tkcon(1) General Commands Manual tkcon(1) 







tkcon - Tk console replacement








tkcon [{option value | tcl_script}
    ...]












TkCon is a replacement for the standard console that comes with Tk
    (on Windows/Mac, but also works on Unix). The console itself provides many
    more features than the standard console. TkCon works on all platforms where
    Tcl/Tk is available. It is meant primarily to aid one when working with the
    little details inside Tcl and Tk, giving Unix users the GUI console provided
    by default in the Mac and Windows Tk.



  

  










Except for -rcfile, command line arguments are handled
    after the TkCon resource file is sourced, but before the slave interpreter
    or the TkCon user interface is initialized.


-rcfile is handled right before it would be sourced,
    allowing you to specify any alternate file. Command line arguments are
    passed to each new console and will be evaluated by each. To prevent this
    from happening, you have to say


tkcon main set argv {}; tkcon main set argc 0



For these options, any unique substring is allowed.



  

  
Causes TkCon to stop evaluating arguments and set the remaining args to be
      argv/argc (with -- prepended). This carries over for any further
      consoles. This is meant only for wrapping TkCon around programs that
      require their own arguments.

  

  
Sets the requested color type to the specified color for tkcon. See
      tkconrc(5) for the recognized <color> names.

  

  
A Tcl script to eval in each main interpreter. This is evaluated after the
      resource file is loaded and the slave interpreter is created. Multiple
      -eval switches will be recognized (in order).

  

  
Sets the named slave that tkcon operates in. In general, this is only
      useful to set to "" (empty), indicating to tkcon to avoid
      the multi-interpreter model and operate in the main environment. When this
      is empty, any further arguments will be only used in the first tkcon
      console and not passed onto further new consoles. This is useful when
      using tkcon as a console for extended wish executables that don't load
      there commands into slave interpreters.

  

  
Sets the font that tkcon uses for its text windows. If this isn't a fixed
      width font, tkcon will override it.

  

  
Sets ::tkcon::OPT(nontcl) to TCL_BOOLEAN (see
      tkconrc(5)). Needed when attaching to non-Tcl interpreters.

  

  
Packages to automatically load into the slave interpreters (i.e.
      "Tk").

  

  
Specify an alternate tkcon resource file name.

  

  
Makes the named widget the root name of all consoles (i.e. .tkcon).

  

  
A Tcl script to eval in each slave interpreter. This will append the one
      specified in the tkcon resource file, if any.










Most of the bindings are the same as for the text widget.
    Some have been modified to make sure that the integrity of the console is
    maintained. Others have been added to enhance the usefulness of the console.
    Only the modified or new bindings are listed here.



  

  
Cut.

  

  
Copy.

  

  
Paste.

  

  
Insert (duh).

  

  
Goes up one level in the commands line history when cursor is on the
      prompt line, otherwise it moves through the buffer.

  

  
Goes down one level in the commands line history when cursor is on the
      last line of the buffer, otherwise it moves through the buffer.

  

  
Goes up one level in the commands line history.

  

  
Goes down one level in the commands line history.

  

  
Tries to expand file path names, then variable names, then proc
    names.

  

  
Tries to expand file path names.

  

  
Tries to expand procedure names. The procedure names will be those that
      are actually in the attached interpreter (unless nontcl is specified, in
      which case it always does the lookup in the default slave
    interpreter).

  

  
Tries to expand variable names (those returned by [info vars]). It's
      search behavior is like that for procedure names.

  

  
Evaluates the current command line if it is a complete command, otherwise
      it just goes to a new line.

  

  
Go to the beginning of the current command line.

  

  
Clear the entire console buffer.

  

  
Searches backwards in the history for any command that contains the string
      in the current command line. Repeatable to search farther back. The
      matching substring off the found command will blink.

  

  
As above, but searches forward (only useful if you searched too far
    back).

  

  
Transposes characters.

  

  
Clears the current command line.

  

  
Saves current command line in a buffer that can be retrieved with another
      Control-z. If the current command line is empty, then any saved
      command is retrieved without being overwritten, otherwise the current
      contents get swapped with what's in the saved command buffer.

  

  
Attaches console to the console's slave interpreter.

  

  
Attaches console to the console's master interpreter.

  

  
Attaches console to main TkCon interpreter.

  

  
Pops up the "About" dialog.

  

  
Creates a new console. Each console has separate state, including it's own
      widget hierarchy (it's a slave interpreter).

  

  
Close the current console OR Quit the program (depends on the value of
      ::tkcon::TKCON(slaveexit)).

  

  
Closes the current console. Closing the main console will exit the program
      (something has to control all the slaves...).




TkCon also has electric bracing (similar to that in emacs). It
    will highlight matching pairs of {}'s, []'s, ()'s and ""'s. For
    the first three, if there is no matching left element for the right, then it
    blinks the entire current command line. For the double quote, if there is no
    proper match then it just blinks the current double quote character. It does
    properly recognize most escaping (except escaped escapes), but does not look
    for commenting (why would you interactively put comments in?).








There are several new procedures introduced in TkCon to improve
    productivity and/or account for lost functionality in the Tcl environment
    that users are used to in native environments. There are also some redefined
    procedures. Here is a non-comprehensive list:



  

  
Simple alias mechanism. It will overwrite existing commands. When called
      without args, it returns current aliases. Note that TkCon makes some
      aliases for you (in slaves). Don't delete those.

  

  
Clears the text widget. Same as the <Control-l> binding,
      except this will accept a percentage of the buffer to clear (1-100, 100
      default).

  

  
Cheap way to get directory listings. Uses glob style pattern
    matching.

  

  
The dump command provides a way for the user to spit out state information
      about the interpreter in a Tcl readable (and human readable) form. See
      dump(n) for details.

  

  
Concatenates the args and spits the result to the console (stdout).

  

  
Opens an editor with the data from arg. The optional type argument can be
      one of: proc, var or file. For proc or var, the arg
      may be a pattern.

  

  
Interactive debugging command. See idebug(n) for details.

  

  
Removes one or more items from a list and returns the new list. If
      -all is specified, it removes all instances of each item in the
      list. If -regexp or -glob is specified, it interprets each
      item in the items list as a regexp or glob pattern to match against.

  

  
Aliased to edit.

  

  
Aliased to dir -full.

  

  
Aliased to edit.

  

  
This command provides passive runtime debugging output for variables and
      commands. See observe(n) for details.

  

  
Redefined to put the output into TkCon.

  

  
Multi-purpose command. See tkcon(n) for details.

  

  
Convenience proc to update the "tclIndex" (controlled by
      -index switch) and/or "pkgIndex.tcl" (controlled
      by -package switch) file in the named directories based on the
      given pattern for files. It defaults to creating the
      "tclIndex" but not the "pkgIndex.tcl"
      file, with the directory defaulting to [pwd]. The extension defaults to
      *.tcl, with *.[info sharelibextension] added when -package is
    true.

  

  
unaliases command.

  

  
The what command will identify the word given in string in the Tcl
      environment and return a list of types that it was recognized as. Possible
      types are: alias, procedure, command, array variable, scalar variable,
      directory, file, widget, and executable. Used by procedures dump and
      which.

  

  
Like the which command of Unix shells, this will tell you if a
      particular command is known, and if so, whether it is internal or external
      to the interpreter. If it is an internal command and there is a slot in
      auto_index for it, it tells you the file that auto_index
      would load. This does not necessarily mean that that is where the file
      came from, but if it were not in the interpreter previously, then that is
      where the command was found.




There are several procedures that I use as helpers that some may
    find helpful in there coding (i.e. expanding pathnames). Feel free to lift
    them from the code (but do assign proper attribution).








Some examples of tkcon command line startup situations:


megawish /usr/bin/tkcon -exec "" -root .tkcon mainfile.tcl



Use tkcon as a console for your megawish application. You
    can avoid starting the line with megawish if that is the default wish
    that TkCon would use. The -root ensures that tkcon will not conflict
    with the application root window.


tkcon -font "Courier 12" -load Tk



Use the courier font for TkCon and always load Tk in slave
    interpreters at startup.


tkcon -rcfile ~/.wishrc -color-bg white



Use the ~/.wishrc file as the resource file, and a white
    background for TkCon's text widgets.








TkCon will search for a resource file in
    "~/.tkconrc". TkCon never sources the
    "~/.wishrc" file. The resource file is sourced by each new
    instance of the console. An example resource file is provided in
    tkconrc(5).








dump(n), idebug(n), observe(n),
    text(n), tkcon(n), tkconrc(5)








Tk, console








Copyright (c) Jeffrey Hobbs (jeff at hobbs.org)








  

    2.5
    TkCon