DN631956987

Subject: ANNOUNCE: Tcl/Tk 8.4a1 release - DN [1]

Eric Melski <ericm@pop.ajubasolutions.com> - 06 Jun 2000 - comp.lang.tcl

 Tcl/Tk 8.4a1 Release Announcement
 June 6, 2000

 We are pleased to announce the 8.4a1 releases of the Tcl scripting
 language and the Tk toolkit.  This is the first alpha release of
 Tcl/Tk 8.4. More details can be found below.  We'd like to thank all
 those that submit bugs and patches as they are the primary source of
 information for us to identify problems in the core.

 This is an alpha release, which means that the release is likely to
 have bugs and is not yet feature-complete: we may add new features
 or change some of the existing features before the final 8.4 releases.
 Please let us know immediately about any problems you uncover with
 these releases.

 Where to get the new releases:
 ------------------------------

 Tcl/Tk 8.4a1 are freely available in open source from the
 Tcl Developer Xchange web site at

         http://dev.scriptics.com/software/tcltk/8.4.html

 This web page also contains additional information about the
 releases, including new features and notes about installing and
 compiling the releases.

 For additional information:
 ---------------------------

 Please visit the Tcl Developer Xchange web site:

         http://dev.scriptics.com/

 This site contains a variety of information about Tcl/Tk in general,
 the core Tcl and Tk distributions, the TclPro tool suite, and much more.

 Thank you for your contributions:
 ---------------------------------
 As usual, this release includes contributions from the Tcl community.
 We have a page honoring these contributions at:

         http://dev.scriptics.com/software/tcltk/contributors.html

 Summary of Changes since Tcl/Tk 8.4a1:
 --------------------------------------

 The following were the main changes done in Tcl/Tk 8.4a1. A complete
 list can be found in the changes file at the root of the source tree.
 The more complete ChangeLog is also now included with each release.
 This is an alpha release, so it primarily included new features and
 performance enhancements.  Below are only the most notable changes.

 1.  Added support for joinable threads.

 2.  Numerous performance enhancements:  new, faster [string match] and
     [string map] algorithms; additional byte-compiled commands
     [return], [string]

 3.  New commands:  [array statistics], [namespace exists].

 4.  Extended [lsearch] to support faster searching on sorted lists and
     typed lists.

 5.  Better support for mingw compile environment.

 6.  Added -nocomplain support to [unset] to allow for silent unset
     operation.

 7.  Changed error return for procedures with incorrect args to be like
     the Tcl_WrongNumArgs API, with a "wrong # args: ..." message printed,
     with an args list.

 8.  New spinbox widget.

 9.  Support for -overrelief and -compound for labels, checkbuttons,
     radiobuttons, and command buttons.

 10.  Support for -repeatdelay, -repeatinterval for command buttons.

 11.  Added "readonly" state for entry widgets.

 12.  Replaced bgerror dialog with an enhanced version that can be
      easily customized to save stack traces to disk, email them, etc.

 13.  Added -nice option to [bell] command.

 14.  Added support for scripted documents by adding an explicit check
      for the EOF char \32 (^Z) in Tcl_EvalFile/[source].

 15.  Added "eq" and "ne" operators to [expr], to perform explicit string
      equality/inequality tests.

 16.  Updated, corrected, extended documentation.

 17.  New [clipboard get] command, synonymous to
      [selection get -selection CLIPBOARD].

 18.  Extended [array names] with -regexp, -exact, and -glob options,
      to control the type of pattern matching used.

 19.  Added ability to set the info script return value [info script
      ?newFileName?].

 --
    The Tcl Core Team                Ajuba Solutions
    Jeffrey Hobbs                Eric Melski
    jeffrey.hobbs at ajubasolutions.com        ericm at ajubasolutions.com