Notes on using the Tcl Extension Archive client - TEAcup
You've installed ActiveTcl, ensured that the executables are in the search path of your shell, and you're looking at a command prompt. I'm using Windows XP, but you could be using MacOS X or any of the different flavours of Unix.
C:\Documents and Settings\Alastair Davies>tclsh
% set auto_path
C:/Tcl/lib/tcl8.5 C:/Tcl/lib C:/Tcl/lib/tcllib1.7 C:/Tcl/lib/tklib0.2
{C:/Documents and Settings/Alastair Davies/Teapot/repository/package/win32-ix86/lib}
{C:/Documents and Settings/Alastair Davies/Teapot/repository/package/tcl/lib}
% exitThe last two elements of this list are new. The Teapot folder in my home directory has been created during the installation of the latest release of ActiveTcl. (I am using release 8.5.0.0.272633.) Teapot contains a repository folder, which contains an INDEX and a config file, but there is no package folder yet.
You'll use the TEAcup client to manage the extensions, packages or modules in that folder.
C:\Documents and Settings\Alastair Davies>teacup help
teacup.exe
is a tool to access package repositories
teacup.exe help commands List of commands provided by teacup
teacup.exe help help How to use help
teacup.exe help options Describes the standard options
teacup.exe help queries Describe the syntax of complex queries
C:\Documents and Settings\Alastair Davies>teacup archive list
http://teapot.activestate.comOut-of-the-box, TEAcup is set to access the ActiveState repository. Maybe you want to grab a copy of the dict extension, in order to be able to use your 8.5 scripts in an 8.4 installation.
C:\Documents and Settings\Alastair Davies>teacup install dict Resolving dict -is package ... [package dict 8.5.3 win32-ix86 @ http://teapot.activestate.com] Resolving Tcl -require 8.4 -is package ... [package Tcl 8.5 _ ... Already installed, probing dependencies] Retrieving package dict 8.5.3 win32-ix86 ...@ http://teapot.activestate.com ... Ok Installing into C:/Documents and Settings/Alastair Davies/Teapot/repository Installing package dict 8.5.3 win32-ix86
And, sure enough, there is now a new cascade of folders within my repository.
Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\Alastair Davies\Teapot\repository\package\win32-ix86\lib\dict-8.5.3
08/12/2006 10:12 <DIR> .
08/12/2006 10:12 <DIR> ..
08/12/2006 10:12 32,768 dict853.dll
08/12/2006 10:12 268 pkgIndex.tcl
08/12/2006 10:12 306 teapot.txt
3 File(s) 33,342 bytesSo far, so very good. No doubt there will be some problems, but I've only stumbled on one so far. Consistently, the TEAcup client is unable to update itself.
C:\Documents and Settings\Alastair Davies>teacup update-self Updating C:/Tcl/bin/teacup.exe ... Found newer version 8.4.14.1.273125 (win32-ix86) @ http://teapot.activestate.com Retrieving application teacup 8.4.14.1.273125 win32-ix86 ...@ http://teapot.activestate.com ... Error: timeout Bad retrieval.
One other niggle struck me when I updated a buggy extension installed in C:\Tcl\lib to a newer version retrieved using TEAcup. Because of the order of the directories in the auto_path list, it was necessary to delete the former version in order to be able to use the latter. Perhaps with correct use of version numbers this would not be a problem, but this particular bug in the vfs::starkit package concerned the incorrect use of version numbers!
Anyway, these are minor problems, in an excellent development. Many thanks to ActiveState and others who have contributed. I hope this helps get more people started using the TEAcup client and that similar guidance for package authors to use the TEApot server will become available.
Alastair Davies 8 December 2006