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[This is the last beta-release version of BLT (I know I said that
before, but then came along the 8.1.1 release, and now the 8.2.1 release).
What this means is that the documentation and demos still need work.
Please let me know about any configuration/compiler/installation goofs
so I make sure they're fixed for the final release.]
This is version 2.4 of the BLT library. It's an extension to the
Tcl/Tk toolkit. You simply compile and link with the Tcl/Tk
libraries. It does not require the Tcl or Tk source files.
BLT is available from
ftp.tcltk.com
in the "pub/blt" directory. The URL is
ftp://ftp.tcltk.com/pub/blt/BLT2.4.tar.gz
This release has been built and tested with the following Tcl/Tk
versions:
Tcl 7.5 / Tk 4.1
Tcl 7.6 / Tk 4.2
Tcl/Tk 8.0.2 thru 8.0.5
Tcl/Tk 8.1.0 thru 8.1.1
Tcl/Tk 8.2.0 thru 8.2.1
Avoid alpha and beta versions of Tcl/Tk. They probably won't work.
What is BLT?
BLT is an extension to Tcl/Tk. It adds plotting widgets (X-Y graph,
barchart, stripchart), a powerful geometry manager, a new canvas
item, and several new commands to Tk.
Plotting widgets:
graph, barchart, stripchart
BLT has X-Y graph, barchart, and stripchart widgets that are
both easy to use and customize. All the widgets work with
BLT vector data objects, which makes it easy to manage data.
Hierarchical list box:
hierbox Displays a general ordered tree which may be built
on-the-fly or all at once.
Tab set:
tabset Can be used either as a tab notebook or simple tabset.
Multi-tiered and/or scrolled tabsets are available.
Notebook pages can be torn-off into separate windows and
later put back.
Geometry Manager:
table A table-based geometry manager. Lets you specify widget
layouts by row and column positions in the table. Unlike the
packer or grid, you can finely control and constrain window
sizes.
Vector Data Object:
vector Lets you manage a vector of floating point values in a
high-level fashion. Vectors inter-operate seamlessly with
the plotting widgets. The graphs will automatically redraw
themselves when the vector data changes. Vector's components
can be managed through a Tcl array variable, a Tcl command,
or the using its own C API.
Background Program Execution:
bgexec Like Tcl's "exec ... &", but collects the output, error, and
status of the detached UNIX subprocesses. Sets a Tcl variable
upon completion.
Busy Command:
busy For preventing user-interactions when the application is
busy. Manages an invisible "busy" window which prevents
further user interactions (keyboard, mouse, button, etc.).
Also you can provide a busy cursor that temporarily
overrides those of the Tk widgets.
New Canvas Item:
eps An new item is added to the Tk canvas for handling
encapsulated PostScript. It lets you embed an EPS file into
the canvas displaying either an EPS preview image found in
the file, or a Tk image that you provide. When you print
the canvas the EPS item will automatically include the EPS
file, translating and scaling the PostScript. For example,
you could use "eps" items to tile several PostScript pages
into single page.
The "eps" item can also be used as a replacement for "image"
canvas items. Unlike "image" canvas items, the image of an
eps item can be printed and scaled arbitrarily.
Drag & Drop Facility:
drag&drop Adds drag-n-drop capabilities to Tk. It uses "send"-style
communication between drag-drop sources and targets. The
result is a much more powerful drag-and-drop mechanism than
is available with OpenLook or Motif.
Bitmap Command:
bitmap Lets you read and write bitmaps from Tcl. You can define
bitmaps from ordinary text strings. Bitmaps can also be
scaled and rotated. For example, you can create a button
with rotated text by defining a bitmap from a text string
and rotating it. You can then use the bitmap in the button
widget.
Miscellaneous Commands:
winop Basic window operations. You can raise, lower, map, or,
unmap windows. Other operations let you move the pointer
or take photo image snapshots of Tk widgets.
bltdebug Lets you trace the execution of Tcl commands and procedures.
Prints out each Tcl command before it's executed.
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.
spline Computes a spline fitting a set of data points (x and y
vectors) and produces a vector of the interpolated images
(y-coordinates) at a given set of x-coordinates.
htext A simple hypertext widget. Allows text and Tk widgets to
be combined in a scroll-able text window. Any Tk widget
can be embedded and used to form hyper-links. Other
options allow for selections and text searches.
What's new in 2.4?
1. "eps" canvas item.
An encapsulated PostScript canvas item lets you embed an EPS file into
the canvas. The "eps" item displays either a EPS preview image found
in the file, or a Tk image that you provide.
2. "hierbox" widget.
Hierarchical listbox widget. Displays a general ordered tree which
may be built on-the-fly or all at once.
3. "tabset" widget.
Can be used either as a tab notebook or simple tabset. Tabs can
be arranged in a variety of ways: multi-tiered, scrolled, and
attached to any of the four sides. Tab labels can contain both
images and text (text can be arbitrarily rotated). Notebook pages
can be torn-off into separate windows and replaced later.
4. Changes to vectors.
New features:
o Vector expressions. The vector now has an "expr" operation
that lets you perform math (including math library
functions) on vectors. There are several new functions
(such as "max", "min", "mean" "median", "q1", "q3", "prod",
"sum", "adev", "sdev", "skew", ...)
vector expr { sin(x)^2 + cos(x)^2 }
y expr { log(x) * $value }
o New syntax to create and destroy vectors:
vector create x
vector destroy x
The old syntax for creating vectors still works.
vector x
o Vectors are *not* automatically deleted when their Tcl
variable is unset anymore. This means that you can
temporarily map vectors to variables and use them as you
would an ordinary Tcl array (kind of like "upvar").
proc AddValue { vecName value } {
$vecName variable x
set x(++end) $value
}
There's an "-watchunset" flag to restore the old
behavior if you need it.
vector create x -watchunset yes
o Vectors still automatically create Tcl variables by
default. I'd like to change this, but it silently
breaks lots of code, so it will stay.
Bug fixes:
o Vector reallocation failed when shrinking the vector.
o Vector "destroy" callback made after vector was already freed.
o Fixed vector/scalar operations.
o Always store results in temporary, so not to overwrite accidently
current vector values.
5. Changes to Graph, Barchart, Stripchart widgets.
New features:
o Drop shadows for text (titles, markers, etc). Drop
shadows improve contrast when displaying text over a
background with similar color intensities.
o Postscript "-preview" option to generate a EPS
PostScript preview image that can be read and
displayed by the EPS canvas item.
o New "-topvariable", "-bottomvariable",
"-leftvariable", and "-rightvariable" options. They
specify variables to contain the current margin
sizes. These variables are updated whenever the
graph is redrawn.
o New "-aspect" option. Let's you maintain a particular aspect
ratio for the the graph.
o Image markers can now be stretched and zoomed like
bitmap markers.
o Bind operation for legend entries, markers, and elements.
Much thanks to Julian Loaring <bigj@bigj.demon.co.uk>
for the idea.
o New "-xor" option for line markers, lets you draw the line
by rubberbanded by XOR-ing without requiring the graph to
be redrawn. This can be used, for example, to select regions
for zooming.
Thanks to Johannes Zellner (joze@krisal.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de)
for the idea.
o Can attach a scrollbar to an axis.
.sbar configure -command { .graph axis view y }
.graph axis configure y -scrollcommand { .sbar set }
Bug fixes:
o Closest line (point) broken when using pens styles.
o Marker elastic coordinates were wrong.
o PostScript bounding box included the border of the page.
o Bad PostScript generated for barchart symbols with stipples.
o Wrong dimensions computed with postscript " -maxpect" option.
o Text markers fixed.
Thanks to De Clarke for the bug report and fix.
o Renamed axis configuration from "-range" to "-autorange" to
match the documentation.
Thanks to Brian Smith for the correction.
o Fixed polygon marker pick routine.
o Fixed active tab labels overlapping the selected tab.
o PostScript graph footer turned off by default. Use -footer option
to turn on.
.graph postscript configure -footer yes
What's incompatible with releases prior to BLT 2.4?
1. Vector names must start with a letter and contain letters, digits,
or underscores. Vectors are now associated by their namespaces.
A vector name can contain a namespace qualifier. By default they
reside in the namespace they were created in.
% namespace eval fred { vector create x }
::fred::x
% vector create fred::y
::fred::y
% vector names
::fred::y ::fred::x
The one fly in the ointment is that there still isn't any good way to
get notified when the namespace is deleted (and automatically delete
any vectors). The two ways around this problem are to
a) delete all vectors that you've created in namespace *before*
you destroy the namespace, or
b) have either the vector's Tcl variable or command reside in
the same namespace (this happens by default). That way the
vector will be deleted when the command or variable is
destroyed.
2. The "-mapped" options throughout the graph have been replaced
by the "-hide" option. The many usages of the word "map" was
getting confusing.
# No longer works.
.graph legend configure -mapped no
# Instead use this.
.graph legend configure -hide yes
How to compile and test BLT?
See the file "INSTALL" for instructions.
Does BLT work under Windows?
Yes. Windows NT and Windows 95/98. It builds and runs with
MS VC++ 5.0/6.0 and EGCS 1.1.1 under Windows 95/98/NT. Self-installing
pre-compiled versions are available.
What are the differences between the Windows and Unix releases?
All commands work: graphs, bgexec, busy, drag&drop etc. except
the "container", and "cutbuffer" widgets. The "drag&drop" command
still needs a working version of the Tk "send" command.
When will...?
In general, I can't answer the "When will" questions, mostly out of
embarrassment. My estimates of when new features and releases will
occur usually turn out to be way way off.
What does BLT stand for?
Whatever you want it to.
Where to send bugs reports, suggestions, etc. ?
gah@cadence.com and ghowlett@fast.net (best to send to both addresses)
Make sure you include BLT and the version number in the subject line.
--gah
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