Commands evaluation

Each Tcl command call is a sentence of the form : command arg1 arg2 arg3 ...
The Tcl evaluator take each word of this sentence and evaluate it. After evaluation of each
word, the first word (command) is considered to be a function name and this function is
executed with as arguments the following words.
To evaluate a word, the interpretor has to do the following substitutions in the word string :

If the word is surrounded by " ", this word may contain spaces, but substitution is still
applicable inside the quotations. Inside the quotation, there may be spaces and
carriage returns.
If a word is surrounded by { }, this word is unaffected (substitution is thus not
applicable on this word). Inside the braces, there may be spaces and carriage returns.
Moreover, the { } braces may be nested.

If a part of the word is surrounded by [ ], this part is considered as a command

sentence : the text within the brackets is evaluated as a Tcl command and replaced
with the result.

where substitution is applicable, every string beginning with $ is replaced with the
variable represented by this string. This string is ended by a space, a '-' or a ','.

Examples
1. set a "World !"
In the evaluation of the 3 words 'set', 'a' and '"World !"', no substitution has to be done,
only the " " are removed. The command 'set' is then executed with as parameters 'a'
and 'World !'. This command tell Tcl to define a new variable 'a' (if not already
defined) and to set its value to 'World !'.
2. set b "Hello $a"
Set the variable 'b' to 'Hello World !'. Here, the variable substitution has occurred
inside the second parameter where the variable 'a' is replaced by its value.
3. set c [string range $b 0 3]
Set the variable c to 'Hell', which is the 4 first letters of 'Hello World !'. In this case,
The part between [ ] has been executed as a command
If you want to break a command sentence in lines you can only do it inside the { } brace or in
the " " quotation or you can break the line with a '\' at the end of any break line.
Example
if {$c == "Hell"} {
puts "Oh god !"
} else {
puts "Peace !"
}

This test the value of the variable c. If it is the string 'Hell' it prints 'Oh god !' on screen,
otherwise, it prints 'Peace !'. In this sentence, Tcl see 5 words :

'if' is the first : nothing to be evaluated.

'$c == "Hell"' is the second : because of the surrounding curly braces, there is no
further evaluation on this word.

'puts "Oh god !"' : for the same reason, no further evaluation

'else' : nothing to do.

'puts "Peace !"' : no further evaluation.

The first word, 'if' is seen as the command and this command is executed with as parameters
the 4 following words. That is later that the condition '$c == "Hell"' is evaluated, during the
execution of the if command.
Notice where we placed the line breaks (inside the { }).

Strings and Lists

Under Tcl, the value of each variable is stored as a string. Even if you want to save a number
in a variable, this number is transformed into a string.
As a special type of string, the list deserve a special attention in data representation in Tcl.
The list is nothing more than a string with, as elements separator, the space. A list may
contains sublists.
Example
% set list {12 {78 5} 45 "Im a not a number"}
12 {78 5} 45 "Im a not a number"
% set sublist1 [lindex $list 1]
78 5
% set sublist2 [lindex $list 3]
Im a not a number
% lindex $sublist2 2
not

Mathematics expression
Whereas all variables are of type string, the mathematical operations internally uses float and
integer number representation to produce their results. The command that calculate
mathematical expression is 'expr'.
Example
% set result [expr (4+6)/4]
2
% set result [expr (4.0+6)/4]

2.5

In the first calculation, the interpretor has used the integer number representation. In the
second, it has used the float number representation.

How to display something ?

To display a string, you can use the command 'puts'
Example
% set variable 255
% puts "The number $variable"
The number 255
% puts [format "The number %d is equal to 0x%02X" \
$variable $variable]
The number 255 is equal to 0xFF

As it can be seen in the previous example, the command format is very similar to the C
command 'printf'.

Control flow
The following commands are similar to the C equivalent. Only 'foreach' has no C equivalent
(have a look at the example to see what it do).

if {...condition...} {...body...}
while {...condition...} {body}

for {... init ...} {...condition...} {...increment...} {...body...}

foreach varnames {...list...} {...body...}

the '...condition...' is evaluated in the same way that it should be with command 'expr'.
Examples
1. while
2.
3. % while {$i<4} {
4. > puts "$i*$i is [expr $i*$i]"
5. > incr i
6. > }
7. 0*0 is 0
8. 1*1 is 1
9. 2*2 is 4
10. 3*3 is 9

11. for
12.
13. % for {set i 0} {$i<4} {incr i} {
14. > puts "$i*$i is [expr $i*$i]"

15.
16.
17.
18.
19.

> }
0*0
1*1
2*2
3*3

is
is
is
is

0
1
4
9

20. foreach
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.

% set observations \
{Bruxelles 15 22 London 12 19 Paris 18 27}
Bruxelles 15 22 London 12 19 Paris 18 27
% foreach {town Tmin Tmax} $observations {
> set Tavg [expr ($Tmin+$Tmax)/2.0]
> puts "$town $Tavg"
> }
Bruxelles 18.5
London 15.5
Paris 22.5

Array
Arrays are always unidimensional but the index is a string. If you use a separator in the index
string (such as ',', '-'), you can get the same effect than with a multidimensional array in other
languages.
Example
% set observations \
{Bruxelles 15 22 London 12 19 Paris 18 27}
Bruxelles 15 22 London 12 19 Paris 18 27
% foreach {town Tmin Tmax} $observations {
set obs($town-min) $Tmin
set obs($town-max) $Tmax
}
% parray obs
obs(Bruxelles-max) = 22
obs(Bruxelles-min) = 15
obs(London-max)
= 19
obs(London-min)
= 12
obs(Paris-max)
= 27
obs(Paris-min)
= 18

Procedures
Procedures are the equivalent of the C functions.
Example
% proc sum2 {a b} {
> return [expr $a+$b]
> }

if a procedure does not contain any 'return' statement, the default return value is the return
value of the last evaluated function in this procedure. So the following script is perfectly
equivalent :
% proc sum2 {a b} {
>
expr $a + $b
> }

To call the 'sum2' function, we do the following :

% sum2 12 5
17

The special argument name 'args' contains a list with the rest of the arguments
Example
% proc sum {args} {
>
set result 0
>
foreach n $args {
>
set result [expr $result+$n]
>
}
>
return $result
> }
% sum 12 9 6 4
31

it is also possible to specify default parameters. So, if you don't specify the last parameters,
the default values will be substituted.
Example
%
>
>
>
>
%
1
2
3
%
1
3
5

proc count {start end {step 1}} {

for {set i $start} {$i<=$end} {incr i $step} {
puts $i
}
}
count 1 3

count 1 5 2

If you want to use global variables in a function, you have to declare it as global.
Example
% set global_counter 3
% proc incr_counter {} {

>
global global_counter
>
incr global_counter
> }
% incr_counter
4
% set global_counter
4

You can also declare a table as global.

Example
%
%
%
>
>
>
>
>
%
4
%
0
%
4

set counter(value) 3
set counter(active) 1
proc incr_counter {} {
global counter
if {$counter(active)} {
incr counter(value)
}
}
incr_counter
set counter(active) 0
incr_counter

Eval
The 'eval' command

concatenate all its arguments in one string

splits this string using spaces as separators

evaluate the command sentence formed by all the substrings

In the following example, we used the function 'sum' that we have already defined.
Example
% proc average {args} {
>
return [expr [eval sum $args] / [llength $args]]
> }
% average 45.0 65.0 78.0 55.0
60.75

If you had omitted the 'eval' command in the previous example, the 'sum' procedure would
have returned an error because 'sum' should be called with only one string argument (in the
previous example, this argument would have been '45.0 65.0 78.0 55.0') while 'sum' is
expecting numerical arguments.

uplevel, upvar

With the 'upvar' command, you can access a variable which belongs to a higher level of the
procedure call stack.
Example
% proc decr {n steps} {
>
upvar $n upa
>
set upa [expr $upa - $steps]
> }
% set nb 12
12
% decr nb 3
9
% puts $nb
9

In the previous example, the parameter 'n' gets the value 'nb' (the string 'nb' !) if we type 'decr
nb 3'. The command 'upvar $n upa' means that the variable 'upa' becomes a synonym to the
variable 'nb' (coming from a higher level of the stack).
With the 'uplevel' command, you can evaluate something on higher level in the stack.
Example
% proc do {todo condition} {
>
set ok 1
>
while {$ok} {
>
uplevel $todo
>
if {[uplevel "expr $condition"]==0} {set ok 0}
>
}
> }
% set i 0
0
% do {
puts $i
incr i
} {$i<4}
0
1
2
3

Inside the procedure 'do', the evaluation of the script 'todo' and the conditional 'condition' has
to made on a higher level of stack (in the same way that if they were evaluated from out of
'do').

error and catch

If you insert an 'error' command in your code, this command will stop the execution of your
script and return the error message that follow the 'error' command. With the command
'catch', you can also intercept a error to avoid that your script stops on an error.

If 'catch' return 0, it means that no error occurred while evaluating the script send as
parameter of catch. If 'catch' return 1, it means that an error occurred.
Example
% proc div {a b} {
>
if {$b==0} {
>
error "divided by zero"
>
} else {
>
return [expr $a/$b]
>
}
> }
% div 8 3
2
% div 8 0
divide by zero
% catch {div 8 3}
0
% catch {div 8 0}
1
% catch {set result [div 8 3]}
0
% catch {set result [div 8 0]}
1

The last call is completely equivalent to

catch {div 8 3} result

Introduction
Emacs is a powerful text editor. Especially suited for
programming, it uses intensively the keyboard shortcuts. This
page is a short summary of the most used shortcuts in Emacs. If
you are configuring your Linux, you will appreciate that Emacs
also works in text mode.

File access
Ctrl-x Ctrl-f
Open file

Ctrl-x Ctrl-s
Save

Buffer control
Ctrl-x k
Kill buffer (close file)
Ctrl-x b
Switch to an other buffer
Ctrl-x 2
Split the window vertically to see an extra buffer
Ctrl-x 3
Split the window horizontally to see an extra buffer
Ctrl-x 0
Hide the current window
Ctrl-x 1
Show only the current window
Ctrl-x o
Jump to an other window

Text editing
Ctrl-Space
Marks beginning of a block
Alt-w
Marks end of block and copy
Ctrl-w
Marks end of block and cut

Ctrl-y
Paste
Ctrl-a
Go to the beginning of the line
Ctrl-e
Go to the end of the line
Ctrl-k
Kill end of line (after the cursor)

General
Ctrl-g
Cancel the command you are typing
Ctrl-x Ctrl-c
Quit emacs
Ctrl-_
Undo
TAB
Automatic indentation (source code) while editing
TAB
Automatic completion while selecting a file or while typing a
command in the mini-buffer
Alt-x
Type a command in the mini-buffer
Alt-x c-mode
Change major mode to c-mode
Alt-x global-font-lock-mode

Switch the 'global font lock mode' (highlights syntax)

Search and replace

Ctrl-s
Incremental forward search (press Ctrl-s again to search
further)
Ctrl-r
Incremental backward search (press Ctrl-r again to search
further)
Alt-%
Search and replace

Multiple files search

Simple search
Alt-x grep
Perform a 'grep' search
Alt-x grep-find
Perform a search using 'find' and 'grep'
Tags (for programmers)
find . -name "*.[ch]" | etags Make a TAGS index file for every file whose name ends with
'.c' or '.h', starting from the current directory (this is a shell
command !)
Alt-x visit-tags-table
Load a TAGS file
Alt-.
Find a tag
tags-search

Search through all files listed in the tags table

tags-query-replace
Search and replace through all files listed in the tags table
Alt-,
continue last tag search

Files comparison
Alt-x ediff
Compares two files

Spell check
Alt-x ispell-buffer
Spell check for the current buffer

Help
Ctrl-h ?
General help functions
Ctrl-h f
Describe the command you type
Ctrl-h a
apropos ... help based on a keyword
Ctrl-h m
Help on the current major mode

Return to introduction

Configure email for Linux on your home PC

1. Are you concerned ?

The aim of this short report is to help Linux users to configure their email system
in a multi-user environment. Let's say that you have a PC in your house, that you
access Internet with a modem and that you want to provide a email address to
everyone in your family : this help is for you !
Maybe it is not so difficult to configure sendmail ... for a Linux freaks, but for the
others, a starting point will certainly be appreciated. I think that Internet connection
and email configuration is the basic functionality that a PC must satisfy.
This introduction provide the typical 'case' of somebody connecting to Internet
with a modem (not permanently connected) through an Internet provider. This
typical user have only access to one mailbox (the case of multiple mailbox is
simpler) which he wishes to split in multiple mailboxes on his local computer.
Since the typical user could frequently change of Internet provider and since he
likes to keep only one email address, he use aliases which are only a 'redirection'
from a email address to an other. Each local user have a different alias name on the
alias server and that is based on this alias name that the local computer can
redistribute the mail coming from a unique mailbox to different local mailboxes.
It's also very interesting to be able to write email's off-line. Once online, the mail
of all the users are sent and the the mail for everyone is fetched. In one pass ...
Think on your telephone bill.

2. Who does it works ? Follow the mail ...

2.1. The typical example

Suppose that you have only two users on your local PC, let's say Paul Dupont and
Luc Jackson. The former has the login 'paul' and the last has the the login 'luc'.
Through your local Internet provider, you have access to a POP3 mailbox. Your
address for this mailbox is 'dfzt12@provider.com'. Luc and Paul have subscribed
an alias address, respectively Luc.Jackson@advalvas.be and
Paul.Dupont@advalvas.be. These aliases forward any received mail to your
mailbox 'dfzt12@provider.com'.
On the local PC, Luc and Paul have respectively the local addresses
'luc@linuxpc.localdomain' and 'paul@linuxpc.localdomain' where 'linuxpc' is the
name you have chosen for your computer. Luc and Paul wish to read their mail
with Netscape, through a local POP3 server. As they send a mail to an Internet
address, they wish to be able to send this mail off-line. They also wish that the
address that the recipient will see doesn't contain the name of your local computer
(linuxpc) but well the name of the alias server domain (advalvas.be). So, if luc
send a mail to 'somebody@other.host', 'somebody' will think that the mail come
from 'luc@advalvas.be'.
This situation is illustrated in the following figure.

3. Sendmail configuration
3.1 /etc/sendmail.cf

To build the sendmail configuration file, it is highly suggested to use the m4 tool.
In the directory /usr/lib/sendmail-cf/cf, create a file .mc. For example, my
file /usr/lib/sendmail-cf/cf/linuxpc.mc contains the following :
divert(-1)
# This is the macro config file used to
generate the /etc/sendmail.cf

Begin of a comment
text

# file. If you modify this file you will

have to regenerate the
# /etc/sendmail.cf by running this macro
config through the m4
# preprocessor:
#
# m4 linuxpc.mc > linuxpc.cf
#
divert(0)

End of a comment text

include(`../m4/cf.m4')

Include a standard
macro.

OSTYPE(`linux')dnl

Include an OS-specific
macro.

undefine(`UUCP_RELAY')

The host will not accept

UUCP addressed email.

undefine(`BITNET_RELAY')

The host will not accept

BITNET addressed
email.

define(`confAUTO_REBUILD')

Automatically rebuild
alias file if needed.

define(`confTO_CONNECT', `1m')

Maximum time to
connect ???

define(`PROCMAIL_MAILER_PATH',`/usr/bin/pro
cmail')
define(`confTO_QUEUEWARN', `48h')

The time you can send

email off-line before
sendmail send you a
warning mail is set to
48h

dnl
define(`SMART_HOST',`relay.provider.com')

Define a SMTP host

where to send the
outgoing mails.
Because of the
word dnl, this line is
seen as a comment. In
this case, sendmail will
communicate directly

with the destination

host. If you prefer to
use the SMTP server of
your provider, please
uncomment.
dnl define(SMTP_MAILER_FLAGS, e)

Define the SMTP mail to

be 'expensive' which
means that sendmail
try to communicate
with the SMTP server
only on demand.
Because of the worddnl,
this line is seen as a
comment. If you prefer
to use the SMTP server
of your provider, please
uncomment.

FEATURE(use_cw_file)

Read the file

/etc/sendmail.cw file to
get alternate names for
this host.

FEATURE(local_procmail)

Use procmail as the

local mailer.

FEATURE(`genericstable',`hash -o
/etc/mail/genericstable.db')

This feature will cause

certain addresses
originating locally or
from a 'generic' domain
to be looked up in a
map and turned into
another form, which
can change both the
domain name and the
user name.

FEATURE(masquerade_envelope)

The masquerade is use

to mask the originator
of a message by
replacing him email
address.
masquerade_envelope i
nstructs sendmail to
masquerade the
envelope sender and
recipient as well as

those in the headers.

GENERICS_DOMAIN(`linuxpc')

Define a 'generic'
domain.

GENERICS_DOMAIN(`linuxpc.localdomain')

Define a 'generic'
domain.

GENERICS_DOMAIN(`localhost')

Define a 'generic'
domain.

GENERICS_DOMAIN(`localhost.localdomain')

Define a 'generic'
domain.

MASQUERADE_AS(`advalvas.be')

This causes mail being

sent to be labeled as
coming from the
indicated host,
here advalvas.be

MASQUERADE_DOMAIN(`linuxpc.localdomain')

Normally the only

addresses that are
masqueraded are those
that come from this
host.
The MASQUERADE_DO
MAIN feature extends
the masquerade to the
specified host.

MAILER(procmail)dnl
MAILER(smtp)dnl

More information about the m4 configuration file

at http://www.sendmail.org/m4/index.html
3.2 /etc/mail/genericstable

For each 'generic host' (such as defined in /usr/lib/sendmail-cf/cf/linuxpc.mc), the

user name (and optionally the domain name) of the sender is changed. The table
contained in /etc/mail/genericstabledescribe which changes has to happen.
For example,
paul@linuxpc.localdomain Paul.dupont
paul@localhost Paul.dupont
paul Paul.dupont
luc@linuxpc.localdomain Luc.Jackson
luc@localhost Luc.Jackson
luc Luc.Jackson

In order to create the database file /etc/mail/genericstable.db, one should type the
following :
makemap hash /etc/mail/genericstable.db < /etc/mail/genericstable

3.3 /etc/aliases

Optionally, you may change the alias file. In this way, you could, for example, send
a mail to 'paul.dupont' locally (without domain name) and this mail would be
directly delivered to 'paul'. So, add the following line on the end of /etc/aliases
Paul.Dupont: paul
Luc.Jackson: luc

After doing this, you have to rebuild the alias database. Type
newaliases

3.4 /etc/sendmail.cw

This is the file containing names of hosts for which we receive email. In our
example,
linuxpc
localhost
localhost.localdomain
linuxpc.localdomain

3.5 Restart sendmail

As user root, type

killall -HUP sendmail

3.6 Check the permission of sendmail

If you want that every user is able to send the mail queue, you have to set the user
ID on execution.
chmod a+s /usr/sbin/sendmail

4. Configuration of the POP3 server

4.1 Install the server, if needed

The POP2 and POP3 server daemon are name ipop2d and ipop3d, respectively. In
the Redhat distribution, they are included in the package imap. You can check if
this package is installed :
rpm -q imap

If not, look for a file named imap*.rpm on the installation CDROM and install it
with
rpm -ivh imap*.rpm

4.2 /etc/inetd.conf

the inetd daemon is responsible for listening on the TCP/IP port and to start the
appropriate daemon (dependent on the port number) when a connection is
established. For example, the pop-3 service use the port 110. Every time one try to
connect to the pop-3 service (on port 110), inetd will start ipop3d.
In /etc/inetd.conf, be sure that the following lines are presents and uncommented :
pop-2 stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd ipop2d
pop-3 stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd ipop3d

4.3 /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny

The files /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny describe which hosts are allowed to
use the local INET services. If you want that only the local host be able to access
this service, set the following :

In /etc/hosts.allow,
ALL: LOCAL

In /etc/hosts.deny,
ALL: ALL

4.4 /etc/services

You have to make sure that the services pop-2 and pop-3 are defined. Check
in /etc/services that the following lines are presents :
pop-2 109/tcp postoffice
pop-3 110/tcp

It make the association between a service name (i.e. pop-3) and a service number
(i.e. 110).
4.5 restart inetd

To restart inetd, type

killall -HUP inetd

5. Configuration of fetchmail

5.1 Create .fetchmailrc

fetchmail fetches the mail on a POP3 server and redistribute the mail locally
via sendmail. Each user (who must be able to fetch the mail for everybody) must
have a configuration file .fetchmailrc in his home directory. In our example, it
looks like this :
poll pophost.provider.com with protocol POP3 aka advalvas.be no dns :
user dfzt12 fetchall with password kdwMlp45 to Paul.Dupont=paul
Luc.Jackson=luc

The 'aka' is only used for multi-drop. In this example, it declares a DNS alias for
'provider.com'. If you look at the fetchmail man page, you will read :
When fetchmail, while processing a multi-drop mailbox, grovels through message
headers looking for names of the mailserver, pre-declaring common ones can save
it from having to do DNS lookups.
The option 'no dns' prevents the multi-drop system from looking for domain name
aliases (for each recipient). If this option wouldn't be specified, it should be
possible that a mail cannot be fetched because one of the recipient has an invalid
domain name.
The option 'fetchall' ensures that all messages are fetched even the message that
you have already read.
5.2 Check the permission of .fetchmailrc

fetchmail won't work if the configuration file hasn't the appropriate permission.
chmod 0710 .fetchmailrc

6. Using sendmail and fetchmail

To fetch the mail and to redistribute it, a user can type
fetchmail

To send the mail queue, type

/usr/sbin/sendmail -q

To check the mail queue, type

/usr/sbin/sendmail -bp

Rapid Gui Development using Tcl/Tk

Course Text Part One: Tcl
(some text drawn from Brent Welchs book, "Practical Programming in Tcl/Tk")
Aidan Low
Student Information Processing Board
MIT
January 1999

This class is sponsored by SIPB, the MIT Student Information

Processing Board, a volunteer student group that provides computerrelated services to the MIT community. This class is one of those
services. For more information, see our web page, www.mit.edu, or
drop by the SIPB office, W20-557.
Class Homepage:
http://www.mit.edu/iap/tk

Class outline:
Tcl
Background
Variables Set, Unset
Comments
Basic Input/Output
Procedures
Upvar
Arithmatic Operations

String Operations
List Operations
Control Flow
Global variables
Array Operations
More Input/Output
File Operations
System Operations

Background
Tcl is an intepreted high-level programming language designed to be easily
understandable and easily customizable. It was developed by John Ousterhout
when he wanted to give his students an editor that they could alter and extend
themselves. One of tcls nicest features is that its very easy to write and very easy
to read. Tcl code is simple and straightforward, for the most part, and as such is
easy to modify.
Tk is an associated graphical toolkit which provides the same power to users in the
graphical domain. Now complex GUIs can be written in a few dozen lines of code,
rather than the pages it requires in more complicated arenas.

An Example: A Zsig randomizer

By the end of the night, this (highly inefficient) zsig randomizer should make sense
to all of you.
#!/mit/tcl/bin/tclsh
proc getsigs {fname} {
set f [open $fname r]
set thelist {}

set curr {}
set temp [gets $f]
while {![eof $f]} {
if {$temp=="---"} {
set thelist [lappend thelist
$curr]
set curr {}
} else {
set curr [lappend curr $temp]
}
set temp [gets $f]
}
set thelist [concat $thelist [list $curr]]
return $thelist
}
proc cleanNum {num} {
## this procedure strips off leading zeros
if {[string index $num 0]!="0"} {
return $num
} else {
return [cleanNum [string range $num 1
end]]
}
}

proc random {range} {

if {[file exists
"/afs/athena.mit.edu/user/a/i/aidan/.zrand.see
d"]} {
set f [open
"/afs/athena.mit.edu/user/a/i/aidan/.
zrand.seed" r]
set _ran [gets $f]
close $f
} else {
set _ran [pid]
}
set _ran [expr ($_ran * 9301 + 49297) %
233280]
set f [open
"/afs/athena.mit.edu/user/a/i/aidan/.zrand.see
d" w]
puts $f $_ran
close $f
return [expr int($range * ($_ran /
double(233280)))]
}

proc pickone {list} {

set index [random [llength $list]]
puts stdout "index is $index"
set bit [lindex $list $index]
set result {}

foreach el $bit {
if {$result=={}} {
set result $el
} else {
set result "[set
result]\n[set el]"
}
}
return $result
}

proc driver {} {
global argv argc
if {$argc==0} {
puts stdout "Format is z <name> \
[other stuff\]"
return
}
set siglist [getsigs ~/.zephyr.list.short]
set sig [pickone $siglist]
puts stdout $sig
puts stdout "Type your message now. End with
control-D or a dot on a line by itself."
if {[llength $argv]>4} {
return

# This doesn't work, and Im too lazy

to figure out why
set response [exec zwrite $argv]
puts stdout [lreplace $response 0 14]
} elseif {[llength $argv]==4} {
set response [exec zwrite [lindex
$argv 0] [lindex $argv 1] \
[lindex $argv 2] [lindex $argv 3] -s
$sig]
puts stdout [lreplace $response 0 14]
} elseif {[llength $argv]==2} {
set response [exec zwrite [lindex
$argv 0] [lindex $argv 1] -s $sig]
puts stdout [lreplace $response 0 14]
} else {
set possible_error [catch {set
response [exec zwrite [lindex $argv
0] -s $sig]}]
if {$possible_error==1} {
puts stdout "Error.... user
not logged in?"
}
puts stdout [lreplace $response 0 14]
}
}
driver

Outline
This course will cover Tcl and Tk at a basic level, and looking at features of the
language one by one along with examples of the code at work. In the end, well see
that a basic word processing program can be written very simply using Tcl and Tk.
Well close by briefly looking at a number of advanced topics which are beyond
the scope of this class, but that you can learn about on your own if you like.
In the first class, well concentrate on Tcl, and in the second, well look at how Tk
can extend Tcl to allow the creation of graphical interfaces very simply.

Writing Conventions
Text in Courier font
set a [expr $b * 12]
represents code exactly as typed into the interpreter.
Text in italics represents an abstract thing to be filled in. This text
set f [open filename r]
means that the command takes a filename in that space. (i.e.
set f [open "foo.txt" r]
Text wrapped in ? ? means that it is optional.
puts ?nonewline? textstring
Finally, means that there are multiple things there.
foo arg arg

Starting up (on Athena)

Tcl Interpreter
This will bring up the tcl interpreter in the window you run it in.

add tcl
tclsh

Tk Interpreter
This will bring up the Tcl interpreter in the window you run it in, but this tcl
interpreter can run tk commands as well. A Tk window will also be created.
add tcl
wish

To run a file
To execute a file of tcl or tk code, there are two ways to do it. One is to make the
file executable:
chmod 700 filename
and to put
#!/mit/tcl/bin/tclsh
or #!/mit/tcl/bin/wish
at the start of the file.

The other way is to run

source filename
in the interpreter once started.

Zephyr instance
I encourage all of you to work together as youre learning Tcl and Tk, and a zephyr
instance is a good way to do that. Ill be subbed to this whenever I can, and you

can ask your questions about Tcl and Tk on the instance where everyone can see
them and benefit from the answers.
To subscribe for this login session only:
zctl sub message tcltk \*
To unsubscribe for this login session only:
zctl unsub message tcltk \*
To subscribe forever:
zctl add message tcltk \*
To unsubscribe forever:
zctl delete message tcltk \*
To send a message
zwrite i tcltk
To read the logs of the instance
add zlog
cd /mit/zlog
more tcltk (or emacs tcltk, or whatever)

Tcl
Variables Set, Unset
The core of the tcl language is variables. Unlike other languages, every variable in
tcl is a string. The string "123" is the number one hundred twenty-three, but it is
also the character string made of the characters 1,2 and 3. It depends on the
context in which the variable appears.
Assigning a variable a value is done with the set command

set a 3 <- This sets the variable a to be the string "3"

set b "Hello"
set c Hello
To get the value of a variable, the set command is used with just the name of the
variable.
set a 3
set a <- This is equal to 3
One variable can be set to the value of another. A command can be run on its own
line, but to nest commands, we use the [ ] braces.
set a 3
set d [set a] <- This sets d to be equal to the value of a
Note that [set a] is the value of the variable, and once done, the data has nothing to
do with the variable. If the variable a changes later, d will not change.
The $ symbol is a shorthand which gets the value of a variable.
set e $a
A variable can be unset, removing it from the scope of the program, with the unset
command.
unset e
set f $e <- this will generate an error, since e is no longer defined
To find out if a variable is defined, you can use info exists, which returns 1 if the
variable is defined, and 0 if not.
set a 1
set b [info exists a] <- b is now 1
set c [info exists gobbledygook] <- c is now 0
These commands can be arbitrarily nested, either in a string
set g "this $a is $b weird $c"

or even in the name of a variable

set h 12 <- variable "h" is set to value "12"
set i$h 14 <- variable "i12" is set to the value "14"

Basic Input/Output
Input and output in tcl is pretty simple. Puts and gets are the output and input
commands.
set a [gets stdin] <- this reads in a value from the console and stores it in
a
puts stdout $a <- this command echos back the value to the console
puts stdout "Hello world"
puts stdout "This is value a: $a"
set b "User says [gets stdin]
The default location for puts is stdout, but gets has no default location. Go figure.
puts "Hello world"
By default, puts puts a carriage return at the end of the string it prints, but you can
disable this with the nonewline flag.
puts nonewline "These are on "
puts "the same line."

Procedures
You can define procedures in tcl and call them.
proc foo {} {
puts "This is procedure foo"

}
A procedure can take arguments.
proc bar {x y z} {
puts "$x $y $z"
}
A procedure can return a single value.
proc baz {x y} {
return [expr $x + $y]
}
set a [baz 2 3]
Procedure arguments can have default values
proc foo2 {{x 12} {y 3}} {
return [expr $x + $y]
}
set b [foo2] <- b is assigned 12 + 3 = 15
set c [foo2 7] <- c is assigned 7 + 3 = 10
set d [foo2 1 8]<- d is assigned 1 + 8 = 9
Note that the arguments with default values must be at the end of the list of
arguments, and no arguments with default values may precede arguments without
default values.
Procedures can even take any number of parameters, if the last parameter is named
"args". Here, calling this procedure with any number of arguments will pass in the
arguments as a list (more on lists later) bound to the identifier args.
proc bar2 {args} {
puts "Arguments are $args"
}

An Example
This somewhat contrived example takes in values from the console and echos them
back.
proc foo {a b c} {
puts stdout "First input was $a"
puts stdout "Second input was $b"
puts stdout "Third input was $c"
}
puts stdout "Input 1:"
set in1 [gets stdin]
puts stdout "Input 2:"
set in2 [gets stdin]
puts stdout "Input 3:"
set in3 [gets stdin]
foo $in1 $in2 $in3

Upvar
In the arguments we have seen before, arguments are passed "by value". This
means that in the code
proc foo {a b c} {
puts "$a $b $c"
}
set f 11

set g 22
set h 33
foo $f $g $h
The interpreter first computes the value of variable f (11), the value of variable g
(22), and the value of variable h (33), and then send them (11,22,33) to the
procedure foo. Foo knows nothing about where those values came from, and from
foos perspective, the call might well have been
foo 11 22 33
The other method of passing arguments is called "call by name". In this calling
convention, a function can access and modify variables from the caller. The upvar
command works to allow you to do this.
Upvar takes in the name of a variable from the caller and the name of a variable to
"bind" that variable to. After the upvar command, any reference to the second
variable actually refers to the named variable in the caller. To pass a variable by
name, you send in the name of the variable, rather than its value. For example:
proc foo {name1 name2 name 3} {
upvar $name1 a
upvar $name2 b
upvar $name3 c
puts "$a $b $c"
}
set f 11
set g 22
set h 33
foo "f" "g" "h"
Now, the caller calls foo with the names of its three variables (f, g, and h). Foo uses
upvar to say that after the 3 upvar commands, any reference to "a" really means a
reference to the variable "f" as defined in the scope of the caller. Now, in the puts

command when the value of a is printed out, the value of f in the caller is really the
thing that gets printed.
Upvar can also allow you to modify variables in the caller.
proc foo {name} {
upvar $name a
set a [expr $a + 1]
}
set f 11
puts $f <- f is 11 here
foo "f"
puts $f <- f is 12 here

Comments
Comments are text within a program that is ignored when running the program, but
used to leave reminders and notes for other people who read the source code later.
Comments in Tcl are specified by the # character at the beginning of the line. This
comments all the text to the end of the line. Note that you can only use # where the
Tcl interpreter expects a Tcl expression, so you are somewhat restricted in where
you can use it. In general, comments should be on their own lines to be safe.
# this procedure does something
proc foo {} {
puts "Hello world"
# is this correct?
puts "Hello werld"
}

Arithmatic Operations
The simplest arithmatic operations are simply incrementing and decrementing an
integer. This is done with the incr and decr commands, which take in the name of
the variable to increment. Note that this is a call by name command, so you send in
the variable name, not the value of the variable.
(i.e. incr a, not incr $a)
set a 3
incr a <- a is now 4
decr a <- a is now 3 again
Arithmatic operations in Tcl are executed with the expr command
set a [expr 2 + 3]
set b [expr (2 + 3) * 4]
A number of more complex operations can be done with expr as well:
set c [expr 7 << 3] <- c is assigned 7 left shifted by 3, i.e. 7 * 23 = 56
set d [expr 7 >> 3] <- d is assigned 7 right shifted by 3, i.e. 7 / 23
Note that the "type" of the input determines the operation in some cases
set e [expr 7 / 3] <- e is assigned 7 integer-divided by 3, or 2
set f [expr 7.0 / 3.0] <- f is assigned 7 float-divided by 3, or 2.3333
Other math operations have a slightly different notation
set g [expr pow(3,2)] <- g is assigned 3 raised to the second power
set h [expr acos(.8)] <- h is assigned the arc-cosine of .8
Tcl supports many math operations:
acos(x)
asin(x)
atan(x)

atan2(y,x) Rectangular (x,y) to polar (r,th), atan2 gives th

ceil(x)
cos(x)
cosh(x)
exp(x) ex
floor(x)
fmod(x,y) Floating point remainder of x/y
hypot(x,y) Returns sqrt(x*x + y*y) (r part of polar expresion)
log(x) Natural log
log10(x) Log base 10
pow(x,y) xy
sin(x)
sinh(x)
sqrt(x)
tan(x)
tanh(x)
abs(x)
double(x) Turns x into floating point number
int(x) Turns x into an integer (truncates)
round(x) Turns x into an integer (rounds off)
rand() Return a random floating point value between 0.0 and 1.0
srand(x) Seed the random number generator

Another example

This procedures takes in inputs and adds them up until they sum to more than 100.
#running total takes in the name of the total counter
#and the value to add to it
proc runningtotal {totalname new} {
upvar $totalname current
set current [expr $current + $new]
}
set total 0
while {$total < 100} {
puts stdout "Total is now $total."
puts stdout "Input new value:"
set inputvalue [gets stdin]
runningtotal "total" $inputvalue
}
puts stdout "Done."

String Operations
Since all Tcl values are stores as strings, it makes sense to have a number of string
operations that can be done. Just as expr preceded arithmatic expressions, string
precedes these commands.
set a [string length "Hello world"] <- a gets the string length of
the string, which is 11
set b [string index "Hello world" 3] <- b gets the 3rd character in
Hello World
Note that strings are 0-indexed, so the 0 th character is the first one in the string.
Other string operations:

string compare str1 str2 Returns 0 if equal, -1 if str1 sorts before str2
lexographically, 1 if str2 sorts before str1
string first sub str Returns the index of the first character of the first
occurrence of substring sub appearing in
str
string last sub str Returns the index of the first character of the last
occurrence of substring sub appearing in
str
string match pattern str Returns 1 if str matches the pattern in pattern.
Uses glob-style matching. (* and ?
wildcards)
string range str I j Returns the range of characters from index i to index j.
string tolower str
string toupper str
string trim str ?chars? Trims the characters in the string chars from the front and
end of str. chars defaults to whitespace if it is not present.
string trimleft str ?chars?
string trimright str ?chars?
string wordend str ix Return the index in str of the character after the word
containing the character at ix.
string wordstart str ix Return the index in str of the first character in the word
containing the character at ix.

Append

Another useful string command is append. This appends one or more arguments to
a variable. Note that the first argument is the NAME of the variable, not [set
variable] or $variable.
set a "abc"
set b " some letters"
append a " is " $b "that I like"
puts $a <- this will print "abc is some lettersthat I like"
Note: append is efficient, much more so than doing something like
set x "abc "
set x "$x some letters that I like"
Format
Format is like the C printf function.
set a [format "%d %f %s" 10 4.3 "hello"] <- a is assigned "10
4.3 hello"

Scan
Scan is like the C scanf function.
scan "10 4.3 hello" "%d %f %s" x y z <- assigns x to be 10,
assigns y to be 4.3, assigns z to be hello

A gratuitous string example

This example reads in a string and then prints out some information about it
proc stringparse {str} {
puts stdout "String's length is [string length
$str]"

puts stdout "String's first a is [string first

"a" $str]"
puts stdout "String in uppercase is [string
toupper $str]"
append str " tacked on for good measure"
puts stdout "String is now $str"
}
puts stdout "Input string:"
set str [gets stdin]
stringparse $str
set str [gets stdin]
stringparse $str
set str [gets stdin]
stringparse $str

List Operations
The most common data structure in Tcl is a list.
Lists can be created in a number of ways.
set a [list "a" "b" c"]
<- a is assigned to be a list with three elements, "a", "b", and "c"
Curly braces {} can be used as shorthand for the list command.
set a {"a" "b" "c"}
<- a is assigned to be the same list as earlier
Lists can be nested:
set a [list "a" [list "b" "c"] "d"]

set a {"a" {"b" "c"} "d"}

A number of list operators are very useful.
lindex list i <- returns the ith element of the list
llength list <- returns the number of elements in the list
lappend listName arg arg <- appends some number of arguments to a list
(note use of list name, not the
list itself, as the first arg)
lrange list i j <- return the sublist of the list found between
indexes i and j
linsert list i arg arg <- insert some number of arguments into a list before the
ith element. Returns the new
list.
lreplace list i j arg arg <- replace the elements i thru j of the list with the args.
returns the new list.
lsearch ?mode? list value <- returns the first index of an element in the list that
matches the value. mode can be exact
(must match
exactly), -glob (uses * and ? wildcards) or
regexp
(match using regular expression syntax).
Returns 1 if
not found. Defaults to -glob.
concat list list <- concatenates multiple lists together into one big list.
lsort ?switches? list <- Sort the list as per the switches passed in. ascii,
-integer, -real, -dictionary, -increasing,
-decreasing

Returns a new list.

join list joinString <- join the elements of a list into a single string, each
element separated by joinString
split string splitChars <- split a string into a list by dividing the string up with
all the characters in splitChars as the delimiters.

Control Flow
Control flow in Tcl works like in many other languages.

if, while, for

proc foo {a b} {
if {$a > $b} {
return $a
} else {
return $b
}
}
proc bar {a b} {
while {$a>0} {
set a [expr $a 1]
puts [expr $a + $b]
}
}
proc baz {a b} {

for {set i 0} {$i < $a} {incr i} {

puts "$a $b"
}
}
foreach
One construct thats cool is foreach. Foreach is like for, except that a loop is run
once for each element in a list rather than for each value between two boundaries.
This example would print out all the colors in the list.
foreach el {"red" "blue" "green" "yellow"} {
puts $el
}
Foreach can have more than one list variable, in that case the list would be taken in
pairs. This example would print out the colors two at a time.
foreach {elX elY} {"red" "blue" "green" "yellow"} {
puts "$elX is a better color than $elY"
}

continue, break
The continue and break commands allow control to jump out from the inside of a
loop. Break breaks out of the loop and runs the next command, and continue jumps
back to the start of the loop.
In some sense, break stops the loop totally and continue skips to the next run
through the loop.
switch
Switch allows control to jump to a number of expressions depending on what a
value is.
switch -- $name {

"Aidan" {puts "This guy is a dork"}

"Rorschach" {puts "This dude is a badass"}
"Leon" {puts "This guy is surprisingly smart"}
default {puts "I dont know this person"}
}
The default is to do exact matching, but flags can be put after switch to change
this.
switch exact $name
or switch glob $name
or switch regexp $name
Put -- before $name if theres any chance that $name might begin with a -, or else
$name will be interpreted as a flag. Its best to put -- before $name anyway.
If a - is written as the expression for a match, then control "falls through" to the
next non-"-" expression.
switch -- $name {
"Aidan"
"Atilla"
"Godilla" {puts "wimp"}
"Jesse the Mind"
"Steve Austin"
"Hulk Hogan" {puts "tough guy"}
}

catch
Tcl supports error handling. If you use the catch command, you can try execute a
block of Tcl expressions and trap any errors that result.

catch command ?resultVar?

catch returns true (1) if the command failed, or false (0) otherwise. The resultVar, if
present, is given the return value of the command, or an error message if an error
occurred.
if {[catch {foo 1 2 3} result]} {
puts stderr $result
} else {
# do other stuff
}
catch can catch return, break, and continue commands as well. See the
documentation for information on this.

error
The error command is the counterpart to catch. It signals an error that will trigger
an enclosing catch or halt the program with an error message if there is no
enclosing catch.
error message

return
The return command returns from a procedure, returning a value.
return string

Another Silly Example

proc makelist {} {

set months {}
foreach el {"January" "February" "March"
"April" "May" "June" "July"} {
lappend months $el
}
return $months
}
set data {}
foreach el [makelist] {
puts $el
set data [concat $data $el]
if {[llength $data] > 3} {
break
}
}
puts "done"

Global variables
So far weve looked only at local variables, variables in the same procedure where
theyre used. Variables can also be global, and thus accessible anywhere in the
program. Global variables are somewhat dangerous to use, but theyre really quite
useful, especially in small programs that are easily understood.
To declare a variable global, you simply use the global command
proc setGlobals {val1 val2 val3} {
global a b c
set a $val1

set b $val2
set c $val3
}
proc printGlobals {} {
global a b c
puts "$a $b $c"
}
If you declare a variable outside of any procedures, it is implicitly global.
set a 12
proc foo {} {
global a
puts $a
}

Array Operations
Another construct Tcl provides is an array indexed by string values. This is
essentially a hash table, and allows efficient association of keys and values.
To create an array, simply set a variable along with an index.
set myArray("redKey") "redValue" <- this will create an array called
myArray if it
doesnt exist already, and add
the value
"redValue"
associated with
the key
"redKey"

To get the value out again, just use set like we did before.
set theValue [set myArray("redKey")]
or
set theValue $myArray("redKey")
You can test whether a key is present in an array by using info exists, just like for
regular variables.
if {[info exists myArray("redKey")]} {
puts $myArray("redKey")
}
The array command allows a number of operations on arrays as well:
array exists arr <- returns 1 is arr is the name of an array variable
array get arr ?pattern? <- turns an array into a list of alternating keys
and values
pattern selects the entries to put into the list, if present
(beats the hell out of me how the pattern works, though)
array names arr ?pattern? <- returns a list of the names of the keys in
the array
applies the pattern to filter, if present
array set arr list <- create arr from the data in list, which is in the same
form
as returned from get
array size arr <- return the number of keys in the array arr
You can iterate through an array as well. Look at the documentation for
information on startsearch, nextelement, anymore, and donesearch.
Note that passing arrays between procedures requires call by name, using upvar.

More Input/Output
File input/output is reasonably straightforward.
open filename ?access? ?permissions?
access can be:
r Open for reading, file must exist
r+ Open for reading and writing, file must exist
w Open for writing, replace if exists, create if does not
w+ Open for reading and writing, replace or create as needed
a Open for writing, data is appended to file
a+ Open for reading and writing, data is appended
Permissions are the standard numbers used in chmod, but you need a leading 0 to
get an octal number.
set fileId [open /tmp/foo w 0600]
Once open, a file can be written to
puts $fileId "Hello world"
or read from
set fileId2 [open /tmp/foo r]
set in [gets $fileId2]
To close an open file (you must close a file before the Tcl program ends to store
your changes), simply use close on the fileID
close $fileId
You can also pass nonewline to puts, if you dont want to put an end-of-line after
the string.
puts nonewline $fileId "Hello world"

File Operations
Tcl provides a number of operators on files that can be quite useful.
file atime name <- returns file access time as a decimal string
file attributes name ?option? ?value? <- query or set file attributes
file copy ?-force? source destination <- copy files or directories
file delete ?-force? name
file dirname name <- return parent directory of file name
file executable name <- return 1 if executable, else 0
file extension name <- return the extension (.txt) of the file
file isdirectory name <- returns 1 or 0
file isfile name <- return 1 if name is not a directory, symlink, or device, else 0
file join path path <- join pathname components into a single pathname
file lstat name var <- place attributes of the link name into var
file mkdir name
file nativename name <- return the platform-native version of name
file owned name <- return 1 if current user owns the file name, else 0
file pathtype name <- relative, absolute, or driverelative
file readable name <- return 1 if readable, else 0
file readlink name <- return the contents of symlink name
file rename ?-force? old new
file rootname name <- return all but the extension in name (i.e. strip off .txt or
whatever)

file size name <- return file size of name in bytes

file split name <- split name into its pathname components
file stat name var <- place attributes of name into array var
file tail name <- return the last pathname component of name
file type name <- return type identifier, which is either file, directory,
characterSpecial, blockSpecial, fifo, link, or socket
file writeable name <- return 1 if writeable, else 0

System Operations
Tcl provides the functionality to execute a number of system calls directly.

exec
The exec program allows you to execute programs from your Tcl script. The
standard output of the program will be returned.
set d [exec date]
If the program writes to the standard error channel or exits with a non-zero exit
code, youll need to use catch to get the information you want.
catch {exec program arg arg} result
Exec has a lot of weird specifics about how it works, so look at the documentation
for specifics.
http://www.scriptics.com/man/tcl8.0/TclCmd/exec.htm

exit
The exit command terminates your Tcl program. An integer argument to exit sets
the exit status of the process

exit
exit 1

pid
The pid command returns the process ID of the current process.
set thisID [pid]

environment variables
You can get access to environment variables with the global variable env. This loop
prints out all the environment variables and their values.
global env
foreach el [array names env] {
puts "$el - $env($el)"
}

Links of interest:
The Tcl Platform Company
http://www.scriptics.com/
Brent Welchs book (excellent)
http://www.beedub.com/book/
Tcl/Tk Man pages
http://www.scriptics.com/man/tcl8.0/contents.htm
Tcl/Tk Plugin for Netscape, Internet Explorer
http://www.scriptics.com:8123/plugin/