249 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
249 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
Tcl
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SCCS: @(#) README 1.38 96/10/07 11:33:23
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1. Introduction
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---------------
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This directory and its descendants contain the sources and documentation
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for Tcl, an embeddable scripting language. The information here
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corresponds to release 7.6. This is a relatively minor release with bug
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fixes and a few new features, mostly to improve portability. Tcl 7.6
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should be backwards compatible with Tcl 7.5 scripts, but there are two
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incompatible changes, one in the C APIs for custom channel drivers and
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the other affecting start-up file names under Windows. See below for
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more details.
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2. Documentation
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----------------
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The best way to get started with Tcl is to read one of the introductory
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books on Tcl:
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Tcl and the Tk Toolkit, by John Ousterhout,
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Addison-Wesley, 1994, ISBN 0-201-63337-X
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Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk, by Brent Welch,
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Prentice-Hall, 1995, ISBN 0-13-182007-9
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Exploring Expect, by Don Libes,
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O'Reilly and Associates, 1995, ISBN 1-56592-090-2
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The "doc" subdirectory in this release contains a complete set of reference
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manual entries for Tcl. Files with extension ".1" are for programs (for
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example, tclsh.1); files with extension ".3" are for C library procedures;
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and files with extension ".n" describe Tcl commands. The file "doc/Tcl.n"
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gives a quick summary of the Tcl language syntax. To print any of the man
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pages, cd to the "doc" directory and invoke your favorite variant of
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troff using the normal -man macros, for example
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ditroff -man Tcl.n
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to print Tcl.n. If Tcl has been installed correctly and your "man"
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program supports it, you should be able to access the Tcl manual entries
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using the normal "man" mechanisms, such as
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man Tcl
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There is also an official home for Tcl and Tk on the Web:
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http://www.sunlabs.com/research/tcl
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These Web pages include release updates, reports on bug fixes and porting
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issues, HTML versions of the manual pages, and pointers to many other
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Tcl/Tk Web pages at other sites. Check them out!
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3. Compiling and installing Tcl
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-------------------------------
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This release contains everything you should need to compile and run
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Tcl under UNIX, Macintoshes, and PCs (either Windows NT, Windows 95,
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or Win 3.1 with Win32s).
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Before trying to compile Tcl you should do the following things:
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(a) Check for a binary release. Pre-compiled binary releases are
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available now for PCs, Macintoshes, and several flavors of UNIX.
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Binary releases are much easier to install than source releases.
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To find out whether a binary release is available for your platform,
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check the home page for the Sun Tcl/Tk project
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(http://www.sunlabs.com/research/tcl) and also check in the FTP
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directory from which you retrieved the base distribution. Some
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of the binary releases are available freely, while others are for
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sale.
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(b) Make sure you have the most recent patch release. Look in the
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FTP directory from which you retrieved this distribution to see
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if it has been updated with patches. Patch releases fix bugs
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without changing any features, so you should normally use the
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latest patch release for the version of Tcl that you want.
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Patch releases are available in two forms. A file like
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tcl7.6p1.tar.Z is a complete release for patch level 1 of Tcl
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version 7.6. If there is a file with a higher patch level than
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this release, just fetch the file with the highest patch level
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and use it.
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Patches are also available in the form of patch files that just
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contain the changes from one patch level to another. These
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files will have names like tcl7.6p1.patch, tcl7.6p2.patch, etc. They
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may also have .gz or .Z extensions to indicate compression. To
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use one of these files, you apply it to an existing release with
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the "patch" program. Patches must be applied in order:
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tcl7.6p1.patch must be applied to an unpatched Tcl 7.6 release
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to produce a Tcl 7.6p1 release; tcl7.6p2.patch can then be
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applied to Tcl7.6p1 to produce Tcl 7.6p2, and so on. To apply an
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uncompressed patch file such as tcl7.6p1.patch, invoke a shell
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command like the following from the directory containing this
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file:
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patch -p < tcl7.6p1.patch
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If the patch file has a .gz extension, invoke a command like the
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following:
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gunzip -c tcl7.6p1.patch.gz | patch -p
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If the patch file has a .Z extension, it was compressed with
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compress. To apply it, invoke a command like the following:
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zcat tcl7.6p1.patch.Z | patch -p
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If you're applying a patch to a release that has already been
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compiled, then before applying the patch you should cd to the
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"unix" subdirectory and type "make distclean" to restore the
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directory to a pristine state.
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Once you've done this, change to the "unix" subdirectory if you're
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compiling under UNIX, "win" if you're compiling under Windows, or
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"mac" if you're compiling on a Macintosh. Then follow the instructions
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in the README file in that directory for compiling Tcl, installing it,
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and running the test suite.
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4. Summary of changes in Tcl 7.6
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--------------------------------
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Here are the most significant changes in Tcl 7.6. In addition to these
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changes, there are numerous small bug fixes. See the file "changes" for
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a complete list of all changes.
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1. New file manipulation commands. There are new options to the
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"file" command for copying files ("file copy"), deleting files and
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directories ("file delete"), creating directories ("file mkdir"),
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and renaming files ("file rename").
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2. The implementation of "exec" has been improved greatly for Windows
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95 and Windows NT.
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3. The package loader has been modified to look for packages not only
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in the auto_path directories but also in their immediate descendants.
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This makes it much easier to install and uninstall packages. There
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is now a new variable, tcl_pkgPath, which contains directories in
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which packages are normally installed, and these directories are
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automatically included in auto_path.
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4. There is a new memory allocator for the Macintosh version, which
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should be more efficient than the old one.
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Tcl 7.6 contains two incompatible changes:
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1. The C interfaces to channel drivers have been revised to eliminate
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the use of Tcl_File handles in the interfaces. Instead, there are
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new interface procedures channelReadyProc, watchChannelProc, and
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getFileProc. This change does not affect Tcl scripts; it will only
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affect you if you have written a custom channel driver.
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2. Under Windows, tclsh now looks for the start-up file "tclshrc.tcl"
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instead of "tclsh.rc". This is more consistent with wish and uses
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the right extension.
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5. Tcl newsgroup
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-----------------
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There is a network news group "comp.lang.tcl" intended for the exchange
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of information about Tcl, Tk, and related applications. Feel free to use
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the newsgroup both for general information questions and for bug reports.
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We read the newsgroup and will attempt to fix bugs and problems reported
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to it.
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When using comp.lang.tcl, please be sure that your e-mail return address
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is correctly set in your postings. This allows people to respond directly
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to you, rather than the entire newsgroup, for answers that are not of
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general interest. A bad e-mail return address may prevent you from
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getting answers to your questions. You may have to reconfigure your news
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reading software to ensure that it is supplying valid e-mail addresses.
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6. Tcl contributed archive
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--------------------------
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Many people have created exciting packages and applications based on Tcl
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and/or Tk and made them freely available to the Tcl community. An archive
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of these contributions is kept on the machine ftp.neosoft.com. You
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can access the archive using anonymous FTP; the Tcl contributed archive is
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in the directory "/pub/tcl". The archive also contains several FAQ
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("frequently asked questions") documents that provide solutions to problems
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that are commonly encountered by TCL newcomers.
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7. Support and bug fixes
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------------------------
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We're very interested in receiving bug reports and suggestions for
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improvements. We prefer that you send this information to the
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comp.lang.tcl newsgroup rather than to any of us at Sun. We'll see
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anything on comp.lang.tcl, and in addition someone else who reads
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comp.lang.tcl may be able to offer a solution. The normal turn-around
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time for bugs is 3-6 weeks. Enhancements may take longer and may not
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happen at all unless there is widespread support for them (we're
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trying to slow the rate at which Tcl turns into a kitchen sink). It's
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very difficult to make incompatible changes to Tcl at this point, due
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to the size of the installed base.
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When reporting bugs, please provide a short tclsh script that we can
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use to reproduce the bug. Make sure that the script runs with a
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bare-bones tclsh and doesn't depend on any extensions or other
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programs, particularly those that exist only at your site. Also,
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please include three additional pieces of information with the
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script:
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(a) how do we use the script to make the problem happen (e.g.
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what things do we click on, in what order)?
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(b) what happens when you do these things (presumably this is
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undesirable)?
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(c) what did you expect to happen instead?
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The Tcl community is too large for us to provide much individual
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support for users. If you need help we suggest that you post questions
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to comp.lang.tcl. We read the newsgroup and will attempt to answer
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esoteric questions for which no-one else is likely to know the answer.
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In addition, Tcl support and training are available commercially from
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NeoSoft (info@neosoft.com), Computerized Processes Unlimited
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(gwl@cpu.com), and Data Kinetics (education@dkl.com).
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8. Tcl version numbers
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----------------------
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Each Tcl release is identified by two numbers separated by a dot, e.g.
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6.7 or 7.0. If a new release contains changes that are likely to break
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existing C code or Tcl scripts then the major release number increments
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and the minor number resets to zero: 6.0, 7.0, etc. If a new release
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contains only bug fixes and compatible changes, then the minor number
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increments without changing the major number, e.g. 7.1, 7.2, etc. If
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you have C code or Tcl scripts that work with release X.Y, then they
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should also work with any release X.Z as long as Z > Y.
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Alpha and beta releases have an additional suffix of the form a2 or b1.
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For example, Tcl 7.0b1 is the first beta release of Tcl version 7.0,
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Tcl 7.0b2 is the second beta release, and so on. A beta release is an
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initial version of a new release, used to fix bugs and bad features before
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declaring the release stable. An alpha release is like a beta release,
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except it's likely to need even more work before it's "ready for prime
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time". New releases are normally preceded by one or more alpha and beta
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releases. We hope that lots of people will try out the alpha and beta
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releases and report problems. We'll make new alpha/beta releases to fix
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the problems, until eventually there is a beta release that appears to
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be stable. Once this occurs we'll make the final release.
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We can't promise to maintain compatibility among alpha and beta releases.
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For example, release 7.1b2 may not be backward compatible with 7.1b1, even
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though the final 7.1 release will be backward compatible with 7.0. This
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allows us to change new features as we find problems during beta testing.
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We'll try to minimize incompatibilities between beta releases, but if
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a major problem turns up then we'll fix it even if it introduces an
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incompatibility. Once the official release is made then there won't
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be any more incompatibilities until the next release with a new major
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version number.
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Patch releases have a suffix such as p1 or p2. These releases contain
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bug fixes only. A patch release (e.g Tcl 7.6p2) should be completely
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compatible with the base release from which it is derived (e.g. Tcl
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7.6), and you should normally use the highest available patch release.
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