From claird@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM Sat Oct 11 07:48:41 CDT 1997
Article: 73872 of comp.lang.tcl
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From: claird@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM (Cameron Laird)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl
Subject: Book Review: Tcl Extensions [LONG]
Date: 11 Oct 1997 07:47:27 -0500
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Buy this
Harrison, Mark, et al.
1997 Tcl/Tk Tools. O'Reilly & Associates,
Inc. Cambridge
book.
I don't write that lightly. I've been wearing out its
pages for two weeks now, with occasional bouts of fur-
rowed brows and impatient snorting. I've come, though,
to a conclusion in which I'm confident: if you're read-
ing comp.lang.tcl, you should invest in .
Why? Because you'll use it, and use it well. Almost
everyone involved in Tcl has questions (so how do I
really compile a Tcl script? How much does it take to
do drag-and-drop and tool tips? Are the RDBMS exten-
sions current with vendor features? ...) answered here.
Simplify your life by putting these 650+ pages on your
shelf.
What is *Tcl/Tk Tools*? It's a collection of descrip-
tions of different popular extensions to Tcl and Tk.
While lead author Harrison gives the impression they're
written by "the extension authors themselves", there
are a few exceptions to this pattern. The book is not
written as a tutorial or introduction to Tcl, sagely
pointing to John Ousterhout and Brent Welch's books for
that role (although I've been thinking of experimenting
with putting *Tcl/Tk Tools* in the hands of novices, to
see what would happen. I suspect they'd survive in good
shape).
*Tcl/Tk Tools* isn't exhaustive. It doesn't include
several of my favorite extensions, including Scotty ,
NeoWebScript ,
stooop ,
tclMsql ,
the PlusPatches, ... It doesn't matter. If you care about only
*one* of the extensions described here, you'll do well to have
your own copy.
Harrison and his co-authors do a good job of hitting the
target of telling "Here's the philosophy behind this package,
and here are some examples of how to use it effectively" that
he lays out in the Preface. While it's easy to move from one
chapter to another, it's not at the expense of the authors
and their personalities. D. Richard Hipp's thoughtful preci-
sion and De Clarke's care in engineering effective solutions
come through, as do the assurance and lucidity we expect of
Don Libes. Less successful is the forward look that Harrison
intended, toward "the plans the extension authors had for
future enhancements and extensions." I assume this was in
part a casualty of the realities of the publishing cycle; cer-
tainly many of the chapters appear to have been finished
before the appearance a year ago of 7.6's betas.
Two unglamorous aspects of the book multiply its value: the
index is sound (that's saying a lot for me; I have high standards
in indexing), and Harrison's Chapter 17 on what he calls "Con-
figuration Management" lays out much valuable wisdom that
newcomers need to learn. Reading the latter is painful: it
has all the important, hard subjects ("Combining Extensions
...", command-line munging, ...) one wants--but without men-
tion of Win* or loadable libraries! These frailties are
inevitable when broadcasting on dead trees, of course. What's
disappointing is that *Tcl/Tk Tools* doesn't go farther in
joining the Internet Age: although a two-page Appendix lauds
c.l.t and lists the FAQs and nine URLs (some of which have al-
ready moved, of course), and individual authors take it on
themselves to provide appropriate references,
* it's not apparent that there is any page where Harrison
and/or O'Reilly maintain errata, updates, new examples,
funny animal GIFs, or any of the other resources readers
might be expected to exploit--I couldn't find one at the
URL the Preface gave, nor elsewhere at www.ora.com;
* some authors supply no e-mail addresses;
* some authors give references ("look in the archives")
that will be inscrutable for those not already in the
know; and
* there is wide variation in the quality of information
authors give about extension prospects, bug lists (a
particular sore point with me), mailing lists, and so
on.
Understand, please, that I'm not labeling these moral faults;
as on every project, the good engineering comes in deciding
where to make the cuts, and what definite values to deliver. I
personally look forward to seeing books that build a more dynamic
relationship with online sources, and am simply noting that *Tcl/
Tk Tools* doesn't achieve that standard.
The quality of production is high, higher even than the ele-
vated expectations I have of O'Reilly. Typos, mistakes in word
choice, and code errors seem to sum to around zero to five per
chapter. Screen shots are judicious and illuminating, rather
than gratuitously space-filling. The CD-ROM (with binaries
for indeterminate but predictable releases of Solaris and Linux)
does the little I asked of it.
Summary: whether you're a full-time Tcl-er or a greenhorn, you'll
profit from having *Tcl/Tk Tools* at hand. Whenever you're in a
pinch, there's a fair chance the Index and/or Table of Contents
will quickly lead you to a useful datum. During more contempla-
tive moments, you'll want to read the chapters in a connected
fashion, and the accuracy and insight of the authors will make you
glad that you do.
These comments, and related notes, will soon be available through .
--
Cameron Laird http://starbase.neosoft.com/~claird/home.html
claird@NeoSoft.com +1 713 996 8546 FAX