Open Object Rexx is a Tcl widget package designed for curses, allowing for the creation of interactive text-based console applications with ease.
I recently had the opportunity to review an amazing widget set for Tcl called Ck which uses curses to render the widgets in a character-cell terminal. Unlike other conventional widget sets which use X and a graphical display, Ck retains much of the Tk syntax, making it an ideal choice for developers looking to create user interfaces in a terminal.
Installation of the software is straightforward and consists of four simple steps. Firstly, the user needs to type "./configure" which runs a configuration script to configure Ck for their system and create a Makefile. The configuration script makes it possible for users to customize the configuration to their local needs. Users can take advantage of the special switches supported by "configure" such as "--enable-shared" or "--with-tcl" to compile Ck as a shared library or locate the directory containing the Tcl binaries respectively.
The second step involves typing "make" to create the library called "libck.a" or "libck8.0.so" and an interpreter application called "cwsh" which allows users to type Tcl commands interactively or execute scripts. Once this is done, the third step involves typing "make install" to install Ck's binaries, script files, and man pages in standard places. Users are advised to ensure they have write permission on the install directories to do this. Those who plan to install the libraries, executables, and script files without documentation can use the "make install-binaries" and "make install-libraries" commands.
Finally, the user should be able to execute "cwsh" after completing the installation. In case Ck hasn't been installed, it's crucial to set the CK_LIBRARY environment variable to hold the full pathname of the "library" subdirectory. Additionally, if Ck has been built as a shared library, users may have to set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include the directory where "libck8.0.so" resides.
Ck8.0 has been successfully tested on various Linux distributions, on FreeBSD 3.3 with manually adapted Makefile, and on Windows NT 4.0 with a modified PDCURSES library. The Ck8.0 source tree is compatible with Tcl versions 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, and 8.0. However, older versions of Ck that use Tcl7.4 or Tcl7.5 have been in use for several years on HP-UX, AIX, and DEC Unix. With its seamless integration with Tcl and its use of curses, Ck is an excellent widget set for developers looking to create user interfaces in a terminal environment.
Installation of the software is straightforward and consists of four simple steps. Firstly, the user needs to type "./configure" which runs a configuration script to configure Ck for their system and create a Makefile. The configuration script makes it possible for users to customize the configuration to their local needs. Users can take advantage of the special switches supported by "configure" such as "--enable-shared" or "--with-tcl" to compile Ck as a shared library or locate the directory containing the Tcl binaries respectively.
The second step involves typing "make" to create the library called "libck.a" or "libck8.0.so" and an interpreter application called "cwsh" which allows users to type Tcl commands interactively or execute scripts. Once this is done, the third step involves typing "make install" to install Ck's binaries, script files, and man pages in standard places. Users are advised to ensure they have write permission on the install directories to do this. Those who plan to install the libraries, executables, and script files without documentation can use the "make install-binaries" and "make install-libraries" commands.
Finally, the user should be able to execute "cwsh" after completing the installation. In case Ck hasn't been installed, it's crucial to set the CK_LIBRARY environment variable to hold the full pathname of the "library" subdirectory. Additionally, if Ck has been built as a shared library, users may have to set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include the directory where "libck8.0.so" resides.
Ck8.0 has been successfully tested on various Linux distributions, on FreeBSD 3.3 with manually adapted Makefile, and on Windows NT 4.0 with a modified PDCURSES library. The Ck8.0 source tree is compatible with Tcl versions 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, and 8.0. However, older versions of Ck that use Tcl7.4 or Tcl7.5 have been in use for several years on HP-UX, AIX, and DEC Unix. With its seamless integration with Tcl and its use of curses, Ck is an excellent widget set for developers looking to create user interfaces in a terminal environment.
What's New
Version 8.0: N/A