Software Update: Tcl/Tk 8.4.12

The Tcl Core Team has released a new version of the Tcl/Tk package that consists of the Tcl scripting language and its toolkit. Tcl is a powerful scripting language that is simple to build and offers cross-platform support. Tk is a graphical toolkit for this scripting language and allows you to develop graphical applications. The version number has arrived at 8.4.12 and is distributed as source code as usual. The release notes look like this:

The Tcl Core Team is pleased to announce the 8.4.12 releases of the Tcl dynamic language and the Tk toolkit. This is the twelfth patch release of Tcl/Tk 8.4. More details can be found below. We would like to express our gratitude to all those who submit bug reports and patches. This information is invaluable in enabling us to identify and eliminate problems in the core.

Summary of Changes since Tcl/Tk 8.4.11:

The following were the main changes in Tcl/Tk 8.4.12. A complete list can be found in the changes file at the root of the source tree. The more complete ChangeLog is also included with each source release. This is a patch release, so it primarily included bug fixes and corrections to erratic behavior. Below are only the most notable changes.

• repeated [namespace import] or same command now permitted.
• ${prefix}/share added to ::tcl_pkgPath on some systems.
• [exec]’s >> redirection has improved append behavior.
• [info globals] returned only existing variables.
• Recognize some Solaris variations of the cp1251 encoding.
• Addressed [file mkdir] racing condition.
• Support opening >2GB files on RHEL 3.
• Corrections to $argv formatting when [encoding system] is multibyte.
• http 2.5.2: Update URL encoding rules to RFC 3986.
• Darwin NFS: fixed bug in recursive file delete.
• Stopped crashing after using Tcl_TraceCommand().
• Win NT/XP: support unicode console.
• Improved support for Tclkit to set [encoding system].
• Added Korean timezeon abbreviations.
• Windows: exit codes can now exceed -128..127 range.
• [load] support on LynxOS.
• Packages with incorrect index scripts now cause a warning to be logged.
  *** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***
• [lsearch -regexp] now accepts backrefs in the RE.
• [selection get] made compatible with OpenOffice.org.
• Dialog support for widget names containing spaces.

Tcl Core Team and Maintainers
Don Porter, Interim Tcl Core Release Manager