Introduction to TCL/TK

Upon completion of this class, the student will be able to write useful TCL programs to automate operating system tasks and add scripting capabilities to C programs. Students will also be introduced to TCL's GUI capabilities through Tk toolkit.

The format of the class is mixed lecture/lab, with lab exercises immediately following each major topic. The lab exercises are intended to reinforce the preceding lecture topic(s), and are designed to be directly applicable in an EDA context.

Syllabus
Day 1
 Day 2

Introduction

  • TCL uses
  • Comparison to other languages


Getting Started

  • Creating a TCL program
  • tclsh and wish interactive shells
  • Loading a script
  • Using a TCL debugger


TCL Basics

  • Command syntax
  • Grouping and quoting
  • Data types
  • Variables
  • Evaluating expressions


TCL Commands

  • Control flow commands (if, switch)
  • Loops
  • Catching errors


String processing

  • The string command
  • The format command
  • String matching
  • Regular Expressions


Lists

  • Creating lists
  • Modifying lists
  • Sorting and searching lists


TCL I/O

  • Standard file I/O
  • Opening files
  • Opening sockets
  • Binary I/.O


TCL Arrays

  • Creating arrays
  • Working with arrays
  • Data structures using arrays


Procedures

  • Creating procedures
  • Scope
  • The upvar and global commands


TCL in the Unix environment

  • Executing programs
  • Working with files
  • Working with directories
  • Environment variables

TK Basics

  • Widgets
  • Widget attributes
  • Resources


Arranging Widgets with Pack

  • The 'cavity' model
  • Stacking
  • Anchoring
  • Padding and filling


Arranging widgets with Grid

  • Basic grid
  • Row and column spanning
  • Row and column constraints


Tk Events and Binding

  • The bind command
  • Focus
  • Commands
  • Key events
  • Mouse events


Basic TK Widgets

  • Labels
  • Buttons (push, radio, check)
  • Entry
  • Frames
  • Toplevel


Menus

  • Menubuttons
  • Menu bars
  • Pop-up menus


Scrollbars

  • Creating scrollbars
  • Controlling scrollbars


Listboxes

  • Creating listboxes
  • Listbox binding and control


Text widget

  • Text indices and marking
  • Inserting text
  • Tags


Canvas widget

  • Coordinates
  • Canvas elements (arc, line, bitmap, polygon, text, rectangle, etc.)
  • Tags


Combining TCL and C

  • TCL Objects in C
  • TCL Commands in C
  • Starting a TCL interpreter
  • Creating a stand-alone executable

Prerequisites

Students will need to have a working knowledge of UNIX operating system. Also, basic programming experience in C or UNIX shells is highly recommended.