From: Mo <no@spam.com> Subject: [ANNOUNCE] Jacl and Tcl Blend 1.2.4 ready for download. Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 16:07:40 +0000 This message is to announce the new 1.2.4 release of Jacl and Tcl Blend. These releases are the result of a joint effort by Mo DeJong, Christopher Hylands, and Bryan Surles. The goal of this project is to extend and improve the 1.0 release of Jacl and Tcl Blend which was originally started by the Sun Tcl team. The 1.2.4 Developers release of Jacl and Tcl Blend are available for downloading at the following URL: http://www.cs.umn.edu/~dejong/tcl/tcljava The 1.2 version is a developers release and should be considered alpha quality. Version 1.2.4 includes lots of bug fixes and new features that make it even easier to use Tcl and Java together. What's New in the 1.2.4 Release? ---------------------------------- Jacl now includes the namespace command! All the namespace features included in Tcl 8.1 should be working in this release. Unicode support has been added to the Jacl parser. Tcl Blend works with Tcl 8.2 and supports Unicode characters (encoded as UTF-8) when compiled with Tcl 8.1 or Tcl 8.2. Jacl now supports the "package present" subcommand from Tcl 8.1's package command. A new java::import command which supports using shortened class names has been added to Jacl and Tcl Blend. A number of bugs in Jacl have been fixed and a host of new regression tests from the Tcl 8.1 dist have been added to Jacl. See the new_features.txt and changes.txt files for more info. What is Jacl? ---------------- Jacl is a 100% Java implementation of Tcl 8. This allows Tcl to run in more environments and also brings the power of scripting to Java developers. Jacl only implements a subset of the Tcl language (the C version of Tcl has a lot of features!). However, the core of the language is implemented and well tested. What is Tcl Blend? ------------------------ Tcl Blend is a Tcl Extension that allows you to have access to the Java VM from the Tcl interpreter. The goal here is to allow Tcl developers to write new Tcl extensions in Java rather then C or C++ for better portability. Tcl Blend is known to work on Solaris, Windows 95/NT, IRIX, and Linux. Other systems have not been tested but it should be easy to port Tcl Blend to any system that supports dynamic loading and the Java JNI interface. For additional information: --------------------------------- Scriptics Corporation maintains the download site for Jacl and Tcl Blend. This site contains a variety of information about Tcl & Java integration: including FAQs, man pages, and the binary and source distributions for Jacl and Tcl Blend. Please visit the following URL: http://www.scriptics.com/java Christopher Hylands maintains his own page that lists a plethora of information. There are links to related Web pages, his own personal notes about building and using Jacl and Tcl Blend, and in depth explanations about Tcl and Java integration. This information can be found at the following URL: http://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cxh/java/tclblend Comments and questions can be sent to the Tcl & Java integration mailing list at: tcljava@tclconsortium.org Of course, you will need to join the mailing list first. You can do so by sending an email to this address. tcljava-request@tclconsortium.org Scriptics support for Jacl and Tcl Blend: ------------------------------------------------- It is important to understand that this release is due entirely to the efforts of Christopher Hylands and Mo DeJong. Scriptics currently has a minor, facilitating role in Jacl and Tcl Blend and is not officially supporting these releases. If you have a problem with Jacl or Tcl Blend or you think you have a great idea for a feature, you should send an email to the tcljava mailing list. Please do not send email directly to the authors. Credits --------- The Jacl and Tcl Blend releases are brought to you by: Mo DeJong Christopher Hylands Bryan Surles We would like to thank the Jacl and Tcl Blend 1.0 team: Ray Johnson: Project Manager Melissa Hirschl Ioi Lam Bryan Surles And a special thanks to Scott Stanton who implemented Tcl Blend, and to John Reekie of UC Berkeley.