What: Frink - Source code formatter
Where: https://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Programs/Frink/
https://catless.ncl.ac.uk/pub/frink-2.2.2p4.tar.gz
Description: Program to prettify (like the indent command) your Tcl/Tk
program. Frink can format, minimize and/or obfuscate your Tcl code.
It can take some forms of your code and convert it to use message
catalogs (used for internationalization). It applies a variety
of heuristics to the code to try to detect possible errors.
Supports only vanilla tcl - not extensions such as tclX, itcl, etc.
Does however recognize namespace and interp commands.
Check the first URL on a regular basis for updates.
Does not permit commercial use.
Currently at version 2.2.2p4, with an ancient 2.3.1 alpha also available at the above ftp site.
Updated: 06/2001
Contact: mailto:[email protected] [Lindsay F. Marshall]This tool by Lindsay Marshall does Static syntax analysis.
See also "debugging" in general.
Frink makes a brief appearance in a UnixReview.com column in April 2002 [L1 ].
Note: Be very careful using frink to reformat your source code. Double check the frink results against the original source. It messes up your code every once and a while.
Question: What flags do you find most useful when using frink to check for errors/warnings?
Answer:
frink -HJ source.tcl
although I sometimes use
frink -JF FFFFE source.tcl
to turn off a warning for the construct variable $varname PT
LV I use frink -J -U -H to give me a LOT of possible issues; by the time I've checked them all (and I have run the code through tclchecker), I am ready to move on to looking at algorithm problems...
Peter Newman 25 April 2004: The frink web site doesn't seem to have any Windows Binaries. But there's one in the ASED Tclkit/Starpack. Just download and SDX unwrap that.
EKB 16 April 2005: Another Windows binary is available at http://tclsoap.sourceforge.net/dom-packages.html . (v2.1.5)
17 Feb 2006: http://folk.ntnu.no/tyridal/dist/frink-2.2.2-w32.zip - TWu 2024-08-06: Link broken, use WayBack-Machine
LV What are your preferences for frink pretty printing arguments?
CGM An unrelated "calculating tool and programming language" going by the same name is described at http://futureboy.homeip.net/frinkdocs/