** Purpose: An interactive community project to teach Tcl scripting. This page is the basis for a group project to discuss your favorite introductory topics for someone learning Tcl. Is there a topic you feel should be discussed but which often isn't? Also, many beginners are interested in [Beginning Tk] as it lets them create something impressive with very little work. However, these beginners should make sure they understand the following topics before moving to Tk, since the concepts are, for the most part, foundational infrastructure. More on the same subject is available in the "[In the beginning - first stop for someone new to Tcl and Tk]" page. * [What is Tcl]? * [Show me an example], please. * How do I edit my program? Are there [Tcl Editors]? * [What kinds of variables can Tcl scripts use]? * [What kinds of variable names can be used in Tcl]? * [What kinds of data can Tcl scripts use]? * [Is there anything I should know before I start coding]? * [How do I read and write files in Tcl]? * [How would I program 'ring around a rosie' - looping constructs]? * [How would I reuse my own Tcl code]? * [What do I need to do to reuse someone else's Tcl code]? * [Why can I not place unmatched braces in Tcl comments]? * [What debugging tools are available to a Tcl programmer]? * [How am I supposed to handle errors in Tcl]? * [How can I do math in Tcl]? * [Concepts of Architectural Design for Tcl Applications] * [I cannot get Tcl (or an extension) to compile] - what do I do? * [Setting /bin/sh environment variables in the script] - is that something I can do? * [Is white space significant in Tcl]? * [Tcl syntax help] gives manpage extracts for selected commands - and extra notes that are not in the manual * http://tcl.sourceforge.net/engManual.pdf contains engineering style guidelines for coding Tcl code. ---- The idea here is to either add a topic above, or pick one of these and start writing a bit. Sign the page if you like. See also [Advanced Tcl] for topics which usually come up after someone has a grasp on the basics of Tcl and Tk, and [Arts and crafts of Tcl-Tk programming] for a large table of contents of this Wiki. ---- LV: One commonly referenced interactive Tcl tutorial is http://www.msen.com/~clif/TclTutor.html . I list others on the comp.lang.tcl launch page at http://www.purl.org/NET/Tcl-FAQ/ . ---- RS: A hint not only for beginners: due to its interactive nature, Tcl itself is a very good teacher. Start up an interactive tclsh (i.e. not specifying a script file). Type commands in, see how it reacts. Make intentional errors (you can hardly break anything). Read the error messages, they're very often very helpful.