Preface

This book is about Tcl, the scripting language developed by John Ousterhout. Tcl stands for tool command language and was originally designed as a simple scripting language interpreter that could be embedded inside applications written in the C language. With the addition of the Tk graphical toolkit and a host of other language extensions supporting such features as graphics, relational databases, and object-oriented programming, Tcl has become a popular programming language for developing applications in its own right. The freely available Tcl language interpreter runs on many computer platforms, including most Unix-compatible systems, Microsoft Windows, and Apple Macintosh.

Tcl/Tk in a Nutshell is a quick reference for the basic commands of Tcl, Tk, and several other popular Tcl language extensions. As with other books in O'Reilly's "In a Nutshell" series, this book is geared toward users who know what they want to do but just can't remember the right command or option. For subtle details, you will sometimes want to consult the official Tcl reference documentation, but for most tasks you should find the answer you need in this volume. We hope that this guide will become an invaluable desktop reference for the Tcl user.