See the document ''A Busy Developer's Guide to Tcl/Tk 8.5'' [http://www.markroseman.com/tcl/guide85.html] by [Mark Roseman]. This topic also came up on [comp.lang.tcl], initially in this thread [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.tcl/browse_thread/thread/278afed700e692c3/79283a297fda080b?lnk=raot#79283a297fda080b]. Some of the responses posted include: * Read [Changes in Tcl/Tk 8.5] * Scripts that depend on the exact behavior of cursor motion in the [text] widget may have problems. * Scripts that depend on details of font handling may have problems. * you're SOL if you're on [MacOS%|%Mac Classic%|%]. :-) (Or windows 3.x, or I think Windows 95 and Windows 98, or CP/M, or OS/1 or [[someone could insert their favorite antique operating system, but why bother?]] * if you write scripts (or test suites!) that depend on formats of particular error messages coming from Tcl or Tk, you may have to change them. Various changes have been made to error messages. * If you use only tcl.h, tk.h and the exported functions from the stubs table you should be safe. ''(Ignore if you only code in Tcl, as opposed to Tcl+C.)'' * If you go from 8.4 to 8.5 it should be easy; simply recompile. ''(Ignore if you only code in Tcl, as opposed to Tcl+C.)'' * If you go from 8.x x <4 to 8.5 you may need to fix some reference to arguments which are not CONST (that changed in 8.4). (see [Migration to 8.4: CONSTification] ) ''(Ignore if you only code in Tcl, as opposed to Tcl+C.)'' * If you go from 7.x to 8.5 you can expect more work. * If you use tclInt.h or other nonpublic interfaces all bets are off...; try to recompile and see where the compiler bitches. ''(Ignore if you only code in Tcl, as opposed to Tcl+C.)'' * My very first test failed, trying xtem from http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/xtem_texmenu/xtem/?action=/te... ====== I get (when pressing the exit button) bad variable name "geom(.xtemqd)": upvar won't create a scalar variable that looks like an array element while executing "global [set var]" (procedure "writeVarList2File" line 5) : (followed by more text that I won't quote) : ====== * Reply was: This statement used to be "useless": it would have created a variable that is completely unreachable from Tcl code. It is now an error. * If you were using the [dict] as an extension in 8.4, you may want to remove the ''package require dict'' since it is now built into 8.5. * There have been a number of significant upgrades for [dict]s in Tcl 8.5. * Integer operations no longer wrap around at 2^31 (or whatever value your platform dictates); make use of the int or wide functions, or bit masking, etc. to limit range explicitly if needed. * [tcl_precision] changed - where previously numbers might have displayed as 3.3, under 8.5 they may show as 3.30000000000003 for example. I had to fix this by adding additional trace commands and shadow variables to reformat the numbers. ''Concerns use with -textvariable and the like. Normally numbers presented to the user should have been explicitly [format]ed anyway.'' Previously, the default was tcl_precision of 12, but with the expanded floating point functionality, that variable's value now is set to 0. * [grid] behavior changed when the widget is smaller than the container. Tcl 8.5 added the [grid anchor] command but the 8.5 default is nw while 8.4 behavior was center. * Take a look at the entries in the "changes" files (included in the Tcl and Tk source code distributions) that are marked '''** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY **'''. * If you were using the [Tile] extension in tk 8.4, the functions were moved into the ttk [namespace]. * The autoconf for Tcl requires at least autoconf 2.57 to regenerate Tcl's `configure`. * read obsolete.tcl if you need to make use of ::tk::classic::restore to return to previous widget default widths, etc. * According to various reports, [MacOS 9], [IRIX] 4, [RISCos], [Ultrix] and ancient [BSD] systems are no longer supported by Tcl/Tk starting with 8.5. * [First impressions with tcl/tk 8.5.0] * [ActiveTcl] 8.5 on Unix is built with [thread]s enabled - use of this tclsh starts a base thread, which will cause conflicts if other code within the process uses [fork]. * Text widget now defaults to a fixed-width font (TkFixedFont vs MS Sans Serif) * [Xft support] - With Tk 8.5, at configuration time, one has to choose either --enable-xft to get anti-aliased fonts or --disable-xft to get the old bitmap fonts. Under the X window system, at least, it is reported that you can only get one or the other. The result is that users may see a different set of fonts being displayed when using a Tk configured for the anti-aliased fonts, unless the machine in use has both bitmap and anti-alias fonts with the same font names. One developer reports that when his application ran under tk 8.5 with xft enabled, his [canvas] [postscript] output was no longer printing - because the fonts being selected from the canvas didn't match the fonts on his printer. ---- * Code using a list where a string is expected may find that under 8.5, the value that is included now is braced: ====== $ tclsh8.4 % list #123456 #123456 %^D $ tclsh8.5 % list #123456 {#123456} % ====== While from a Tcl point of view, the two are equivalent, there are coding situations where a string is needed. As always, in Tcl, be certain to specifically use strings and string functions when strings are required, and use list functions and lists where lists are required. '''[DGP]''' No, they are not equivalent. Tcl 8.4 is buggy. In Tcl 8.5, the bug has been fixed. See TIP 148 [http://tip.tcl.tk/148] for all the details. [PWQ] ''22 Aug 08'', So now when I print out a list of four colour names using #rrggbb notation I can always expect the first colour to be braced and then rest unbraced, thanks for that, that is so much better. I am always wanting to eval comments as lists and I never want to use #rrggbb colour names in lists. ---- Other wiki pages related to Tcl 8.5 differences * [Tcl/Tk 8.5: New public C routines] * [Changes in Tcl/Tk 8.5.1] * [Changes in Tcl/Tk 8.5.2] * [Changes in Tcl/Tk 8.5.3] * [Changes in Tcl/Tk 8.5.4] * [First impressions with tcl/tk 8.5.0] * [Documentation and Demos for Tcl/Tk 8.5] ---- [LV] 2008-08-21 I have had several developers who have been trying to bring up their Tcl 8.4 applications using Tcl 8.5. While the applications are coming up, the number one complaint that I get is that widgets are coming up with different colors. The primary example I have seen is the code sample I added over on [iwidgets] while trying to figure out a problem in one of the widgets. Besides the problem with the button placement, under Tcl 8.4, the code there comes up with the listbox having a grey background, but under Tk 8.5 it has a white background. Is there something simple a developer can do to get this behavior reversed, other than changing lots of lines of code to hard code the color? [JH] Use '''tk::classic::restore''', although the new defaults are intended to be a strict improvement for modern UI conventions. This is not considered an incompatibility. [LV] Is there something I can use so that the classic Tk radiobutton displays a diamond rather than a circle indicator? The Tk 8.5 man page for radiobutton mentions both, but I don't seem to see an option to get the diamond back. A poster on comp.lang.tcl suggested: === create two custom images that mimic the old look, and use those with the radiobuttons. That might be the quickest road to a solution. === The reference in radiobutton.n to ''diamond'' was a red herring to me. Thanks to all. ---- [LV] When using a [radiobutton] or a [checkbutton] under [X], and specifying -selectcolor, in Tk 8.5.[0-5], the -selectcolor value is used regardless of whether the button is selected or not. This color was, previously, used only when the button was selected. Now, when the button is selected, a black dot or checkmark is overlayed on top of the select color. ---- [LV] I still have been unable to build [BLT] against Tcl 8.5.4. Are there other, relatively well-known, Tcl packages which do not build against Tcl 8.5 yet? ---- !!!!!! %| [Category Documentation] |% !!!!!!