Kitgen Build System for Tcl/Tk

In the past I have written a variety of posts about Starkits and Starpacks. Briefly, Starkits provide a way to package complex Tcl/Tk programs in a single file, and Starpacks allow those packages to be combined with self-contained interpreters to deliver stand-alone applications. However, the Tclkit interpreters I originally used for this purpose have not generally been maintained, at least for Mac OS X (Pat Thoyts has done a good job providing current Windows and Linux versions).

Of course, there are various ways to build your own Tclkit equivalent, but I usually found the process slightly too tedious to sustain my interest (although I did succeed with Pat’s version of kitgen shortly before discovering the method described below).

As it turns out, self-contained Tcl/Tk installations functionally equivalent to Tclkits can quite easily be created with the kitgen build system. This comprises a single Tcl script (kbs.tcl) that automates the process of downloading, compiling, and assembling the elements of a “kbskit”. The script is robust – it worked successfully on the first try, without any knowledge of what options to use beyond those given in the Quick Start examples.

If you simply run a fresh copy of kbs.tcl , it will retrieve the Tcl/Tk sources.

Build a Metakit-based kbskit (like Tclkit) with:

./kbs.tcl -r -mk install kbskit8.5

Build a Vlerq-based kbskit (like Tclkit Lite) with:

./kbs.tcl -r -vq install kbskit8.5

In either case, three executables will actually be built:

A Tcl-only executable, denoted by -cli suffix An executable that loads Tk from an external library if needed, denoted by -dyn suffix An all-in-one Tcl/Tk executable, denoted by -gui

On Mac OS X, these executables are found in the buildDarwin subdirectory relative to kbs.tcl . The subdirectory name will presumably differ on other operating systems.

Happily, the kbskits created with the kitgen build system can be used with Starpacker. Check the “Other” box and select the kbskit you prefer to use as the executable in your Starpack:

You can bundle other packages into your kbskits using the -mk-bi or -vq-bi options ( -bi stands for “Batteries Included”). This will ensure that those packages (typically useful extensions) are always available to code being run by that kit. Of course, a different approach, with different advantages and disadvantages, is to bundle packages in your application Starkit, which can be executed with different kits.

Additional topics to explore include building the --enable-aqua option and the best method to update both kbs.tcl and the source code it retrieves.

Posted on Sunday, January 10th, 2010. Tags: code, mac, tcl.