Tcl-URL! - 1999/05/17

Apologies to our readers for last weeks hiccup, our normal quality controls are back in place!

The news group has been very busy this week (> 650 msg's), dominated by Tcl 8.1.x bugs and performance concerns.

The Tcl 8.1.x thread on performance wins this week's award for the longest single thread in one week (over 70 messages). I encourage anyone who is seriously planning to migrate soon to check out this thread, see below for some highlights.

Main thread on Tcl 8.1.x performance. (see [1])
Backgrounder on Tcl Performance. http://purl.org/thecliff/tcl/wiki/TclPerformance
Nice explanation of the difference between the Tcl 8.0.x and Tcl 8.1.x byte compilers. (see [2])
Real-world impact of Tcl 8.1.x changes - string index is no longer O(1) (see [3])
Y2K False Alarm (2000 is a leap year). Should we be concerned about the Y2038 bug though? (see [4])
Interesting outcomes of variable substitution. (see [5])
Geometry managers (pack/grid) and reqwidth. http://216.71.55.6/cgi-bin/wikit/443.html
A suggestion for system-wide and per-user options (for tcl and tk) that would map across various platforms. (see [6])
Example of serial communications using Tcl. (see [7])
Gethostbyname in Tcl. (see [8])
Much needed but minor improvement for people who care about sub-second timing in Tcl. (Proposal) (see [9])
New Socket Driver for windows in 8.1.1 - calling for willing testers. (see [10])