------------------------------------------------------------
* 3/11/95 : Add patch from Martin Andrews <andrewm@ccfadm.eeg.ccf.org>
------------------------------------------------------------
This is version 1.8 of the BLT library. It is an extension to
Tk toolkit (it requires no patching of the Tcl or Tk libraries).
This library works with the following releases of Tcl/Tk ONLY. I, Jeffrey
Hobbs jhobbs@cs.uoregon.edu, have patched BLT to reach this state with the
help of others input, notably Richard Ball, Sven Delmas, and George Howlett.
If you have any problems, please email me.
This version of BLT works with the following tcl/tk versions ONLY:
tcl 7.4 / tk 4.0 (not beta)
The BLT toolkit contains the following widgets/commands:
1) Drag-n-drop command: blt_drag&drop
Updated version of Michael McLennan's drag and drop command
(it's still maintained by Michael).
2) Hypertext widget: blt_htext
Allows text and Tk widgets to combined in a single scroll-able
window.
3) Busy window: blt_busy
For handling user-interaction when the application is "busy".
Manages an invisible "busy" window which prevents further
user device (keyboard, mouse, button, etc.) interactions.
Also provides a different cursor which supersedes application
cursors.
4) Bitmap command: blt_bitmap
Lets you read and write bitmaps from Tcl. Can define X bitmaps
and create bitmaps from text strings. Other options query any
loaded X bitmap.
5) Background "exec" command: blt_bgexec
Like "exec ... &", but collects the output of the detached
UNIX subprocesses and sets a Tcl variable upon their completion.
Can be used with "tkwait variable" to handle application's
expose events, etc. while waiting for subprocesses to finish.
6) Table geometry manager: blt_table
Specify window placements as table row,column positions. Also
has many options for placing constraints on window resizes.
7) Barchart widget: blt_barchart
8) XY graph widget: blt_graph
9) Window option command: blt_win
Lets you raise, lower, map, or, unmap any window.
10) Watch commands: blt_watch
Lets you specify Tcl procedures to be run before and/or
after every Tcl command. May be used for logging,
tracing, profiling, or debugging or Tcl code.
11) Simple command trace: blt_debug
Simply prints out each Tcl command before it's executed.
12) Cutbuffer and bell commands: blt_cutbuffer, blt_bell
The commands are derived from the "bellcut" extensions and are
provided as a convenience. Credit should go to the author(s)
(I can't remember who they are. Sorry) for this work.
---------
Changes since BLT-1.7 (Done by a collective group):
- Updated for Tcl 7.4, Tk 4.0 internally. Several of the demos
still need updating, but the code works...
---------
Changes since BLT-1.6:
1. New feature in "blt_graph", "blt_barchart":
- New "-ticklength" option specifies length of ticks/subticks.
Ticks are no longer scaled with the dimensions of the window.
(POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY).
2. New feature in "blt_bgexec":
- New "-statusvar" option sets variable with exit status of the
last command. Now waits for subprocesses to finish even if stdout
closes prematurely or output is redirected.
3. New application "applications/extloader":
- Creates an vanilla "wish" with an "extension" command from
dynamically loading and initializing extensions. Try it out
using BLT. This command reflects the proposal made last year
for an extension loader. It is certainly not the last word on
extension loading. I any welcome comments or suggestions to
improve this or any other loader.
It's been tested on HP-UX, SunOS 4.x, and SunOS 5.x. It should
also work on ISIX 5.x, OSF1.
4. Bug fixes: See the file "ChangeLog" for details. Thanks to all
those who've sent me their reports and fixes.
- Many bug fixes in blt_graph/blt_barchart (mostly bugs introduced
with BLT-1.6).
- "blt_bitmap define" was freeing memory twice if bitmap already
existed.
---------
Changes since BLT-1.5:
1. New features in "blt_graph":
- New "-bufferelements" options caches elements in a pixmap. Tags,
legend and active elements are now drawn after normal elements
(POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY).
- Legend creates extra columns of element labels as needed. Legend
no longer runs off the graph window.
- New legend commands to locate an element in the legend window
coordinates, set active foreground/background colors for legend entries.
Legend background must be now specified (POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY).
- New "element deactivate" command. "element activate" command no longer
supports "all" or "none" as index arguments (POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY).
If no indices are present, all points are active. Use
"element deactivate" instead of "none".
- New "-borderwidth" option to control width of the border around line
symbols (e.g. circle, square, etc). If borderwidth is zero, no border
is drawn. Lines connecting symbols and the symbol's area are drawn
with the foreground color. Only the border is drawn in the background
color.
2. Misc changes
- "blt_graph" and "blt_barchart": Option database names prefixed
by "elem" instead of "lineElem" or "barElem". Class names now
have no prefix (formerly "Elem"). (POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY).
- "blt_barchart": -stipple option for blt_barchart now can take a
list of bitmap names. This lets you specify different stipples for
each bar segment.
- "blt_table": configure command now can take more than one slave
window name. This lets you set the same options for a set of
slave windows.
- "blt_bgexec": output, error, and update variables can be elements
of an array.
3. Bug fixes: See the file "ChangeLog" for details. Thanks to all
those who've sent me their reports and fixes.
---------
Changes since BLT-1.4:
1. New "-descending" axis option for "blt_graph" and "blt_barchart".
Allows axis to be ordered in decreasing values.
2. New "-invertxy" graph option for "blt_barchart" and "blt_graph".
Inverts the x and y axes (displays on x-axis on left, y-axis
on bottom of plot).
3. Bug fixes: See the file "ChangeLog" for details. Thanks to all
those who've sent me their reports and fixes.
---------
Changes since BLT-1.3:
1. Axis not re-scaling when changing log/linear scale.
2. New command: "blt_watch" arranges for Tcl procedures to be
called before and/or after the execution of every Tcl command.
This command may be used in the logging, profiling, or tracing of
Tcl code.
3. Bug fixes: See the file "ChangeLog" for details. Thanks to all
those who've sent me their reports and fixes.
---------
Changes since BLT-1.2:
1. Fixed manual scaling bug (seen in ./demos/graph2)
2. New feature: C interface to reset "blt_graph" element data.
3. Bug fixes: See the file "ChangeLog" for details. Again, thanks
to all those who've sent me reports.
---------
Changes since BLT-1.1:
1. Fixed bug (coredump) in "blt_bgexec" command introduced
last release.
2. Fixed bug (error) in "blt_graph" and "blt_barchart" commands
introduced in last release. Bug doesn't allow axis -min, -max options
to be reset to autoscale.
3. Fixed bug in Kosherdill installation.
4. New feature in "blt_graph" and "blt_barchart".
Added alternate x and y axes (x2, y2).
Moved axis title options to their respective axis commands
.graph configure -xtitle "X Axis Title"
becomes
.graph xaxis configure -title "X Axis Title"
---------
Changes since BLT-1.0:
1. Many changes to configuration and install files. Hopefully this
is an improvement.
2. New options in "blt_graph" to detect closest point and highlight
single element data points.
3. New option in "blt_bitmap" command lets you create bitmaps of rotated
text strings.
4. Restructured BLT library to facilitate loading as a shared object.
5. Lots of bug fixes: See the file "ChangeLog" for details. Again, thanks
to all those who've sent me reports.
---------
Changes since BLT-1.0b2:
1. First BLT application.
Kosher Dill
( KOmprehensive Storage HandlER / Disk ILLustrator )
---------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 1993 AT&T Bell Laboratories
Michael J. McLennan (michael.mclennan@att.com)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Kosher Dill is a simple utility for managing disk usage. It
provides a graphical representation of the system "du" command,
along with drag&drop facilities for exploring, compressing
and removing files.
It can be found in the new "blt-1.0/applications" directory.
2. Drag-and-drop facility "blt_drag&drop". Michael McLennan has updated
and added his drag-and-drop command.
3. Shared library target (for supported systems): I've been able to test
this only on SunOS 4.x, SunOS 5.x, and HP-UX 9.01 systems.
4. Add -updatevar flag to "blt_bgexec": You can now get partial updates
of output as the program is running. See the script "demos/bgexec".
5. Library directory: This directory contains the drag-n-drop protocols
and the PostScript prolog for graph and barchart. The path can be
set in the following ways:
- compiled into the library.
- set by the environment variable "BLT_LIBRARY"
- set by the Tcl variable "blt_library"
6. Lots of bug fixes: See the file "ChangeLog" for details. Thanks to
all those who've sent me reports. I really appreciate it.
---------
How to get and test BLT:
The following describes how to get and install the BLT library.
0. FTP the distribution from ftp.cs.uoregon.edu
ftp ftp.cs.uoregon.edu
cd pub/jhobbs/
binary
get blt-1.8.tar.gz
bye
1. Uncompress and untar the distribution file.
zcat blt-1.8.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
This will create a directory "blt-1.8" with the following
subdirectories:
blt-1.8
______________|_________________
| | | | |
applications demos library man src
|
shared
2. Run ./configure
Go into the "blt-1.8" directory
cd blt-1.8
and run the auto-configuration script "./configure"
./configure
* If you want to use gcc, it's "./configure -with-gcc"
./configure -with-gcc
* By default, the demo program, libBLT.a, the library files, and
manual pages will be installed in "/usr/local/blt". You can
change this by giving the -prefix option to ./configure.
./configure -prefix=/depot/stuff/blt
You may be queried for the location of the Tcl and Tk libraries, if
"configure" can't find them in the standard locations.
The configure script creates an include file "src/bltConfig.h".
It will also generate new Makefiles from their respective templates
(Makefile.in).
Makefile.in ==> Makefile
src/Makefile.in ==> src/Makefile
src/shared/Makefile.in ==> src/shared/Makefile
man/Makefile.in ==> man/Makefile
library/Makefile.in ==> library/Makefile
If "configure" can't find something (e.g. it can't find the X libraries),
edit the file "config.status" and run it.
./config.status
Otherwise, you'll have to edit the Makefiles files by hand.
3. Compile the demonstration program "blt_wish".
make
4. Test by running the demos.
Go into the demos directory
cd demos
and run the test scripts.
./graph
If your system doesn't support "#!" in shell scripts, then it's
../blt_wish -f ./graph
5. Installing BLT
The following directories will be created when BLT is installed.
By default, the top directory is /usr/local/blt.
_____________|__________
| | | |
bin lib library man
You can change the top directory by supplying the -prefix option to
./configure.
* If you don't install BLT, you will need to set the BLT_LIBRARY
environment variable or the Tcl variable "blt_library" in your
scripts. Otherwise, you may not be able generate PostScript
output for graphs and barcharts, or use the drag&drop facility
properly.
6. BLT Applications
In the "blt-1.8/applications" directory, there is the first
application called "kosherdill". It has its own README and
configure script.
7. Creating a shared library.
This is currently available (and tested) on the following
systems:
SunOS 4.x
SunOS 5.x
HP-UX 9.01
From the "blt-1.8" directory:
make sharedlib
This will create a shared library in the directory src/shared.
8. Adding BLT to your program.
Add the following lines to your program's Tcl_AppInit routine
if (Blt_Init(interp) != TCL_OK) {
return TCL_ERROR;
}
Link with libBLT.a
and that's all there's to it.
9. Send bugs reports, correspondence, etc. to
george.howlett@att.com