From: Jean-Luc Fontaine <jfontain@free.fr>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.tcl
Subject: ANNOUNCE: moodss-11.10
Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 21:05:02 GMT

Hi everybody: here is a new version of moodss.


Check it out! (or at least the screenshots at
http://jfontain.free.fr/moodss3.gif or
http://jfontain.free.fr/moodss4.gif :).

Note: versions 10.x and above releases are for Tcl/Tk 8.3 or 8.4, with
corresponding releases using the 8.x version numbering for Tcl/Tk
8.0. Once Tcl/Tk 8.2.3 or 8.3 becomes part of the main Linux
distributions, development of the 8.x versions will stop.


### CHANGES ###

--- version 11.10 ---
MySQL myselect module now completely generic, renamed to myquery, as
  it now handles any query passed as argument (successfully tested with
  SELECT and SHOW)
all MySQL modules now allow database server port to be specified
  (--port option)
all MySQL modules now use the patched Mytcl library (rpm on my
  homepage)
all MySQL modules now handle connection errors while running
when loading from a save file, check save file existence and validity
help would crash when closing the general help window from the window
  manager, if help was invoked from a dialog box
in print preview window, zoom menu was no longer usable
when moving mouse cursor downward into the center of a data table
  title area, then pressing mouse button, table was resized instead of
  being moved

### README ###

This is moodss (Modular Object Oriented Dynamic SpreadSheet) version
11.10. Moodss is implemented in the great Tcl language (requires at
least versions 8.3 of Tcl and Tk, for UNIX or Windows).

Moodss won in the Best System Admin Technology category (Tcl Tips and
Tricks, Valuable Real World Programming Examples) at the O'Reilly
Tcl/Tk Conference on August 24, 1999, Linux Magazine calls it a
"lifesaver", and is worth about 5 penguins at Tucows.

Moodss is a modular application. It displays data described and
updated in one or more modules, which can be specified in the command
line or dynamically loaded or unloaded while the application is
running. Data is originally displayed in tables. Graphical views
(graph, bar, 3D pie charts, ...), summary tables (with current,
average, minimum and maximum values) and free text viewers can be
created from any number of table cells, originating from any of the
displayed viewers.

A thorough and intuitive drag'n'drop scheme is used for most viewer
editing tasks: creation, modification, type mutation, destruction,
... Table rows can be sorted in increasing or decreasing order by
clicking on column titles. The current configuration (modules, tables
and viewers geometry, ...) can be saved in a file at any time, and
later reused through a command line switch, thus achieving a dashboard
functionality.

The module code is the link between the moodss core and the data to be
displayed. All the specific code is kept in the module package. Since
module data access is entirely customizable (through C code, Tcl,
HTTP, ...) and since several modules can be loaded at once,
applications for moodss become limitless.
For example, thoroughly monitor a dynamic web server on a single
dashboard with graphs, using the Apache, MySQL, cpustats, memstats,
...  modules. If you have replicated servers, dynamically add them to
your view, even load the snmp module on the fly and let your
imagination take over...

Apart from a sample module with random data, ps, cpustats, memstats,
diskstats, mounts, route, arp, kernmods, netdev, MySQL (myquery,
mystatus, myprocs, myvars) modules for Linux, ping, snmp and snmptrap
for UNIX, apache and apachex modules are included (running "wish
moodss ps cpustats memstats" mimics the "top" application with a
graphic edge). Module contibutions are of course welcomed and will be
included in my home page.

Thorough help is provided through menus, widget tips, a message area,
a module help window and a global help window with a complete HTML
documentation.

Moodss is multi-langual thanks to Tcl internationalization
capabilities. So far only English and French are supported. Help with
other languages will be very warmly welcomed.

Development of moodss is continuing and as more features are added in
future versions, backward module code compatibility will be maintained.

I cannot thank the authors of tkTable, BLT and the HTML library enough
for their great work.

In order to run moodss, you need to install the following packages
(unless you can use the rpm utility, see below):
obviously Tcl/Tk 8.3 at (or at a mirror near you)
  http://www.scriptics.com/ or ftp://ftp.scriptics.com/
the latest tkTable widget library at:
  http://www.hobbs.wservice.com/tcl/main.html
and the latest BLT library at:
  http://www.tcltk.com/blt/
(see the INSTALL file for complete instructions, for UNIX and also
Windows platforms).

You also have the option of using the moodss rpm file (also in my
homepage), if you are using a Redhat Linux system (6.0 or above).
You can find the required tcl, tk, tktable, blt and other rpms at:
http://jfontain.free.fr/

Whether you like it (or hate it), please let me know. I would like to
hear about bugs and improvements you would like to see. I will correct
the bugs quickly, especially if you send me a test script (module code
with a data trace would be best).

###

you may find it now at my homepage:

http://jfontain.free.fr/moodss-11.10.tar.gz
http://jfontain.free.fr/moodss-11.10-1.i386.rpm
http://jfontain.free.fr/moodss-11.10-1.spec

Enjoy and please let me know what you think.


--
Jean-Luc Fontaine  mailto:jfontain@free.fr  http://jfontain.free.fr/