Tcl MacOSX README 
-----------------

RCS: @(#) $Id: README,v 1.1.2.3 2005/05/24 04:20:08 das Exp $

This is the README file for the Mac OS X native version of Tcl (framework build).


1. General
----------

- The tcl-mac mailing list on sourceforge is the canonical place for questions
specific to Tcl & Tk on Mac OS X:
	http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/tcl-mac
(this page also has a link to searchable archives of the list, please check them
before asking on the list, many questions have already been answered).

- For general tcl/tk questions, the newsgroup comp.lang.tcl is your best bet,
but also check the Tcl'ers Wiki for a wealth of information:
	http://wiki.tcl.tk/

- The wiki has a page listing known bugs in Mac OS X Tcl/Tk (and other tips)
	http://wiki.tcl.tk/MacOS%20X
as well as a page with info on building Tcl/Tk on Mac OS X
	http://wiki.tcl.tk/Steps%20to%20build%20Tcl/Tk%208.4.0%20on%20MacOS%20X

- You should report bugs to the sourceforge bug trackers as usual: 
	Tcl: https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=10894&atid=110894
	Tk:  https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=12997&atid=112997
please make sure that your report Tk specific bugs to the tktoolkit bug
tracker and not the tcl one.


2. Using Tcl on MacOSX
----------------------

- Mac OS X 10.2 (or higher) is required to run Tcl on MacOSX.

- Tcl built on Mac OS X 10.3 or higher will not run on 10.2 due to missing
symbols in libSystem, however Tcl built on 10.2 will run on 10.3 (but without
prebinding and other optimizations).

- Tcl extensions will be found in any of:
	$HOME/Library/Tcl /Library/Tcl /Network/Library/Tcl /System/Library/Tcl
	$HOME/Library/Frameworks /Library/Frameworks /Network/Library/Frameworks
	/System/Library/Frameworks (searched in that order).
Given a potential package directory $pkg, Tcl on OSX checks for the file
$pkg/Resources/Scripts/pkgIndex.tcl as well as the usual $pkg/pkgIndex.tcl.
This allows building extensions as frameworks with all script files contained
in the Resources/Scripts directory of the framework.

- The Tcl framework contains documentation in html format in the
standard location for frameworks:
	Tcl.framework/Resources/Documentation/Reference/Tcl
No manpages are installed by default.

- the framework Tcl.framework can be placed in any of the system's standard
framework directories:
	$HOME/Library/Frameworks /Library/Frameworks
	/Network/Library/Frameworks /System/Library/Frameworks
and /usr/bin/tclsh will work.

- the format of binary extensions expected by [load] is that of ordinary shared
libraries (.dylib) and not MachO bundles, at present loading of MachO bundles is
not supported.


3. Building Tcl.framework
-------------------------

- Mac OS X 10.2 (or higher) is required to build Tcl on MacOSX.

- Apple's Developer Tools CD needs to be installed (the most recent version
matching your OS release, but no earlier than December 2002). This CD should
have come with Mac OS X retail or should be present as a disk image on new macs
that came with OSX preinstalled. It can also be downloaded from
http://connect.apple.com (after you register for free ADC membership).

- Tcl is built as a Mac OS X framework via the Makefile in tcl/macosx, but can
but can also be built directly with the standard unix configure and make
buildsystem in tcl/unix.

- It is still possible to build with Apple's Xcode IDE using the Tcl.pbproj
project but this is not recommended anymore (currently Tcl.pbproj calls through
to the tcl/macosx/Makefile so there should be no build differences).

- Unpack the tcl source release archive.

- The following instructions assume the tcl source tree is named "tcl${ver}", 
where ${ver} is a shell variable containing the tcl version number (for 
example '8.4.2').
Setup the shell variable as follows:
	set ver="8.4.2" ;: if your shell is csh
	ver="8.4.2"     ;: if your shell is sh
The source tree will be named this way only if you are building from a release
archive, if you are building from CVS, the version numbers will be missing; so
set ${ver} to the empty string instead:
	set ver=""     ;: if your shell is csh
	ver=""         ;: if your shell is sh

- The following steps will build Tcl from the Terminal, assuming you are
located in the directory containing the tcl source tree:
	make -C tcl${ver}/macosx
and the following will then install Tcl onto the root volume (admin password 
required):
	sudo make -C tcl${ver}/macosx install
if you don't have the admin password, you can install into your home directory,
instead by passing an INSTALL_ROOT argument to make:
	make -C tcl${ver}/macosx install INSTALL_ROOT="${HOME}/"

- The default Makefile targets will build _both_ debug and optimized versions of
the Tcl framework with the standard convention of naming the debug
library Tcl.framework/Tcl_debug.
This allows you to dynamically link to the debug libraries at runtime by setting
	setenv DYLD_IMAGE_SUFFIX _debug
(c.f. man dyld for more details)

If you only want to build and install the debug or optimized build, use the
'develop' or 'deploy' target variants of the Makefiles, respectively.
For example, to build and install only the optimized versions:
	make -C tcl${ver}/macosx deploy
	sudo make -C tcl${ver}/macosx install-deploy
