How do I use the Tcl C API?

Purpose: pointers to tutorials, books, tips, etc. for creating, interacting, etc. Tcl via the C API.

Tcl's original purpose, as detailed in John Ousterhout's seminal Usenix paper (see Ousterhout's original 1990 USENIX paper), was to provide a developer with a standard language that could be embedded in their application. So, in the beginning, the intent was that Tcl would be accessed only via the C API. Over the years, it also became common to extend rather than embed Tcl.

See also:

• Hello World as a C extension
• Adding Tk to an existing Xt program
• Experiences with a custom tclsh
• Extending Tcl
• Extending Tcl in C from Tcl
• How to embed Tcl in C applications
• Combining Fortran and Tcl in one program
• Tcl_Init
• TEA
• Building an extension for Tcl under Mac OS X
• Building Tcl DLL's for Windows