Tk as an activeX object using
TclControl. I believe, but haven't done the work, that you could also
package the tclcontrol along with the needed Tcl/Tk dlls, etc. into a CAB file
and have the whole thing download seamlessly on Windows." A
paper provides
details.