TASH README File

For those who do not have a Web browser, all documents are also provided in a text form as well. For example, the contents of this file, README.html, is duplicated in README.txt.

Software use License Terms

It is my intention to make this software as freely available as possible, while not violating the rights of the Regents of the University of California and Sun Microsystems, Inc. This appears best done by simply using the License Terms included with Tcl/Tk.

What is TASH?

TASH is the implementation of a binding to Tcl from Ada. Its purpose is to allow a Tcl program to use Ada in place of C to implement Tcl commands where additional execution speed, more complex data structures, or better name space management is needed, and to make the Tcl library functions available to an Ada program. These include string and list handling, regular expression matching, hash tables, and eventually, access to the X window system via Tk. For a more complete explanation of this binding and rationale on its development, see my paper published in Ada Letters. Postscript, HTML, and text copies are available in the docs directory.

Version number of this release

The version numbering system used for TASH includes a major and minor version number and an optional letter (a for alpha release, b for beta release) and alpha/beta release number. For example, the first release of TASH was 1.0a1, meaning it was the first alpha release of the first major release. When no longer in alpha or beta test, the first release number will be 1.0.

How to get and install TASH

Get TASH via anonymous ftp from ftp://ftp.aud.alcatel.com/tcl/extensions/tash1.0b1.tar.gz.
The file, INSTALL.html, describes how to install TASH.

How to get and install GNAT

TASH was built on a Sun with SunOS 4.1.4 and the GNU New York University Ada Translator (GNAT), version 2.07. A description of GNAT may be found at http://lglwww.epfl.ch/Ada/Resources/Compilers/GNAT.html and it may be fetched via anonymous ftp from ftp://cs.nyu.edu/pub/gnat/.

How to get and install Tcl

TASH was built and tested with Tcl, version 7.5a2. Although it may work with other versions, none have been tried. The home page for Tcl is http://www.smli.com/research/tcl/. This provides additional information about Tcl and instructions on how to get and install it.