Version 0 of Porting a Tk GUI to A Web Browser

Updated 2002-11-14 01:40:12

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 (<a href="mailto:[email protected]">mail</a >,

<a href="http://www.lucidway.org">webpage</a >) suggested <a href="http://www.sf.net/projects/tcljava">tcljava</a > and <a href="http://www.nmrview.com/swank=">swank</a >, &quot;particularly the latter.&quot;&nbsp;

• Tom Poindexter (<a href="mailto:[email protected]">mail</a >,

<a href="http://www.nyx.net/%7Etpoindex/">web page</a> suggested:&nbsp; &quot;You might try WeirdX, it's an X11 server written in Java, and runs as a browser applet.&nbsp; I've used this in the past to deliver Tcl/Tk applications for internal users. It's suitable for running on fast, secure networks.&quot;&nbsp; Tom pointed me toward <a href="http://wiki.tcl.tk/WeirdX">a paper</a> that is available.&nbsp;

• Tom also suggests:&nbsp; &quot;ProxyTk would also be an idea, but to my

knowledge, it never made it into public consumption.&quot;&nbsp; (<a href="http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/tcl2k/roseman.html%22">Abstract</a >, full paper available for purchase or free to USENIX members)&nbsp; Brian Oakley (<a href="mailto:[email protected]">mail</a >) also offered the same suggestion, continuing:&nbsp; &quot;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.&nbsp; The software isn't available, but it looks like a fairly straight-forward thing to reinvent.&nbsp; 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.&quot;&nbsp; He also pointed me to the original author's <a href="http://www.markroseman.com/pubs/proxytk.pdf=">pre-publication copy</a>.&nbsp;

• Several folks suggested <a href="http://www.realvnc.com/">VNC</a>.&nbsp ;

Note that the latest versions are now from RealVNC Ltd., as AT&amp;T has closed their Cambridge Labs.&nbsp; </li>

• Donal Fellows (<a href="mailto:[email protected]">Email</a >)

suggested:&nbsp; &quot;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.&nbsp; Trust me.)&nbsp; That'll save you much frustration.&nbsp;

• Roy Terry (<a href="mailto:[email protected]">mail</a >)

suggested:&nbsp; "You can run Tcl/Tk as an activeX object using TclControl.&nbsp; 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."&nbsp; A <a href="http://www.sys.uea.ac.uk/%7Efuzz/TclControl/">paper</a > provides details.&nbsp;