The Tcl/Tk Plugin is a browser plugin that allows you to run Tcl/Tk scripts in a Netscape or Mozilla browser window, similar to Java applets and Flash. The most recent version is 3.1.

After installing the Tcl/Tk plugin, one can then write what became known as tclets, or small Tcl/Tk programs, in their html page and these would be passed on and interpreted by the plugin.

The Tcl Plugin was designed during the early rage of browser plugins. Jeff Hobbs did the original Tcl plugin implementation following a visit to the Tcl group that was then at SunLabs, and Jacob Levy (part of that group) was the original implementer of the Tcl/Tk plugin. Laurent Demailly worked on the 2.0 implementation (first open source version). Work on the plugin was funded by Sun, during the 1990s (Scriptics did not continue the plugin development).

By 2002, Microsoft had officially withdrawn support for the Netscape Plugin API, and the Tcl Plugin was languishing without updates. However, rumors of the plugin's death were greatly exaggerated. It continued to be maintained up through v8.0 of Tcl/Tk, for Netscape v3 and up, and Internet Explorer.

ActiveState's Jeff Hobbs revived work on the plugin in 2003, revving it to Tcl 8.4. The plugin continues to work with both Mozilla 1.x, Firefox 1.x and IE 5.5+ on Windows. Currently the Tcl Plugin is very much alive.

See Obtaining the TCL Plugin for how to get the plugin.

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Please Note: This page has been designed using information from the original Tcl Plugin page. If you are in the know, please feel free to adjust, simplify, clarify or update any or all of the information on this page.

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