Here is the new STk FAQ. It is very incomplete and should get better with
time.
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Answers to the Frequently Asked Questions about STk
Erick Gallesio
July 1996
1. Introduction
The aim of this document is to answer to the frequently asked
questions about STk. First versions of this document were written by
Marc Furrer (furrer_at_di.epfl.ch)with the support of Erick Gallesio
(eg_at_unice.fr) Marc has not enough time to continue to maintain the FAQ
up to date and he asked me to continue. Since I too have not a lot of
time for keeping the FAQ alive, any help would be greatly apreciated.
The latest version of the FAQ is available at
http://kaolin.unice.fr/FAQ/FAQ.html Text and Postscript versions of
this document are also available at
ftp://kaolin.unice.fr/pub/FAQ The
HTML version is the recommended version of this document since all the
links to other documents or softwares can be followed just by clicking
on them.
This version of the document is very incomplete and if you think of
questions that are appropriate for this FAQ, or would like to improve
an answer, please send me e-mail.
1.1. Subject: What is STk
STk is a R4RS Scheme interpreter which can access to the Tk graphical
package. It can be seen as the John Ousterhout's Tk package where the
Tcl language has been replaced by Scheme (for more information on
Scheme, Tcl and Tk, see the references below).
STk also provides an efficient object oriented system called STklos.
STklos is an OO system with multi-inheritance, generic functions,
multi-methods. It's implementation relies on a Meta Object Protocol
(MOP) inspired from the Tiny -CLOS model.
Other features of STk are:
o Interpreter can be easily extended by adding new C modules.
o All the commands defined by the Tk toolkit are available to the STk
interpreter (Tk commands are seen as a special type of objects by
the interpreter).
o Widgets callbacks are Scheme closures
o Based on Tk4.1 (the last stable release of Tk)
o STk does not use the Tcl interpreter for Tk programming
o Tk variables (such are -textvariable) are reflected back into
Scheme as Scheme variables.
o A set of STklos classes have been defined to manipulate Tk commands
(menu, buttons, scales, canvas, canvas items) as STklos objects.
o New widgets can easily be built in STklos by composition of
existing widgets.
1.2. Subject: Where do I get STk from
STk distribution is available on various sites. The official
distribution site is
http://kaolin.unice.fr/or
ftp://kaolin.unice.fr/pub Distribution file names have the form STk-
x.y.tar.gz, where x and y represent the version and the release of the
package. You can also find here interim releases of STk. Intermediate
releases are stored in file whose name have the form STk-x.y.z.tar.gz
where z is the intermediate release number. Last stable release can be
taken from
http://kaolin.unice.fr/STk.tar.gzor
ftp://kaolin.unice.fr/pub/STk.tar.gz
1.3. Subject: Are there distribution mirror sites
Stable releases of STk are also placed in
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/devel/lang/lisp Since this site is
eavily mirrored around the planet, you should easily find a stable
release near you.
David Fox also maintain a mirror site of kaolin (daily updated) in the
USA at the following URL
ftp://cs.nyu.edu/pub/local/fox/stk
1.4. Subject: Which are the systems STk support
STk runs on a large variety of Unixes. It is known to run on:
o Sparc (SunOs 4.1.x & Solaris 2.{34})
o Dec 5xxx (Ultrix 4.2)
o SGI (IRIX 4.05, 5.1.1, 5.2)
o DEC Alpha 3000/400 (OSF-1 V1.3)
o RS6000 AIX 3.2.5
o HP 9000/735 (HP-UX 9.01)
o PC (Linux 1.0 -> 2.0)
o PC (FreeBSD 1.1)
o PC (SCO) Thanks to markd_at_grizzly.com
o PC (NetBSD-1.0)
o Sony WS (Sony NEWS, NEWSOS 4.2R)
o
1.5. Subject: STk and Windows
Starting with release 3.1, STk runs on 32 bits Microsoft Windows (only
tested on Windows 95, but it should run on Windows NT). This version
is based on the Tk 4.1 final release.
STk Win32 version is distributed in source and binary forms, since
binary release seems more convenient on Windows.
Development of STk on this platform is not easy for me since it is not
the system I use dayly. In particular, a lot of work need to be done
(loading of packages compiled in DLL, sockets, ...). Help of a Win32
hacker would be greatly appreciated to achieve those tasks.
1.6. Subject: STk and MacOS
It is not intended to port STk on MAcOS, by lack of resource (and
interest of myself :). However, port should be simple for a Mac
hacker. I can provide help if necessary for this job.
Another way to run STk on a Mac consists to run STk under Mach Ten. If
I have well understood, Mach Ten is a Unix (Mach-) like system running
on top of MacOS. STk compiles fine on this system.
1.7. Subject: Getting more information about Scheme
The R4RS document
o R4RS is the document which fully describes the Scheme Programming
Language, it can be found in the Scheme repository at the following
URL
ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc
o Aubrey Jaffer has also translated this document in HTML. A version
of this document can be browsed at
http://www-
swiss.ai.mit.edu/~jaffer/r4rs_toc.html
The Scheme Repository
The main site where you can find (many) informations about Scheme is
located in the University of Indiana. The Scheme repository is
maintained by David Eby. The repository currently consists of the
following areas:
o Lots of scheme code meant for benchmarking, library/support,
research, education, and fun.
o On-line documents: Machine readable standards documents, standards
proposals, various Scheme-related tech reports, conference papers,
mail archives, etc.
o Most of the publicly available Scheme Implementations.
o Material designed primarily for instruction.
o Freely-distributable promotional or demonstration material for
Scheme-related products.
o Utilities (e.g., Schemeweb, SLaTeX).
o Extraneous stuff, extensions, etc.
You can access the Scheme repository at:
o
ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository
o
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/scheme-repository/SRhome.html
The Scheme Repository is mirrored in Europe at:
o
ftp://ftp.inria.fr/lang/Scheme
o
ftp://faui80.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/pub/scheme/yorku
o
ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-muenchen.de/pub/comp/programming/
languages/scheme/scheme-repository
Usenet newsgroup and other addresses
There is a usenet newsgroup about the Scheme Programming language:
comp.lang.scheme
Miscelleanous
Following addresses contains also interesting material about the
Scheme language
o The Scheme FAQ
http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/Groups/AI/html/faqs/lang/scheme/top.htmlhem
e/scheme-
repository
o The Scheme Home Page at MIT
http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/scheme-
home.html
o The Scheme Underground web page:
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/su/su.html
1.8. Subject: Differences with R4RS
Symbols
STk symbol syntax has been augmented to allow case significant
symbols. Many global symbols have been added to the global
environment, see Appendix B of the STk Reference Manual.
Types
STk implements all the types defined as mandatory in R4RS. However,
complex numbers and rational numbers (which are defined but not
required in R4RS) are not implemented. The lack of these types implies
that some functions of R4RS are not defined.
Some types which are not defined in R4RS are implemented in STk. Those
types are listed below:
o input string port type
o output string port type
o keyword type
o Tk command type (to use the Tk widgets)
o environment type (environments are first class in STk)
o macro type
o address type (obsolete now)
o hash table type
o process type (launch and communication with subprocess)
o socket type (TCP/UDP sockets)
o regexp type (access to tcl regexp)
Procedures
The following procedures are required by R4RS and are not implemented
in the STk interpreter:
o transcript-off
o transcript-on
These procedure can be easily simulated with various Unix tools such
as script or fep.
The following procedures are not implemented in the STk interpreter
whereas they are defined in R4RS (but not required). They are all
related to complex or rational numbers:
o numerator
o denominator
o rationalize
o make-rectangular
o make-polar
o real-part
o imag-part
o magnitude
o angle
This is more detailed in the Appendix B of the STk Reference Manual.
1.9. Subject: Compatibility with SLIB
Aubrey Jaffer maintains a package called SLIB which is a portable
Scheme library which provides compatibility and utility functions for
all standard Scheme implementations. To use this package, you have
just to type
(require "slib")
and follow the instructions given in the library to use a particular
package.
2. Contributed Packages
Small (in size) contributions are included in the release. Among them
we can cite:
o STk-wtour: A didactic demo to learn STk written by Suresh Srinivas
(ssriniva_at_cs.indiana.edu)
o Stetris : A tetris game written by Harvey J. Stein
(hjstein_at_math.huji.ac.il)
o Queens: The famous 8 queens problem by Grant Edwards
(grante_at_winternet.com)
o Ttt: A 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe by Edin "Dino" Hodzic ehodzic_at_scu.edu
Complex contributions are kept in the
ftp://kaolin.unice.fr/pub/Contribdirectory. This directory contains
also old code which should probably be updated to work with current
STk release. Among the packages which can be found in this directory
are:
o EnvDraw: is a environment diagramming package which draws
environment diagrams as taught in Abelson and Sussman's Structure
and Interpretation of Computer Languages. It was written as an
instructional tool for the CS61A course at the University of
California at Berkeley. The environment diagrammer is a
metacircular evaluator which draws procedures, environments, and
box and pointer diagrams along with all the accompanying symbols
and mutation. It includes a box and pointer diagrammer which
handles circular list structures, cons cell mutation, and also will
watch for modification of any symbols known to be pointing to drawn
cells. The author of this very neat package is Josh MacDonald
jmacd_at_po.EECS.Berkeley.EDU
o WWW is a HTML browser which greatly enhances the hbrowse demo which
is part of STk distribution. You should look at this package.
Author: Harvey J. Stein hjstein_at_math.huji.ac.il
o Nanocad is chemistery CAD program which allows you to create small
molecules and to rotate them. The author of this package is Will
Ware wware_at_world.std.com
o
Some packages are not in the kaolin Contrib directory:
o A preemptive thread package can be found at
ftp://ftp.cs.uoregon.edu/pub/lth/tasking-alpha2.tar.gz The uthor of
this package is Lars Thomas Hansen lth_at_cs.uoregon.edu
o A low level interface to the Postgres 95 Database can be found at
http://www.webbuild.com/~rtoy/pgstk/http://www.webbuild.com/~rtoy/pgstk/
.
o Tabula rasa is a system written by David Fox which use the STk
interpreter (but not Tk).This package can be found at ?????. (TO BE
COMPLETED)
o spice package from Fritz.Heinrichmeyer_at_fernuni-hagen.de (I cannot
find the reference)
o
3. STk tips
TO BE COMPLETED
4. STklos tips
TO BE COMPLETED
5. Getting more information about Tk
There are two reference book about Tk (of course, you better not read
the chapters about Tcl ;-):
o "Tcl and the Tk Toolkit" by John Ousterhout (the author of the
Tcl/Tk package), ISBN 0-201-63337-X, Addison-Wesley, April 1994.
o "Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk" by Brent Welch, ISBN
0-13-182007-9, Prentice Hall, 1995.
There is also a Usenet newsgroup for Tcl/Tk: comp.lang.tcl A FAQ, for
Tcl/Tk is regulary posted in comp.lang.tcl.annonce
6. Miscelleanous
6.1. Subject: The STk Mailing List
There is a mailing list for STk located on kaolin.unice.fr. The intent
of this mailing list is to permit to STk users to share experiences,
expose problems, submit ideas and everything which you find
interesting (and which is related to STk).
To subscribe to the mailing list, simply send a message with the word
"subscribe" in the Subject: field of you mail. Mail must be sent to
the following address: stk-request_at_kaolin.unice.fr.
To unsubscribe from the mailing list, send a mail at previous e-mail
address with the word "unsubscribe" in the Subject: field.
For more information on the mailing list management, send a message
with the word "help" in the Subject: field of your mail. In
particular, it is possible to find all the messages which have already
been sent on the STk mailing list.
Subscription/un-subscription/information requests are processed
automatically without human intervention. If something goes wrong,
send a mail to eg_at_unice.fr
Once you have properly subscribe to the mailing list,
o you can send your messages about STk to stk_at_kaolin.unice.fr
o you will receive all the messages of the mailing list to the e-mail
address you used when you subscribed to the list.
The mailing list is archived at:
o
http://kaolin.unice.fr/mlist/Hypermail/index.htmlin hypertext
format, or
o
ftp://kaolin.unice.fr/pub/MailingList/index.htmlas raw text.
6.2. Subject: Reporting a Bug
When you find a bug in STk, please send its description to the
following address stk-bugs_at_kaolin.unice.fr. Don't forget to indicate
the STk version you use, the architecture and the system release on
which you run the interpreter. STk version and architecture can be
found by using the version and machine-type Scheme primitives. If
possible, try to find a small program which exhibit the bug. Even
better, if you have a patch, plese send it at the previous address.
6.3. Subject: Using STk from Emacs
There are several ways to call STk from emacs. One simple way consists
to add the following lines in your file $HOME/.emacs:
TO BE COMPLETED (with ILISP)
-- Erick
Received on Thu Jul 25 1996 - 13:54:08 CEST