1. What is perl/Tk?

Perl/Tk (also known as pTk or ptk) is a collection of modules and code that attempts to wed the easily configured Tk 4 widget toolkit to the powerful lexigraphic, dynamic memory, I/O, and object-oriented capabilities of Perl 5. In other words, it is an interpreted scripting language for making widgets and programs with Graphical User Interfaces (GUI). (Examples of widget programs [not necessarily written in perl/Tk] include xterm, xclock, most web-browsers, etc.. They are programs with "GUI" interfaces of one sort or another and are subject to the effects of your window manager.)

Perl/Tk is based on "Tk 4.0p3" the widget Toolkit originally associated with the Tcl (Tool command language) scripting language. However, Perl/Tk does not require any of the lexical features/idiosynchrocies of Tcl. Perl/Tk uses perl 5 syntax, grammar, and data structures.

Like perl, wish, and even tclsh; perl/Tk is most easily used on a Unix computer platform running X. Having said that, it is worth noting that things like Linux and FreeBSD mean that the micro-computer hardware crowd too can have access to the wonders of perl/Tk. Perl and Tcl/Tk have also been ported to non Unix operating systems, there is no reason to suppose it cannot be done with the perl/Tk code eventually as well.

The perl/Tk package is still in beta phase and is being written primarily by Nick Ing-Simmons <Nick.Ing-Simmons@tiuk.ti.com> at Texas Instruments in Northampton, England.

The pTk code proper is an externally callable Tk toolkit (i.e. a re-write of the Tk 4.0 code that allows easier external linking & calling, especially by perl). Ptk can then be called from Perl 5 via the Tk.pm et al perl glue modules. Hence "ptk" does not necessarily refer to Perl Tk but could be taken to mean portable Tk - given a glue package to another language. The stated goal of the pTk code is to have its library usable from perl, Tcl, LISP, C++, python, etc.. It just so happens that present work is concentrating on perl.

Historical note: "ptk" was known as "ntk" before about 11:30 EST 4 May 1995.

The perl/Tk language is itself further extensible via the perl 5 module mechanism. A number of composite widget extensions to the language have been written using perl modules.


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