September 16-20, 2002
Vanco uver , BC, Canada

Pre-requisities: Knowledge of Tcl essential, knowledge of XML desirable
Audience: Tcl developers

This tutorial explains how to perform processing of XML documents in Tcl using the TclXML package. Starting with the basics of XML itself, the tutorial shows how to extract data from an XML document and advanced techniques.

Topics include:

• XML Concepts
• XML Logical Structure
• Tcl and XML
• XML Parsers
• TclXML Architecture
• TclXML Scripting
• Application Examples

This session will describe how to modularize your scripts from simple procedures and the source command to using namespaces and packages as well as using upvar and uplevel to control access to data. The class will also cover techniques for separating GUI code from business-rule code including using the bind command and variable tracing, to bind actions to events. Examples include a Tower of Hanoi game and a Nuclear Reactor simulator.

A basic knowlege of Tcl scripting is required.

Pre-requisities: Knowledge of Tcl essential, knowledge of XML desirable. Attending tutorial 1 is desirable, but not essential.
Audience: Tcl developers

This tutorial explains how to create and manipulate XML documents in Tcl using the TclDOM package. An introduction to the W3C Document Object Model starts off the tutorial, then the TclDOM package is introduced. Both the Tcl and libxml2 wrapper implementations are covered. Finally various advanced techniques, particularly XPath support and the DOM Event model, are explained.

Topics include:

• DOM Concepts
• DOM Level 1
• TclDOM Architecture
• TclDOM Scripting
• Tree Traversal
• XPath
• Tree Manipulation
• DOM Level 2
• DOM Events
• Tk Megawidgets
• Application examples

Prerequisites: Good grasp of Tcl fundamentals. Experience with event-driven programming (GUI or fileevent-based) recommended. Knowledge of multi-threaded programming concepts is helpful, but not required.

Abstract: A multi-threaded application can perform multiple tasks in parallel. Although Tcl's built-in event loop is an elegant and simple solution for tasks such as managing graphical user interfaces or handling interprocess communication (where threads are required in many other languages), there are still situations where a multi-threaded design is easier to implement and maintain. This module identifies appropriate uses of threads in Tcl applications, and describes how to use the Thread extension to design multi-threaded Tcl scripts.

Pre-requisities: Knowledge of Tcl and XML is essential. Knowledge of XSLT is desirable. Attending tutorials 1 and 2 is essential only if no or little previous knowledge of XML and XSLT.
Audience: Tcl developers, Web application developers.

This tutorial explains how to combine XSL Transformations (XSLT) with Tcl scripting. The seminar starts with an introduction to XSL Transformations, along with the Gnome libxslt library. It then shows how TclXSLT can be used to perform transformations and how the XSLT processor can be extended using Tcl scripts. Finally, the tutorial shows how application development can take full advantage of the power of XSLT and Tcl scripting.

Topics include:

• XML Namespaces
• XSL Concepts
• XPath Concepts
• XSLT Concepts
• XSLT Introduction
• XSLT Advanced
• Gnome libxslt
• TclXSLT
• Extending XSLT
• Application Examples
• Software Engineering

This exciting half day course will describe how to build extension, either by linking Tcl to an existing library or writing and extension completely from scratch. Topics covered include the basic extension architecture, adding a new command to Tcl, moving data from Tcl script to C and back, passing status information back to a script, using the Tcl hash table, creating commands with subcommands, parsing options and making an extension a package that can be loaded automaticly with package require.

Some knowlege of C and Tcl is required.

Prerequisites: Basic Tcl programming knowledge. No previous experience with Expect required.

Abstract: Expect's unparalleled support for interacting with command-line and network applications have made it the industry standard for automated test applications. But its features also make it an excellent tool for managing interprocess communication and extending legacy applications. As one developer said, "Expect can make easy all sorts of tasks that are prohibitively difficult with anything else." This tutorial concentrates on the four core Expect commands used in virtually all Expect programs, as well as showing tips and tricks for overcoming common Expect problems.

This session will introduce Oratcl, Sybtcl and TclODBC, discussing the similarities between the three database interfaces, as well as the differences. SQL and simple database theory will be introduced, followed by retrieving data with simple SQL commands and leading to performing joins, handling large numbers of records being returned. If there is demand, MySQL could be added to the list of Database engines covered.

A basic knowlege of Tcl scripting is required.