Tcl nob, newbie beginners tutorials list.

Just found these good looking tutorials for beginners and thought it will help someone...

• http://antirez.com/articoli/tclmisunderstood.html
• http://openocd.berlios.de/doc/html/Tcl-Crash-Course.html
• http://www.tkdocs.com/tutorial/

I'll update when I find more...

Tcl, Read dynamic variables

I've just solved another Tcl mystery I had from day one in Tcl (around 2 months :)
It was not critical until today!

Example

set qwe.qaz.1 Hello
set qwe.qaz.2 From
set qwe.qaz.3 ShloEmi

set wanted_qaz 3
upvar 0 "qwe.qaz.${wanted_qaz}" wanted_qaz_val
set this_will_be_ShloEmi $wanted_qaz_val

Hope this helps...

GUIDE: tclunit/TDD for Tcl, usage and examples.

As promised (tdd-tools-for-tcl.html) here is my humble experience/research with tclunit.

Guides / tutorials found

• Getting Started with tcltest
• tcltest Part 2 – Multi-Module Test Suite

Research results

• Your first tcltests
• CREATING TEST SUITES WITH TCLTEST

Usage example

• http://wiki.tcl.tk/14465 explains it very good.
• See '> So, if the tests and the ...' section and below.

Have fun...

GUIDE/TWEAK: Improve Eclipse load time

In my old station Eclipse load around 35~37 seconds. This is slow!
After a short research I've found that there is a way to speed things up...
After executing this steps I've improved the load time to ~11 seconds.

Uninstall unnecessary plugins

1. Eclipse menu -> Help -> Install New Software
2. On the lower right you'll find 'what is already installed?' Click it.
3. On the 'Installed Software' tab select the wanted plug-ins and select 'Uninstall...'.
4. Follow the instructions...

Configuring the Eclipse.ini file to improve performance.
NOTE - Execute the following steps on your own risk!! I'm not responsible (It works for me).

1. Close Eclipse
2. Goto your Eclipse root folder.
3. MAKE COPY / DUPLICATE THE ORIGINAL 'eclipse.ini' FILE before moving to the next step!!!
4. Edit the file 'eclipse.ini' to contain the folwing text:

-data
C:/Devenv/Devenv eclipse workspace
-showlocation
-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
-vm
C:/Program Files/Java/jre6/bin/client/jvm.dll
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.6
-Declipse.p2.unsignedPolicy=allow
-Xms128m
-Xmx384m
-Xss4m
-XX:PermSize=128m
-XX:MaxPermSize=384m
-XX:CompileThreshold=5
-XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=10
-XX:MaxHeapFreeRatio=70
-XX:+CMSIncrementalPacing
-XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions
-XX:+UseG1GC
-XX:+UseFastAccessorMethods
-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote

• If any thing goes wrong - use the duplicated file you made at step 4!!

Have fun...

Solution sources

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/142357/what-are-the-best-jvm-settings-for-eclipse#144349

TDD unit testing tools for Tcl

After committing my first 'big' feature to my current employee, I got a feeling that something was left behind in the heat of the rush. That think was, of course, the new code test coverage.

That lead me to try and find tools / guidance for Tcl TDD.

Here are the things I've found for Tcl:

1. A very good TDD tutorials found
1. http://www.agiledata.org/essays/tdd.html
2. http://geosoft.no/development/unittesting.html
2. TDD tools for Tcl
1. Wiki comparison of available tools for Tcl -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unit_testing_frameworks#Tcl
2. tclunit - http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.4/TclCmd/tcltest.htm
1. Download here - http://sourceforge.net/projects/tclunit/

Thats all, not much. I intend to check tclunit, experience with it and report back later on... see Y'a.

UPDATE
As promised - http://shloemi.blogspot.com/2011/04/guide-tdd-unit-testing-tools-for-tcl.html

Guide: Drawing graph for free using GraphViz opensource lib.

• Install GraphViz... 

• file.dot

digraph G {
Yehiel -> Shlomi;
Aviva -> Shlomi;

David -> Rotem;
Ilana -> Rotem;

Shlomi -> Yeara;
Rotem -> Yeara;
}

• Command line example

drive:> "c:\Program Files\Graphviz path\bin\dot.exe" -Tbmp file.dot -o out.bmp

• Output (out.bmp)

(see above ...)

GUIDE: How to Configure Eclipse for Python

Works like a charm...

How to Configure Eclipse for Python

Tcl documentation

After 2-3 days of research, analyzing the available options and trying to work with some doc tools - here is my conclusion for Tcl documentation:

ROBODoc
Homepage - http://www.xs4all.nl/~rfsber/Robo/
Wiki          - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROBODoc


Impressions

• VERY easy
• Clean documentation
• Various output types (PDF, HTML, CHM, ...)
• Supports many languages (If you manually configure it I believe it can support any language). 

I've also tried Doxygen
Prons

• After spending 1/2 a day i gave up configuring it with Tcl.
• The documentation in the code should have special chars 
• Ugly inline documentation
• When pressing F2 (function quick help) this ugly characters make the documentation more ugly.
• At this stage I gave up.

Major resource pages 

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_documentation_generators
• http://engtech.wordpress.com/2006/07/05/inline-source-code-documentation-language-independent/
• http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/links.html
• http://www.etsf.eu/system/files/users/SottileF/XG_Robodic_v2.pdf

Guide: Tcl documentation / manuals for Eclipse

This is very helpful and reduces the time it takes to open IE + open the Tcl help web page + typing the wanted Tcl command +++...

Here are the steps

1. download the appropriate Tcl manuals from here
• For example: Tcl/8.5.7 documents
2. unzip the html files to an appropriate location.
• for our example: 'C:\Tcl\doc\html'
3. open eclipse, Menu->window->preferances->Click
4. Tcl->Man Pages->Configure->Add->Click
5. Alternatively, in the filter type: 'man' t\and select Tcl/Man pages.
6. Name: Tcl/Mans
7. Add->Click
8. Folder: 'C:\Tcl\doc\html'
9. Ok, Ok, Ok

Test it
press F2 on the 'proc', 'set' or 'lappend' keywords to start using the help...

Enjoy...

Sources
1. Tcl manuals
2. The guide I used to connect eclipse and the Tcl manuals

BeyondCVS, an Eclipse plug-in that enables using Beyond Compare.

Great tool for Eclipse (both) - plugin link

Instructions here...