The Next Generation Tcl Archive.
UKo 2007-02-01: All links related to the cool store and all pages pointing at tcs.mini.net does not exist (at least today).
Overview
The CoolStore is a place to collect and distribute applications written in the Tcl programming language.
It uses autoExe technology to dynamically create applications on the fly from the archive files currently uploaded (applications, runtimes, and extensions).
Future announcements will be made to this file as well as posted as news items on the archive itself.
Status
21 Apr 2006 Open To developers.
An open invitation to developers to upload their applications extensions, and runtimes to the server.
Do NOT make public announcements at this stage, a general announcment will be made once the system is stable and there are applications for the general public to download.
What and Where
Developers should check out http://tcs.mini.net/WhyDevelopers.html to find out what's in it for them.
The site has Guidelines [L1 ] for what can be uploaded and how to go about it.
The current state of the archive software is available at [L2 ]
Applications
An application is a collection of Tcl scripts packaged into a .zip or .kit file along with a file describing what environment is needed to create a stand alone executable.
Developers can download these .kits or .zip files and use/modify these applications as they like. Novice Computer Users can download a stand alone executable built on the fly for their OS.
Extensions
Most of the common extensions have been uploaded for the common platforms. They have been uploaded under their last major version at this stage to allow programmers to work out which release number to use in their application.
Eg:
snack 2.2.0 -> snack-2
sqlite 2.2.16 -> sqlite-2Runtimes
The repository is runtime agnostic. You can develop applications using any runtime you like.
Only TclKit/DQkit are fully functional ( Although the latter is somewhat redundant as extensions are automatically added to applications on download).
The latest stable version of Tclkit and Freewrap have already been uploaded to the archive.
Versioning
This will annoy some developers. The archive does not track applications by version number. The archive is only concerned with the latest release.
A partial concession has been made with runtimes and extensions since these are in such a mess.
US The yellow links are absolutely unreadable. Trying to send a complaint via your contact form resulted in a mail with a confirmation link. Clicking this link produced an error page. You refuse to be the confused one in this dialog, so do I. Probably it's your confused robot ;-)
LV One of the things that I was thinking about today was something similar to dqkit generated by a facility like TCS. In other words, a way to get a single executable which includes a tcl interpreter and whatever extensions a developer feels that s/he will need for a particular project. And, if something new appears to be needed, a way to pop over and generate a new runtime that includes that extension and any dependants.