What is the Tcl Plug-in?

The Tcl plug-in lets you use the web in new ways. You can now create pages that contain compelling applications based on a mature and easy to use scripting language, Tcl and a robust user interface toolkit, Tk. These applications are automatically portable to all major desktop platforms, and can be viewed with Netscape Communicator and Navigator^TM Microsoft Internet Explorer^TM and other browsers that support the plug-in mechanism. Best of all, it's available today, free of charge.

To download these browsers, click , for Netscape Communicator, or for Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Technically Speaking

Plug-ins are extensions of Netscape Navigator that display multimedia content inside a Web page. Each plug-in is designed to display content of a different type, and allows Navigator to display pages containing elements that it itself does not know how to format and display.

The Tcl plug-in is a viewer for Tcl and Tk applications. It allows you to embed Tcl and Tk applications in a Web page and to display Tk user interfaces in windows on Web pages. All of the graphical power of Tk is now available for you to create exciting Web pages!

You've certainly heard about security risks inherent in executing scripts and binaries from unknown sources. The Tcl plug-in avoids most security risks and allows you to execute Tcl applications found on Web pages without having to worry whether you are exposing yourself to some attack. The Tcl plug-in provides this security through a novel padded cell approach that prevents scripts from obtaining access to the hosting system and isolates them from each other.

A spectrum of security policies can be implemented that provide scripts in such padded cells with safe access to a variety of facilities provided by the hosting system. The default security policy prevents Tcl applets from running other programs, accessing the file system, and creating toplevel windows (including menus). This default has been chosen to give you the highest confidence when trying Tcl applets.

Supported Systems

UNIX

The plug-in works with Netscape Navigator 3.0 or 4.0. The UNIX versions we support are Solaris, SunOS, Linux, and IRIX. With the new source release you can port to your favorite platform.

Windows

The plug-in works on Windows 95 and Window NT with Netscape Navigator^TM 4.0, 3.0, 2.0, Microsoft Internet Explorer^TM 4.0, 3.0, and Opera (beta). We do not support Windows 3.1.

Note: The Java and Javascript connectivity available when running inside Netscape do not work under Internet Explorer.

Macintosh

The current version of the plugin works with Netscape on Power Macintoshes.