Version 21 of How to create my first Starpack

Updated 2004-04-30 13:59:23

Purpose: define the steps for one to take to create their first starpack.

  1. Read Steve Landers' paper [L1 ].
  2. Download a tclkit for your platform.
  3. Download sdx
  4. Assemble a starkit [L2 ] based on the examples in the paper
  5. Use sdx to make a starpack from this starkit.

You can even use your own application for the initial time through; "starkitting" is straightforward enough that people have been successful doing it for the first time even with applications which involve several auxiliary files, extensions (but only stubsified ones?), and so on.


I'll break this down a slightly different way:

  1. Install tclkit and sdx so they're available in your PATH.
  2. Put sdx.kit in your working directory.
  3. Create example.tcl:
            package require Tk
            pack [button .b -text "That's all for now" -command exit]
  1. Wrap:
            tclkit sdx.kit qwrap example.tcl
        Now you have an example.kit Starkit (and, if you did this
        on a Windows host, an example.bat).  That's the Starkit.
  1. Create a standard unwrapping:
          tclkit sdx.kit unwrap example.kit
  1. Make a copy of the tclkit executable for your target platform.
        Keep in mind that Starpacks look "native"; they are platform-
        specific.  If you're working on Windows, and you're making a
        Starpack for Windows, just copy tclkit.exe into your local,
        working directory, at least for this demonstration.
  1. Produce the starpack:
          sdx wrap example.exe -runtime tclkit.exe

SD The command line in step 7 did not work for me. What worked was:

   tclkit.exe sdx.kit wrap example.exe -runtime example.vfs/tclkit.exe

How should your application look so that it makes a good starpack? "Starting effective starkit-based pure-Tcl development: the starkit::* namespace" addresses that question.


Category Tclkit