Version 1.3 of Tloona Tcl/Tk IDE is out. Here are the highlights for this release:

• various bugfixes
• client console is able to read stdin now
• code browser understands XOTcl meta classes and slots (via the -slot argument)
• code definitions can be sent to the client console: proc, method (Itcl), instproc, class proc, Class, meta Class (XOTcl) with <Control-Return>

The latter makes it a pleasure to test your programs and procedures while you are developing them. Just load the program into the client console, then edit the procedures, classes etc. and repeatedly send them to the console with <Control-Return>. You can immediately try out what you have edited… this makes you even more productive!

There is a new screenshot, showing how Tloona is running Tclhttpd inside it’s client console. Combined with the ability to send code definitions to the console and the debugging options this is a very pleasant way to develop and test web applications rapidly.

There has been a bug reported related to startup of Tloona on certain (windows) platforms that do not support particular ttk themes. Especially Windows 2000 or earlier versions make trouble.

It has been fixed in the SVN repository and thus will be in the next release. In the meantime, you can fix it in your copy of Tloona very easily:

• open the file main.tcl in your favourite editor
• locate line 247 in proc main: ttk::style theme use $UserOptions(Theme)
• put a catch around it: catch {ttk::style theme use $UserOptions(Theme)}

That’s it. Nothing else will be affected. Alternatively you can locate line 6 in the file useroptions.tcl: set ::UserOptions(Theme) “xpnative” and edit “xpnative” to a theme that is available on your platform. To find out about themes that are available, open a Wish and type ttk::themes. The result is a list of available theme names, which you can use.

When you want to change the theme later, you can open .tloonarc, which is located in your home directory (the value of ::env(HOME) in your Tclsh) and search for the line set ::UserOptions(Theme) {…}. Edit it to reflect the new desired theme. You can also edit other runtime preferences in this file.

Teacup is an utility developed and deployed by ActiveState, together with ActiveTcl. It lets you install packages from remote repositories in an easy way and is about to become the default way for package distribution and maintenance (unfortunately one needs the TclDevKit to run his own repositories… TclDevKit is a very valuable extension for Tcl developers, but costs money).

Although ActiveState deploy teacup, it is not tied to ActiveTcl. With a few steps you can use it also with another tclsh, that you have e.g. built by yourself from the sources. Here are the steps:

1. Install ActiveTcl (unless there is another way to get teacup)
2. Create a local installation repository: teacup create /path/to/repository. This directory can exist, but does not have to. It is filled with meta information. Bear in mind that it - at best - is a directory that is on the ::auto_path of your tclsh (e.g. ~/Library/Tcl on Mac OS X).
3. Setup your tclsh for teacup: (sudo) teacup setup /path/to/tclsh. This writes meta information into the standard tcl installation and tells your tclsh that it should also use teacup installation repositories on it’s ::auto_path.
4. Link your teacup repository to your tclsh: (sudo) teacup link make /path/to/repository /path/to/tclsh. This writes some information for teacup, so that only compatible package versions are installed etc.
5. That’s it. Run teacup to install your packages…

More information can be found in the teacup documentation.