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Tcl 8.0 and Tk 8.0 releases (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 16 Aug 1997 14:22:21 -0700
From: John Ousterhout <ouster@tcl.Eng.Sun.COM>
Subject: Tcl 8.0 and Tk 8.0 releases
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl.announce
Followup-To: comp.lang.tcl
This message is to announce the 8.0 releases of the Tcl scripting
language and the Tk toolkit. These are major releases with many
exciting new features, including the following:
- Tcl has a new bytecode compiler that improves performance by a factor
of 2-10x.
- Tcl now has namespaces for structuring variables and procedures.
- Binary data is now supported in Tcl.
- The Safe-Tcl security model has been fleshed out and improved in
many ways. It provides the most flexible approach to security for
Internet applications available anywhere.
- The Windows registry is now supported.
- A package "http" is available for making HTTP requests.
- Tk now provides native look and feel on Macintosh and Windows platforms.
Tcl and Tk now provide one of the best cross-platform development platforms
available anywhere.
- Fonts and menus have been improved to provide much better cross-platform
support.
- Text widgets allow images to be embedded directly in the text.
There are a few incompatibilities introduced by these releases (hence the
change in major version number) but they are small and should not affect
most scripts. See the Tcl/Tk 8.0 Web page for more information on both
the new features and the incompatibilities:
http://sunscript.sun.com/TclTkCore/8.0.html
Where to get the new releases:
------------------------------
Tcl 8.0 and Tk 8.0 are currently available by public FTP from
ftp.sunlabs.com in the directory /pub/tcl. The easiest way to
retrieve them is via the Web page for the 8.0 releases:
http://sunscript.sun.com/TclTkCore/8.0.html
For additional information:
---------------------------
See the Web site for SunScript, the Sun team dedicated to Tcl and Tk.
This site contains a variety of information about Tcl/Tk in general, the
core Tcl and Tk distributions, and applications such as SpecTcl and the
Tcl plugin. Visit the following URL:
http://sunscript.sun.com
Credits:
--------
Virtually everyone in SunScript contributed to the Tcl 8.0 and Tk 8.0
releases. Here is a list of a few of the most important contributions
and the people who made them:
Bytecode compiler, namespaces: Brian Lewis
PC port (native look and feel etc.): Scott Stanton
Win32s support: Colin Stevens
Mac port (native look and feel etc.): Ray Johnson, Jim Ingham
Font mechanism: Colin Stevens
Native menus: Syd Polk
Safe-Tcl improvements: Jacob Levy, Laurent Demailly,
Brent Welch
Application embedding: John Ousterhout, Scott Stanton,
Ray Johnson, Jim Ingham
Http library: Brent Welch
Text images, gridder support: Stephen Uhler
Binary I/O, fcopy: Scott Stanton
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