Perl, TCL and TK Scripting Languages
After mentioning TCL yesterday, and having just installed the Pro version of Zorin OS 17 (Linux) on the main work computer, it’s a good time to check to see if Perl, TCL, and TK are available to use to develop some nifty scripts.
TCL (Tool Command Language)
I started using TCL in the 1990s, when I was CAD Support Engineer at Fujitsu Telecommunications in Birmingham. I used TCL to manipulate engineering postscript files (and other file types) that had been generated by sophisticated EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tools from Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys Inc. that electronic engineers were using to design complex electronic circuit boards.
TCL scripts were also developed to assist with setting up UNIX environment variables for the CAD/EDA tools to operate correctly, and also to aid the designers with the limited availability of licenses for these tools.
I still have to book by Eric F. Johnson I used back in the 1990s to develop these scripts. The book is referred to even now, despite online resources being so much better. Old habits ..
Checking TCL is available on Zorin OS 17
The which LINUX shell command is used to see if the TCL package is installed. It is, so in running the TCL shell (tclsh), with two commands we discover the version installed is 8.6.12. This version was released in late 2021, so that’s all fine.
The exit command is used to terminate the TCL shell and return to the LINUX command shell.
Checking TK is available on Zorin OS 17
TK is the toolkit used for creating graphical applications that work with the TCL scripting language. The TK interpreter is called wish. The executable file is also called wish.
Wish is not installed, so this package can now be installed, as prompted, with the command:
sudo apt install tk
This reports that around 2Mb of hard drive is required to install the TK package. So, no problem there.
Checking Perl is available on Zorin OS 17
Perl is another helpful scripting language and has been long used in web applications.
The command perl -v reports version 5.34 is installed, so that’s all fine too.
Other Happenings: Maintenance Work
Annual maintenance work commences on one of our old favourites, Roualeyn Fuchsias of Trefriw …
Links
Website:
Portfolio page:
Plugin(s):
Tools: TCL/TK
Sources:
Further reading/external sites:
