About Me

My name is Matti Kärki and I'm a software developer (working full time as a software engineer). I live in Finland.

Tcl/Tk and Me

1995 I bought a book called "Linux Installation and Configuration" (or something similar). A nice book, which introduced me to the rich world of the Linux (and Slackware Linux especially). I think the book also had tips for using Tcl/Tk as a scripting language. Ever since I've used Tcl/Tk more or less for various tasks.

My Contributions to Tcl Community

Check the page mjk and click the title of that page to see all pages in this Wiki, where I've been writing. There isn't much :( I've been a busy man, but I'm trying to help Tcl Community whenever and however it is possible for me.

Where I Use Tcl/Tk

I use Tcl/Tk for all kinds of tasks. Here's few of them:

• My weblog used to be generated with Tcl script.
• I use Tcl/Tk for vector graphics designing involving geometrical objects and text (I generate images using canvas and save the results to EPS file, which is then converted with GhostScript to PDF for printing).
• Tcl is excellent for small command-line tools, text parsing and editing (regexps) and all kinds of simple every day tasks.
• Even if Tcl/Tk is handy tool for small tasks, it is capable of handling larger problems also. I'm using Tcl/Tk for larger applications and for rapid application development and prototyping.
• If I need to whip up some GUI fast, Tcl/Tk is the right tool for the job.
• Tcl is an excellent glue for combining different applications together. For example, I get nice pie charts out of my MS Works Spreadsheets using CSV files, Tcl/Tk and GhostScript together.
• Simple C-interface makes it possible to me to use Tcl/Tk for GUI and use shared libraries to get the best performance out of it.
• At work, I cannot directly use Tcl/Tk at my projects, but Tcl is still present at my working process. I use Tcl to generate reports from C, C++ and Java files (reports usually contain information about function definitions, constants, variables and code comments). This information is then used in my documentation process.
• However, Starpacks have became increasingly important at work. I have been advocating Tcl/Tk by creating several small tools with Tcl and wrapped them to separate command-line starpacks. This is the simplest method for me to show, how fast and handy language Tcl is and how easy it is to distribute applications without actually installing anything to the target system.

Tcl Stuff

• I finally made myself to finish my old side project: writing a barebone example, how to create shared libraries to extend Tcl with C. The code with explanations can be found here: http://www.omanurkka.fi/files/test.c.txt . I hope that the text is clear enough to explain what is required and what each thing does in the code.
• I have made a code for Finnish Hyphenation.
• A little toy for decorating my desktop: Binary Clock.
• A small Windows console library: Consio.

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