Tksh

The Tksh Homepage

What is Tksh?

How to obtain Tksh

Tksh documentation

Example Tksh scripts

Links to related info

What is Tksh?

Tksh is an implementation of the Tcl C library written on top of the library for the new KornShell (ksh93). Tksh emulates the behavior of Tcl by using the API that is provided for extending ksh93, which is similar to the Tcl library in that it allows access to variables, functions and other state of the interpreter. This implementation allows Tcl libraries such as Tk to run on top of ksh93 unchanged, making it possible to use shell scripts in place of Tcl scripts. ksh93 is well suited for use with Tk because it is backward compatible with sh, making it both easy to learn and easy to extend existing scripts to provide a graphical user interface. Tksh is not yet another port of Tk to another language -- it allows Tcl scripts to run without modification using the ksh93 internals.

How to obtain Tksh

Tksh is freely available for non-commercial use from AT&T as part of astkit (download ast-base-97 and astkit-util-97 for your architecture).

NOTE: It appears that the SPARC Solaris and Linux versions are missing a required shared library. If you use these architectures, please download:

Solaris: libshell.so or libshell.so.gz
Linux: libshell.so or libshell.so.gz

by shift-clicking here and place it into the lib directory of the AST distribution. If other architectures are missing the library, let me know.

A supported/commercial version of Tksh can be purchased from Global Technologies.

Documentation

Paper in the 1996 Tcl/Tk Workshop
Html

Postscript

Plain Text

Tksh manual entry
Text

Html

Troff

Overheads to Tksh talk
Postscript

Examples using Tksh

watchdir
This example displays a window in an interactive shell that contains a list of the directory contents as well as a list of directories that have been visited. By double clicking on a directory, the working directory in the shell will be changed to the selection; by double clicking on a file, the editor will be invoked on that file from the shell.

mailfile
This example implements an open file dialog box in Tksh and allows the user to select a file that will be compressed, uuencoded and mailed to a given email address.

Links to related information

Overview of ksh93

Information about the newest version of Kornshell.

AT&T Binary Release of ksh93

A free release of ksh93 for non-commercial use.

The KornShell Homepage

Information about the Desktop KornShell, part of CDE.

Tcl/Tk Project Homepage

Information about Tcl/Tk projects and research.

Jeff Korn / jlk@research.att.com