Version 0 of Desktop Environment

[Note: This is not a well-structured page, as I'm just dropping this all in here so it doesn't get lost and forgotten. It can be made to look nice later by someone with better aesthetic sensibilities.]

On comp.lang.tcl, Victor Wagner wrote:

 > Now, I'm suggesting a technical challenge for people who want to get
 >  Tcl into headlines of computer-related news:
 >
 > Write a desktop environment in Tcl.
 >
 > If it is properly done, we'll get something uncomparable with
 > Windows, KDE and MacOS - easy extensible desktop environment, where
 > user has powerful scripting language at his disposal. With Tcl
 > introspecting capabilities it is even possible to write RAD tools
 > which would allow to do non-trivial scripting by drag and drop, and
 > resort to typing commands in to enchance drag-n-dropped prototype.
 >
 > So we should write fully scriptable suite of components, which would
 > allow GUI  user to extend and tune his environment even simplier,  than
 > command line Unix user can tune his environment using shell/perl/tcl
 > scripts, aliases and such.
 >
 > We already has almost all neccessary components - web browser (BrowseX),
 > spreadsheet (Abacus), window manager (tkwm) etc, etc.
 >
 > We also have ways to integrate traditional unix tools into our  raphic
 > apps (expect)
 >
 > All which is needed is to write proper integration framework.
 >
 > It is sufficient to run all the components of desktop in single
 > non-threaded process. MacOS did this for decades, and most users were
 > satisified. No CORBA would provide anything simular by flexibility to
 > interface, Tcl extension mechanism is providing. But of course, CORBA
 > should be supported to communicate with foreign apps.
 >
 > But we also have powerful means of interprocess communication (Tk send)
 > which allows to communicate even between programs running on  different
 > machines, as long as they are on same display (which is proper  desktop
 > approach, I think).
 >
 > So project may be finished with fewer man-monthes than it is already
 > invested into KDE or GNOME.

What we have:

Web Browser: BrowseX [L1 ]
Spreadsheet: Abacus [L2 ]
Window Managers: tkwm [L3 ] , Panache [L4 ]. (The tkwm link does not work. Is it maintained? Is it available from somehwhere? --setok)
Text Editor: Tcl Editors
Text Editor: David McClamrock's WISH Supernotepad. [No URL yet]
Text Editor: anyone know anything about vim's TCL support?
Larry Smith's Tcl Tools [L5 ]
Miscellaneous tools and toys: People reading this are requested to add any "little things" they know of to the list. Calculator tool, digital and analog clocks, what-have-you... http://www.aq.org/~js/jstools/ has all sorts of desktop adds - editors, help systems, abbreviation managers, visual more, preference editors, etc.
Larry Virden's TCL FAQ has an application list here: [L6 ]
TkDesk [L7 ]
TkWorld http://www.tkworld.org/

What we need:

volunteer to head the project.
A list of what's needed.

I would like to see a desktop development framework provide:

Cross Platform support! The desktop works on the various platforms where Tk works.
IntraApplication communication - some kind of easy to use framework so applications are ready to talk to one another with minimal effort by the developer.
InterApplication communication - some mechanism for applications not developed specifically for the desktop to be included in the fun.
InterPlatform communication - the ability to talk to apps running on other platforms. This provides enterprise extendibility.

A list of things that might fit things we need.
A list of things we'll need to write ourselves.
volunteers to work on the projects.
the projects.

Anselm Lingnau said:

It's true that there are lots of pieces around. However a �desktop environment� to rival the likes of KDE would probably require more consistency between the individual pieces, not only as far as the �look and feel� is concerned, but also for smooth interoperability.

It would be nice to have an �application framework� that would make it easy to generate the skeleton of a �desktop-ready� Tk program. Right now there is quite a lot of drudgery required to set a program up with a menu bar, �help� menu, toolbar et cetera (�drudgery� from the point of view of a Tcl programmer -- it is still a lot more straightforward than with other toolkits). It would be nice to be able to say something like

  package require tkapp

  set menu {
        File {
            command &New           [list newCmd]
            command {&Open ...}    [list openCmd]
            command &Save          [list saveCmd]
            command {S&ave As ...} [list saveCmd -ask]
            -
            command &Quit [list quitCmd]
        }
        Edit {
            ...
        }
  }

  set toolbar [list
        [tkapp::tbicon new]  newCmd
        [tkapp::tbicon open] openCmd
        ...
  ]

  set about {
        Foobar 1.0
        by J. Random Hacker

        See http://www.foobar.org/
  }

  tkapp::create -name "foobar" -title "Foobar" -icon foobar.xbm \
        -menu $menu -toolbar $toolbar -about $about \
        -manual [file join [file dirname [info script]] doc]

where the �tkapp::create� procedure does all the work of installing the top-level menu, toolbar, �About� dialog and link to documentation viewer, reads the resource file(s), sets the main window title and so on. This would go a long way towards enabling a common look-and-feel for Tk �desktop� programs, since suitable definitions could be pulled in without making extra work for the application programmer. It would even be possible to make use of, say, existing KDE preferences files to find out about global settings for fonts etc., the way Ktk does this. In any case, the �tkapp::create� procedure could also try to do the right thing on other platforms such as KDE, GNOME or Windows.

One thing to consider is the Visual Tcl (vtcl) (http://vtcl.sourceforge.net/ ) framework - does it (or could it) provide some of the facilities mentioned above?