The jstools distribution in the neosoft Tcl code archive contains a number of general-purpose libraries, as well as applications. (I expect the distribution to be installed in .) The following describes the various libraries distributed as part of jstools (version 4.1/4.2). They are used by the jstools applications, and you can also use them in your own applications. Full documentation for (most of) the libraries is available through the jdoc application; read "jdoc jslibraries" for an overview. Unfortunately, documentation is lagging a little behind the code; some new features aren't documented yet, and many aren't documented as thoroughly as I would like. I don't think there are any places where programming to the documentation is likely to cause trouble, though. The preferences mechanism, and in particular the user interface for preferences, has been significantly updated since version 4.0/4.1, along the model of that in Brent Welch's EXMH application. This is not quite complete, though; in particular, you may need to write your own code to save preferences. I intend to finish this soon. Significantly updated libraries since version 4.0/4.0 are marked with a plus sign. NATURAL LANGUAGE DATABASE SUPPORT This library lets your application look up strings it wants to display and present them in the user's preferred language. It's designed to be independent from the other jstools libraries, so it can be used alone. It's also fairly small. jldb.tcl - localisation support for natural-language strings UTILITY LIBRARIES These libraries don't provide significant functionality that the end-user can see, but they are used by the other libraries, or provide convenience proedures to save a few lines of code in applications. jdebug.tcl - debugging support jfileio.tcl - convenience procedures for reading from and writing to files jinit.tcl - the common jstools initialisation sequence jparseargs.tcl - procedures for parsing procedure and application arguments jprefixmatch.tcl - filename expansion and abbreviation matching procedures + jprefs.tcl - general routines for loading, saving, and using preferences (see also jprefpanel.tcl) jstools.tcl - miscellaneous procedures shared by jstools applications jtkutils.tcl - convenience procedures and user-interface layout support jtclutils.tcl - convenience procedures that don't require Tk jtkversion.tcl - procedures for writing code compatible with both Tk 3 and Tk 4 jviewers.tcl - show manual pages or URLs with the user's preferred tools COMPOUND WIDGETS AND WIDGET WRAPPERS These libraries enhance the functionality of an existing Tk widget by providing a wrapper around it, or provide new widget-like entities with new functionality. jmetawidgets.tcl - compound widgets including a colour chooser joptionbutton.tcl - a button that lets the user choose one of several options jtext.tcl - wrappers around the text widget's widget command POPUP PANELS These libraries provide popup panels or dialogue boxes of various kinds. Except for the find panel provided by jfindpanel.tcl and the text display panel provided by jmore.tcl, these panels are modal. jabout.tcl - richtext about panels (see also jrichtext.tcl) jalert.tcl - popup notification panels jconfirm.tcl - a panel asking the user to confirm actions jfindpanel.tcl - a search-and-replace panel for the text widget jfs.tcl - a file-selector panel jmore.tcl - a text-display panel + jprefpanel.tcl - a preference panel for setting shared jstools preferences jprompts.tcl - procedures to ask the user for various kinds of information PROCEDURES FOR MANAGING USER-VISIBLE COMMANDS The procedures in jcommand.tcl make managing user-visible commands (i.e., commands the user would give to your application, e.g. by clicking on a button or choosing a menu entry) easier. Those in jmenu.tcl let you construct menus of those commands, as well as other kinds of menus, without a lot of typing. jcommand.tcl - procedures to manage user-invokable commands jmenu.tcl - procedures to manage menus PROCEDURES FOR USING TAGGED TEXT These procedures let you and your users use, type, load, and save tagged text, which may display multiple fonts or colours or include hypertext. The jtagconvert.tcl library provides a way of converting multifont text in a text widget into other rich-text formats. jrichtext.tcl - procedures to embed rich text in Tk applications + jtagconvert.tcl - procedures for saving multifont text in various formats + jtexttags.tcl - extensive support for working with tagged text (see also jtext.tcl) BINDINGS LIBRARIES These libraries manage keyboard (and mouse) bindings for text and entry widgets. Together with the preferences libraries, they let the user choose among `basic' bindings (more complete than the standard Tk 3.6 bindings), Emacs bindings, and vi bindings. They depend on jtext.tcl, and support jtexttags.tcl if you're using it. Currently, only jbindentry.tcl, jbindtext.tcl, jcompose.tcl, and jlatin1.tcl are documented at all, and they aren't documented very thoroughly. However, the others are not intended to be called directly; they're called by the libraries mentioned above. jbindentry.tcl - several user-selected styles of entry bindings jbindtext.tcl - several user-selected styles of text bindings (see also jtext.tcl) jcompose.tcl - support for the Compose key jentrybasic.tcl - support for minimalist bindings jentryedt.tcl - rudimentary support for EDT bindings jentryemacs.tcl - support for Emacs-style entry bindings jentrykeys.tcl - general support for entry keyboard bindings jentrymouse.tcl - support for entry mouse bindings jentryvi.tcl - support for vi-style entry bindings jlatin1.tcl - additional support for the Compose key jtextbasic.tcl - support for minimalist text bindings jtextedt.tcl - rudimentary support for EDT bindings jtextemacs.tcl - support for Emacs-style text bindings jtextkeys.tcl - support for text keyboard bindings jtextmouse.tcl - support for text mouse bindings jtextvi.tcl - support for vi-style text bindings Jay Sekora 1996.05.19