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9th Annual Tcl/Tk Conference

Main Registration Schedule Tutorials Info Archive

September 16-20, 2002
Vanco uver , BC, Canada

Important Information
Abstracts and proposals due April 30, 2002
Notification to authors May 27, 2002
Author materials due August 20, 2002
Conference starts September 16, 2002
Email Contact tcl2002@tcl.tk

We are pleased to bring you the 9th Annual Tcl/Tk conference (Tcl'2002), sponsored by ActiveState .

On of the many great reasons to attend the Tcl conference is the tutorials presented by renowned leaders and experts in the Tcl community. They will be sharing with you their knowledge of Tcl/Tk and its extensions, and experience in developing large, versatile and robust applications - information and techniques which will assist you in your day-to-day Tcl programming needs.

Tutorial Information

Monday Morning, September 16th

Parsing XML With TclXML ( Steve Ball )
Pre-requisities: Knowledge of Tcl essential, knowledge of XML desirable
Audience: Tcl developers

This tutorial explains how to perform processing of XML documents in Tcl using the TclXML package. Starting with the basics of XML itself, the tutorial shows how to extract data from an XML document and advanced techniques.

Topics include:

  • XML Concepts
  • XML Logical Structure
  • Tcl and XML
  • XML Parsers
  • TclXML Architecture
  • TclXML Scripting
  • Application Examples
Advanced Encapsulation and Modularization Techniques ( Clif Flynt )
This session will describe how to modularize your scripts from simple procedures and the source command to using namespaces and packages as well as using upvar and uplevel to control access to data. The class will also cover techniques for separating GUI code from business-rule code including using the bind command and variable tracing, to bind actions to events. Examples include a Tower of Hanoi game and a Nuclear Reactor simulator.

A basic knowlege of Tcl scripting is required.

Monday Afternoon, September 16th

Scripting XML With TclDOM ( Steve Ball )
Pre-requisities: Knowledge of Tcl essential, knowledge of XML desirable. Attending tutorial 1 is desirable, but not essential.
Audience: Tcl developers

This tutorial explains how to create and manipulate XML documents in Tcl using the TclDOM package. An introduction to the W3C Document Object Model starts off the tutorial, then the TclDOM package is introduced. Both the Tcl and libxml2 wrapper implementations are covered. Finally various advanced techniques, particularly XPath support and the DOM Event model, are explained.

Topics include:

  • DOM Concepts
  • DOM Level 1
  • TclDOM Architecture
  • TclDOM Scripting
  • Tree Traversal
  • XPath
  • Tree Manipulation
  • DOM Level 2
  • DOM Events
  • Tk Megawidgets
  • Application examples
Weaving Multi-Threaded Applications ( Ken Jones )
Prerequisites: Good grasp of Tcl fundamentals. Experience with event-driven programming (GUI or fileevent-based) recommended. Knowledge of multi-threaded programming concepts is helpful, but not required.

Abstract: A multi-threaded application can perform multiple tasks in parallel. Although Tcl's built-in event loop is an elegant and simple solution for tasks such as managing graphical user interfaces or handling interprocess communication (where threads are required in many other languages), there are still situations where a multi-threaded design is easier to implement and maintain. This module identifies appropriate uses of threads in Tcl applications, and describes how to use the Thread extension to design multi-threaded Tcl scripts.

Tuesday Morning, September 17th

Transforming XML With TclXSLT ( Steve Ball )
Pre-requisities: Knowledge of Tcl and XML is essential. Knowledge of XSLT is desirable. Attending tutorials 1 and 2 is essential only if no or little previous knowledge of XML and XSLT.
Audience: Tcl developers, Web application developers.

This tutorial explains how to combine XSL Transformations (XSLT) with Tcl scripting. The seminar starts with an introduction to XSL Transformations, along with the Gnome libxslt library. It then shows how TclXSLT can be used to perform transformations and how the XSLT processor can be extended using Tcl scripts. Finally, the tutorial shows how application development can take full advantage of the power of XSLT and Tcl scripting.

Topics include:

  • XML Namespaces
  • XSL Concepts
  • XPath Concepts
  • XSLT Concepts
  • XSLT Introduction
  • XSLT Advanced
  • Gnome libxslt
  • TclXSLT
  • Extending XSLT
  • Application Examples
  • Software Engineering
Writing a Tcl Extension in C ( Clif Flynt )
This exciting half day course will describe how to build extension, either by linking Tcl to an existing library or writing and extension completely from scratch. Topics covered include the basic extension architecture, adding a new command to Tcl, moving data from Tcl script to C and back, passing status information back to a script, using the Tcl hash table, creating commands with subcommands, parsing options and making an extension a package that can be loaded automaticly with package require.

Some knowlege of C and Tcl is required.

Tuesday Afternoon, September 17th

Enough Expect to be Dangerous ( Ken Jones )
Prerequisites: Basic Tcl programming knowledge. No previous experience with Expect required.

Abstract: Expect's unparalleled support for interacting with command-line and network applications have made it the industry standard for automated test applications. But its features also make it an excellent tool for managing interprocess communication and extending legacy applications. As one developer said, "Expect can make easy all sorts of tasks that are prohibitively difficult with anything else." This tutorial concentrates on the four core Expect commands used in virtually all Expect programs, as well as showing tips and tricks for overcoming common Expect problems.

Tcl Databases ( Clif Flynt )
This session will introduce Oratcl, Sybtcl and TclODBC, discussing the similarities between the three database interfaces, as well as the differences. SQL and simple database theory will be introduced, followed by retrieving data with simple SQL commands and leading to performing joins, handling large numbers of records being returned. If there is demand, MySQL could be added to the list of Database engines covered.

A basic knowlege of Tcl scripting is required.

Contact Information

tcl2002@tcl.tk