Tcl-URL! - weekly Tcl news and links

QOTW:  "Functional languages tend to be monolithic monstrosities." - Donal 
K. Fellows, caught in an unguarded moment

"In order to create a business around an open-source package, there needs
to be a truly huge user community (in the millions), such as Linux or
MySQL." - John Ousterhout in an ArsTechnica interview
    http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/free-software-sum...

POTW:
    ANNOUNCE: Tcl Windows API aka TWAPI 2.0.9 (alpha) released
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/t...
    Announcing another work-in-progress release of the Tcl Windows API 
    extension (TWAPI). The commands new to 2.0 are still subject to change 
    (although not likely). 
    If you are using Tcl 8.5, you are strongly encouraged to upgrade from 
    earlier releases. If you are still using 8.4, upgrading from 1.1 is 
    still recommended as several bugs have been fixed in addition to the 
    enhancements. 
    V2.0 changes 
    Major features since V1.1 include support for writing Windows services 
    in Tcl, interfaces to the MS Installer, clipboard and device 
    monitoring, Crypto/SSPI interfaces and power management. On the 
    downside, NT 4.0 support has 
    been dropped. 
    See http://twapi.magicsplat.com/versionhistory.html for a full list. 
    Need volunteers 
    If you can run the TWAPI test scripts on Vista, please post back here. 
    I don't have access to any Vista systems.
    Homepage:
	http://twapi.magicsplat.com/
    Downloads:
	http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=90123

    ANNOUNCE: WISH Superscriptorium 2008
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/t...
    by David McClamrock <mcclamr...@locl.net> 
    Based on "Words" by William Whittaker and "Glossator" by Mike Polis 
     WISH Superscriptorium 2008 is a simple computer-aided Latin-English 
    translation program, using plain-text grammar and vocabulary data 
    files derived from William Whittaker's "Words" program by way of Mike 
    Polis's "Glossator." It requires Tcl and Tk 8.5 (or greater, when 
    there is an even greater version). The main program window consists 
    basically of three scrolling text widgets side by side, with the 
    headings "ORIGINAL TEXT," "TRANSLATION OPTIONS," and "TRANSLATION," 
    below some menus and mini-toolbar buttons.
     Available for download at "Pa Penguin's Icebox" 
    Homepage, Downloads:
	http://www.geocities.com/pa_mcclamrock 

    ANN:Fve Ver5.2 (Editor for "Mac OS X"/Cygwin/Unix/Windows) Tcl/Tk script
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/t...
    File Viewer Editor_Version Fve 5.2
    For Tcl/Tk 8.4,8.5: TclTkAqua 8.4: Tcl/Tk-cygwin 8.4. 
    Please use ActiveTcl 8.4.18 binary packages 
    or "TclTkAqua 8.4.10 binary packages".
    Homepage, Downloads:
	http://www.ne.jp/asahi/kazuo/sasagawa/

WARN:
    TLS bug: empty reads
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/msg/7d1035c0...
    	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/t...

MEET:
    EVT '08 Call For Papers Deadline Approaching
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/t...
    We're writing to remind you that the submissions deadline for the 2008 
    USENIX/ACCURATE Electronic Voting Technology Workshop is approaching. 
    Please submit all work by 11:59 p.m. PDT on Friday, April 11, 2008. 
    EVT is a leading publication venue for research on electronic voting 
    technologies. The Program Committee seeks to bring together researchers 
    from a variety of disciplines, ranging from computer science and 
    human-computer interaction experts through political scientists, legal 
    experts, election administrators, and voting equipment vendors. EVT 
    seeks to publish original research on important problems in all aspects 
    of electronic voting.
    Paper submission guidelines can be found at 
	http://www.usenix.org/evt08/cfpb 

    Symposium on dynamic languages by Arjen Markus
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/t...
    today I received this short announcement from the ACM: 
    **************************** 
    * Dynamic Languages Symposium 
      Date: July 8, 2008 
      Location: Paphos, Cyprus 
      URL: http://www.swa.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/dls/dls08/ 
      Submission Deadline: April 25, 2008 
      Notification Date: May 23, 2008 
    **************************** 
    I just thought to post it here, just in case.

ORBI: or what happened on comp.lang.tcl
    Enhance [proc] for anonymous functions and closures
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/t...

    gzip/zlib in tcl and BLT overhaul
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/t...

    after ids
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/t...

    SCIM: kbd stops responding
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/t...

    WM_SAVE_YOURSELF... how to use?
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/t...

    Bignum Type Question
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/t...

TIPX: new, used and discarded Tips
    TIP 315 by Hai Vu : Add pathSeparator to tcl_platform Array
	http://www.tcl.tk/cgi-bin/tct/tip/315.html
	is a new TIP

OOTW: Orphan of the week or questions nobody answered yet:
    Mixed Sync/Async communications pattern
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_threa...

    C API for "info frame"
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_threa...

PMAG: Tcl in printed or other media
    Article: Ousterhout on open source, Tcl
	http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_frm/t...
    Article:
	http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/free-software-sum...


Thanks to Arjen Markus for his weekly summary of Wiki action:
  Probably your chronicler's bias, but there seems to be a lot 
  of interest in communication between processes - if the Wiki
  is any reliable measure. Well, let's see ...
  
  What's in a name
  - Anyone else with a good name for the one new syntactical 
    element in Tcl 8.5? <http://wiki.tcl.tk/19707> discusses
    various possibilities to call {*} ... uh, something.
  
  - If you have some Latin homework, that is, translate Latin
    text to English, check this out: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/20997>
  
  Tools for your kit
  - Convert an XML file into a PostScript file for printing ...
    <http://wiki.tcl.tk/2741>
  
  - An arms' race in compression algorithms. Can anyone beat
    Lempel-Ziv-Markov? <http://wiki.tcl.tk/12749>
  
  - Multiple ways to protect your source code - for various
    reasons: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/3698> lists a new kid on the
    block - <http://wiki.tcl.tk/21001>.
  
  - Creating a stardll instead of a starkit - embedded Tcl 
    made even easier: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/15969>
  
  Talking back and forth
  - What methods do we have to let programs communicate 
    amongst each other? A lot as shown by <http://wiki.tcl.tk/1228>
  
  - A very old (in terms of computerspeak) method can be found 
    here: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/4885>
  
  - But nowadays you can simply start a lot of the same processes 
    on different machines by a single incantation: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/14734>
  
  - Or set the parameters for a TCP connection: <http://wiki.tcl.tk/14722>
  

Everything Tcl-related you want is probably one or two clicks away in these
pages:
    The "Welcome to comp.lang.tcl" message by Andreas Kupries
        http://www.purl.org/net/tcl-welcome
    comp.lang.tcl is a crucial resource for Tcl practitioners.
    An interesting perspective on its traffic appears at
        http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/about

    The Tcl Developer Site is Tcl's "home base".
	http://www.tcl.tk

    Larry Virden maintains a comp.lang.tcl FAQ launcher.
        http://www.purl.org/NET/Tcl-FAQ/

    The Tcl Developer Xchange is a highly organized resource center
    of documents and software with provisions for individuals to
    maintain references to their own software:
        http://www.tcl.tk/resource/
    The TDX sponsor, ActiveState, also keeps info to convince your
    boss Tcl is a good thing
        http://www.tcl.tk/scripting/

    The Tcl'ers Wiki is a huge, dynamic, collaboratively edited repository
    of documentation, examples, tutorials and pontifications on all things 
    Tcl.
        http://wiki.tcl.tk/0
    For the ideal overview of the topics about Tcl most likely to
    interest a newcomer, see "Arts and Crafts ..."
        http://wiki.tcl.tk/969
    There's also a high-quality Wikibook on Tcl:
        http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programming:Tcl

    ActiveState maintains binaries distribution and development tools
        http://www.activestate.com/Tcl
    along with a Cookbook of Tcl recipes
        http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Tcl

    "La Gazette du Técleux" is an important monthly publication.
	http://wfr.tcl.tk/1159

    deli.cio.us presents an intriguing approach to reference commentary.
    It already aggregates quite a bit of Tcl intelligence.
        http://del.icio.us/tag/tcl

    Cameron Laird tracks several Tcl/Tk references of interest (but
    needs to validate many of the links).
        http://phaseit.net/claird/comp.lang.tcl/

    Years ago, Cetus Links maintained a Tcl/Tk page with verified links
        http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_tcl_tk.html

    "Yahoo! Groups" archives comp.lang.tcl.announce posts--even 
    though clta itself is dormant.
        http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tcl_announce/

We're working on more useful archives of past installments.  In the
meantime, an alternative is
  http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_q=+Tcl-URL&...

Suggestions/corrections for next week's posting are always welcome.

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