Re: is tcl a reasonable alternative to unix shell scripts?

Bruce Hartweg wrote:
Charles Russell wrote:
Jeff Godfrey wrote:
I note that python and ruby have equivalents to the unix "find" command, but I cannot find on skimming the tcl documentation that it has a good set of tools for manipulating the file system.

Hi Charles,

Tcl has a library of "common" functions and utilities known as "tcllib". While it's not part of the "core" of tcl, it's readily available and easy to load and use. Among (many) other things, that library contains a module named "fileutil", which in turn contains "fileutil::find" - which is a Tcl variation of the Unix "find" command.

That said, the Tcl core does contain *many* file (and filesystem) related commands, most of which are collected under the "file" ensemble command. So, check out "file" and its many sub-commands in the standard Tcl man-pages for most of the built-in file support, and take a look at the "fileutil" module of tcllib for other (mostly) higher-level file utilities.


I'm using cygwin with bash console interface (X-windows not installed), mostly for fortran console applications. The cygwin distribution of tcl/tk (tk seems to work even without X-windows!) does not include tcllib, so I got the sourceforge distribution and followed the installation instructions. However, the tutorials I have found do not explain how to load and invoke packages. What is the command syntax to test my tcllib installation by invoking, for example, fileutil::cat under tclsh?

see the man page for package, but it is simply

package require fileutil
fileutil::cat $file

Thanks. I evidently have a corrupted installation or configuration:

$ tclsh
% package require fileutil
can't find package fileutil


I need tcllib to run under cygwin, which is not one of the platforms supported by activestate. tcl/tk is running fine, so the fix is probably simple, but I am an absolute beginner, so I'll try to get help from the cygwin mailing list.

Also, if you look at the docs for fileuitl (or any of the tcllib stuff)
is should show the packlage rquire needed for the commands in the synopsis.

An online locatin of the docs is hosted by activestate here:

http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/docs/ActiveTcl/8.4/tcllib/fileutil/fileutil.html

Manpages are not the easiest place for a beginner to start. The terminology is unfamiliar and there are few if any examples. Can you suggest a reference, preferably online, with simple examples of invoking code from an external library?
.

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