Notes on [Jeff Hobbs] [ActiveState] of [Tcl2008] talk. ([MC]'s notes, but please add/enhance...)

Reviewed Tcl history...

As of Tcl'2007:
   * September 24-28 New Orleans
   * 8.4.16 was the standard stable version
   * 8.4 now base standard in all distros
   * 5 years since 8.4.0
   * Numerous enhancements and additions
   * Getting long in the tooth
   * 8.5b1 released
   * 8.6 vs 9.0
   * Primary topics: 8.5 finalization, ''food'' ...

Reviewed formation/history of the [Tcl Core Team]

Reviewed [Tcl Improvement Proposal] (TIPs)...
   * Currently 335 TIPs (divided into process, informational and project TIPs)
   * TIP page for Tcl: http://tip.tcl.tk/

Maintainers:
   * Separate from TCT (though substantial overlap)
   * Maintainers oversee a specific area of the core as defined in TIP #16 (Tcl) and TIP #26 (Tk)
   * Assist, but not soley responsible for fixing bugs, adding docs, etc.
   * Responsible for reviewing code and approving code changes to their area
   * '''Open to anyone willing to learn the core'''; New volunteers always welcome

Tcl at [ActiveState]:
   * Established 1997
   * Current tagline "''Dyamic Tools for Dynamic Languages''" (Jeff likes older tagline: "''Programming for the people''" but that doesn't fly as well in the enterprise)
   * [Jeff Hobbs] and [Andreas Kupries] hired in 2001
   * Wealth of scripting knowledge at ActiveState; besides Tcl, Perl, Python, XML/XSLT, etc.
   * Acquired by Sophos September 2003; freed in February 2006
   * ActiveStateremains dedicated to dynamic languages--collectively a wealth of knowledge

ActiveState provides the Tcl community with:
   * Improvements to open source Tcl core (time permitting); changes go through TIP process
   * Host of the Tcl Developers Xchange (http://www.tcl.tk/)
   * Enterprise support infrastructure
   * Professional services for Tcl
   * Development tools: [ActiveTcl], [Komodo], [Tcl Dev Kit], [ActiveTcl Pro Studio]

Now easier to download ActiveTcl--one single download page, no registration hoops to go through, etc.  [BOOK ActiveState Tcl Cookbook].  Mailing list archives.

ActiveTcl 8.4.19:
   * Released September 2008
   * Many popular extensions: [XOTcl], [incr Tcl], [TclX], [expect], [tcllib], [tklib], [Bwidgets], [Iwidgets], [tktable], [tkcon], [tile], [SQLite], etc.
   * TEApot code repository via teacup

ActiveTcl 8.5.5: 
   * Based on the 8.5.5 Tcl core
   * Released October 2008--on the conference USB key
   * Distributed with fewer extensions (as compared to ActiveTcl 8.4); rest available via teacup
   * Considered the default download
   * Available for AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and Windows (all builds are fully threaded)

''ActiveTcl 8.6.0.0 Beta 1'': (called Beta because ActiveState doesn't like to release things with Alpha names)
   * Based on Tcl 8.6a3 Tcl core
   * Not yet released--on conference USB key
   * Similar to ActiveTcl 8.5 extension set
   * More discussion on 8.6 to follow

The TEApot:
   * Binary code repository in the style of ActivePerl's PPM
   * Fully populated for ActiveTcl platforms
   * Make use of Tcl module system (allows zip archives with special teapot.txt)
   * Repository is web visible, but rough
   * Downloads index--local searches (against a [SQLite] database)
   * Integrated with TclApp package searching (TKD 5)

Tcl Dev Kit 5:
   * Released Monday (in time for the conference)
   * Enhanced static syntax analysis
   * Added 8.6 support
   * Supports multi-architecture starkits, x-platform starkpacks
   * Includes improved/revamped versions of the [TclPro] tools; checker is extensible, plus some additional new tools (that weren't in TclPro)

Komodo 5:
   * Professional IDE for dynamic languages
   * Cross platform (Windows, Linux, and OS X)
   * Deep upport for Tcl, Perl, Python, PHP, Ruby and more
   * Added upport for git, hg, and bazaar (beyond cvs, p4, svn support that was already in version 4)
   * Faster and slicker UI
 


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