Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

[email protected] (Pete Jemian) · Wed, 20 Aug 97 18:59:51 CDT

Rozelle:

Who is maintaining et_wish?
[et_wish is the executable built in <extensions>/src/tcl_et]

Here's one recipe for a working et_wish extension.

I have built a version of et_wish just this week with some
components of Tcl/Tk/BLT.  By the way, it was built on
a Sun Solaris 2.5.1 platform with EPICS R3.12.2
and a Linux v2.0.0. platform with EPICS R3.13.0beta4
with the same source (or so I think).

Since UNICAT has not been using Tcl-DP, I have undef'ed it 
in my caAppInit.c module and edited the Makefile.  If you 
want to use Tcl-DP, you can uncomment where appropriate.  
I made one other change to the source I got last year 
from Claude Saunders at APS.  See below for the note.

How do you know if you've got Claude's revised tcl_et?
In the revised version, there are only about 5 source
code modules: caAppInit.c, et.h, etca.c, ethash.c, ettcl.c
I believe the earlier version had more source code modules.
Anyway, Claude's version works, if you accept the one caveat below.

For a limited time, you can have at a tar.gz file of 
my tcl_et source tree by going to:
 UNICAT Software Distrib.:  http://unicat.aps.anl.gov/controls/index.html

   tcl v7.6      http://www.tcltk.com
   tk  v4.2      http://www.tcltk.com
   BLT v2.3      ftp://ftp.neosoft.com/pub/tcl/sorted/devel

     (as an aside, I've also built expect 5.22 with the 
      same Tcl/Tk but did not try to combine BLT as well)
   expect v5.22  http://expect.nist.gov

I have not been successful in building with Tcl/Tk/BLT v8.

VERY SPECIAL NOTE:
  BLT had a significant upgrade between v1.8 and v2.1 that changed
  the interface used by et_wish to efficiently handle EPICS array data.
  I have commented out that code (in etca.c) for the time being.
  Looks like there is a very simple way to modify that using BLT's
  vector data structure (new with v2.1).  However, round tuits
  are scarce these days.
  This _ONLY_ affects the linking of EPICS arrays
  (anything that uses vdis and the Blt_GraphElem call which
  went away with the BLT v2.1 upgrade.)

Pete Jemian
UNICAT

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Rozelle Wright wrote this today:
> Can some expert in building tcl/tk for epics please help me.
> 
> I am trying to build the epics extensions applications that need tcl/tk
> I am a beginner at using tcl/tk, so
> I was pleased to see links in the distribution page to
> the places to get the source for these.
> However,
> 1. Tcl-DP gives me the error 
> "http.cs.cornell.edu 
> The server does not have a DNS entry"
> ,so I can't get the source for it. Does anyone know
> where it is?  and which epics applications need it?

Last time I found Tcl-DP, it was April 1996 at:
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Info/Projects/zeno/Project/Tcl-DP.html
That link may have been toasted since, though.
If you can't find it on the net, I can tar up my source distribution
of v3.4b2 and post it for you.

> 
> 2.  Am I right in assuming that I need the patches as well as the
> original source for tcl and tk and blt.  These are
> the files I currently have.  Are they the right ones?
> blt-1.8.tar.gz           tcl7.4p1.patch.gz        tk4.0p2.patch.gz
> blt-1.8to1.9.0.patch.gz  tcl7.4p2.patch.gz        tk4.0p3.patch.gz
> tcl7.4/                  tcl7.4p3.patch.gz
> tcl7.4.tar               tk4.0p1.patch.gz
> 
> I am assuming that when it says tcl7.4 tk4.0 nothing later will do
> and I'm not sure about blt.
> 

This sounds like a workable combination.
Don't use BLT 1.8 (or 1.0 or 2.0) for Tcl 7.5.

There's an older tcl_et that works with:
Tcl 7.4 and Tk 4.0 are a pair.  BLT 1.8 works, as does Tcl-DP 3.4b2

Claude's changed tcl_et works with:
Tcl 7.5 and Tk 4.1 are a pair.  BLT 2.1 works, maybe BLT 2.3, Tcl-DP?
Tcl 7.6 and Tk 4.2 are a pair.  BLT 2.3 works, Tcl-DP?
Tcl 8.0, Tk 8.0, and BLT 8 are a set but are not yet in final release.
Also, BLT 8 is unofficial since others are attempting to pick
up the support for the overburdened developer (George Howlett).

Unless you need the EPICS array support _right now_, I thoroughly
recommend the Tcl/Tk/BLT 7.6/4.2/2.3 combination.

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System