Introducing SCO Visual Tcl

Introducing SCO Visual Tcl

SCO Visual Tcl is a toolkit you can use to write applications in the Tool Command Language (Tcl) to be displayed on graphical (with OSF/Motif) or character (with CHARM) displays.

Tcl is a powerful interpretive language that is ideal for creating user interfaces, often as a front-end to existing utilities or commands. Its simple syntax and absence of compilation time make it ideal for rapid prototyping of user interfaces.

SCO Visual Tcl is a set of extensions to Tcl which enable you to write applications, from simple applications, such as the phone book shown here, to highly complex applications, such as the SCOadmin Software Manager. Each of the SCOadmin managers included with SCO OpenServer was written using SCO Visual Tcl.

The rest of this chapter discusses:

The underlying technologies upon which SCO Visual Tcl is based.
What actually happens when a user runs a SCO Visual Tcl application.
Defining and manipulating widgets -- the basic building block of SCO Visual Tcl programming, including widget trees, widget creation, and widget naming.
How user events, such as pushing a button, are translated into actions.
SCO Visual Tcl command parsing and execution, along with the basic command structure.
Developing applications for the character environment.
Some of the more useful features of SCO Visual Tcl.
Where to go for more information.