TclPro Wrapper

Highlights | Frequently Asked Questions | Requirements

Create self-contained applications that are easy to distribute!

In the past, distributing Tcl applications has been a tricky process: you had to bundle up the base application, scripts, and auxiliary files, ship them to your customers, arrange for them all to be unpacked into appropriate directories, and make sure that various search paths were set correctly. TclPro Wrapper eliminates all these hassles. It bundles a base application such as protclsh or prowish, Tcl scripts, system library files, and any other files needed by your application into a single "wrapped" file that is completely self-contained. You can distribute this file to your customers and they can execute it directly without needing any installation or any preexisting facilities.

Not only does TclPro Wrapper make it easy to distribute Tcl applications, but it also helps with version control. Since each application is self-contained, there are no dependencies on installed versions of Tcl or Tk; you can upgrade your Tcl and Tk libraries without impacting existing applications. Old applications continue to work while you deploy new wrapped applications that use newer versions of Tcl and Tk.

Product highlights

All-in-one output. TclPro Wrapper creates a single wrapped file that contains everything needed to run a single application.

Compression. TclPro Wrapper uses Zip encoding to compress the Tcl scripts and auxiliary files, which saves space in the wrapped application. Compression is optional: you can select which files to compress and which to leave in uncompressed form.

Compatible with other TclPro tools. TclPro Wrapper can wrap bytecode files created by TclPro Compiler, and wrapped applications can be debugged with TclPro Debugger.

Flexible sharing. Normally, TclPro Wrapper incorporates everything needed by the application into the wrapped file. However, you can choose to leave out shared library facilities if you know that the application will only be used in environments where the libraries are available. This reduces the size of the wrapped applications while still providing the convenience of bundling several source files into a single wrapped file.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Do I have to use protclsh or wish as the base application?
A. No. TclPro Wrapper allows you to use any Tcl application as the base application, as long as it uses Tcl 8.0.3 or later and includes a special package (included with TclPro) that provides access to the scripts and other files wrapped up with the base application.

Q. If my application uses other files in addition to Tcl script files, can they be wrapped too?
A. Yes. TclPro Wrapper allows you to include arbitrary files with the wrapped application. Normal Tcl commands such as open can be used to access wrapped files as if they were stored independently on disk.

Q. Can I wrap shared library files such as .dll or .so files with an application and then load them with the load command?
A. No. You can wrap these files, but the load command cannot load them due to restrictions in the underlying system software. If you want to use an extension that is not already incorporated in TclPro in a wrapped application, you must either link it statically into the base application that is wrapped or distribute the shared library for the extension as a separate file.

Q. Do my customers have to purchase TclPro licenses in order to use my wrapped applications?
A. No. Your TclPro license agreement gives you the right to redistribute, royalty-free, a file along with your wrapped applications that will make your applications readable.

Requirements

System hardware/software

TclPro Wrapper is available as a ready-to-run application for the following platforms, and generates output that runs on these platforms:

Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0 (Intel), 2000
Solaris 2.5, 2.6, 7 (SPARC)
HP-UX 10.20
Linux (Intel, Red Hat 5.0+, SuSE 6.0+)
SGI IRIX 6.3+

Note: The Linux distribution is for the Intel platform and the glibc2 C library.

Tcl versions

TclPro Wrapper works with the following versions of Tcl:

Tcl 8.0.3 and higher, but excluding 8.1
Tk 8.0.3 and higher, but excluding 8.1