INTRODUCTION ============ The Perl/Tk Reference Guide The Perl/Tk Reference Guide is a typeset quick reference guide to Nick Ing-Simmon's Perl implementation of John Ousterhout's Tk toolkit. The guide style is based on Johan Vromans' guide for Perl. It contains a concise description of (almost) all Perl/Tk statements, variables and lots of other useful information. The Guide is based on Perl version 5.004 and Tk 4.2. The purpose of the Reference Guide is to aid in the use of Perl/Tk, to look up the syntax of specific commands, statements and the meaning of built-in variables. It is *NOT* a self-contained user guide - basic knowledge of the Perl and Tk languages is required. It is *NOT* complete - some of the more obscure variants of Tk constructs have been left out. But all commands and variables are mentioned in at least one way they can be used. The Reference Guide is designed and created by Johan Vromans using the LaTex typesetting system. For best results, Tom Rockiki's dvips 5.47 should be used to generate the PostScript output. Your mileage may vary when you use other output mechanisms. *** IMPORTANT *** The included file refbase.ps contains the basic guide in 44 pages formated for A4 paper. This is almost definitely NOT what you want to print. A special formatting tool, written in Perl, makes it possible to reformat this PostScript output for reproduction in a number of formats. If you cannot run this tool, you probably don't have perl installed. To get it, try http://www.perl.com/perl/. INSTALLATION ============ 1. Unload the distribution After unloading the distribution, you will have the following files in a suitably named sub-directory: README - this file Makefile - makefile parr.pl - reformat and rearrange tool Layout - description of the format refbase.tex - LaTeX source for the Reference Guide refbase.cls - LaTeX class for the Reference Guide refbase.ps - pre-generated PostScript base reftk.tex - LaTex source for Perl/Tk testbase.ps - alignment test page Makefile.psutils - makefile to be used with psutils PROBLEMS - known problems on certain printers The lastest distribution can be found at ftp://ftp.lehigh.edu/pub/perl5/ or at your nearest CPAN site CPAN/authors/id/LUSOL/ 2. Create the PostScript base file ( *** IF NEEDED *** ) *** Normally you can skip this step since a pre-generated PostScript file is included in the kit. This step requires the LaTeX typesetting system, version 2e of 1994/12/01, and dvips version 5.47 or later. Earlier 2e versions of LaTeX may work, but have not been verified. - Use "make refbase-ps" (a dash, not a dot) to create a new PostScript file from the LaTeX source. This file can be printed normally. NOTE: dvips must be instructed to use a4 format paper ('-t a4') even if you intend to print on a different format! 3. Determine the paper format and alignment As distributed, the Makefile is configured to generate output for US Letter (8.5 x 11") paper format. Comment out the line "PAPER=-letter" in the Makefile to select A4 (21 x 29.7 cm) format. Both formats should be printable on industry-standard PostScript printers. Now "make testpage.ps" and print it. The test page contains a scale. Find the center of the paper by folding it as illustrated and determine the value on the scale where the center of the paper intersects the scale. Add this value to the definition of HALIGN in the Makefile (initially 0). It is important that you modify the Makefile otherwise the test page will not be re-generated with the modified values. "make testpage.ps" once again and print it. Folding it should show that the center of the paper is at scale value 0. If not, repeat the process. For example, if your print looks like: : 100 : 0 |---+---+---+---+---+---+---+-:-+---+---|---+---+---+---+---+-- : :<- center of paper The value of HALIGN should be increased with 25. You can adjust the vertical offset by modifying VALIGN although this should rarely be necessary. Vertical alignment uses the same units as the horizontal alignment, positive offsets move the image down on the paper. NOTE: Do not print from Ghostview or other PostScript viewing tools since this can lead to mis-aligned prints. NOTE: If you have Angus Duggan's psutils package installed you can use Makefile.psutils instead. However, this is not supported by me. Angus' email address is . 4. Create the RefGuide from the PostScript base You can use "make" to generate a new PostScript file for one of the following formats: - Use "make refguide.ps" to create a guide formatted in pages of 2-column text. It should be printed double-sided, stapled in the middle, folded, and cut to size to have a 4.375" x 8" booklet. See the "Layout" document. - Use "make 2pass" to create a set of odd and even pages for double sided printing. First print "guide-odd.ps". Then put the paper back in the tray, and print either "guide-even1.ps" or "guide-even2.ps", depending on the way your printer arranges the printed paper. "guide-even1.ps" is for printers with correct output stacking like Apple LaserWriter II. "guide-even2.ps" is for printers with reverse output stacking, like old Apple LaserWriters. In other words, after printing "guide-odd.ps", if the text of the front page is on top -- use "guide-even1.ps". But if you're looking at the text of the middle pages -- use "guide-even2.ps". "make" without arguments will default to refguide.ps. NOTE: If you have Angus Duggan's psutils package installed you can use Makefile.psutils instead. However, this is not supported by me. On printers that support it, duplex printing is attempted. See the Makefile for details. This does not apply to Makefile.psutils. See also the file PROBLEMS. Comments are welcome, send them to the Reference Guide author. DETAILED HELP ============= Implementors like John Ousterhout and Nick Ing-Simmons are busy people, so don't bother them with Perl or Tk or Tcl questions, but use a newsgroup instead: comp.lang.perl.misc comp.lang.perl.tk comp.lang.tcl HISTORY ======= The first version of the Reference Guide --"reference card" it was called then-- appeared in 1989 with Perl version 2. It was created using an Apple Macintosh and the RagTime DeskTop publishing tool. It was 9 pages, if I remember well. The PostScript output was extracted from the Mac and hacked for 'normal' use with the macps program. With Perl version 3 came the next version. A 15-page card format, and a 16-page reference guide. This time, the Guide was created using MicroSoft Word, again on Macintosh. Tools were supplied to manipulate the PostScript file to suit different printing formats. In a later version, the card format was abandoned. Next came the Camel version, with Perl version 4. Much effort was spent to have the abundance of new functions fit on 16 pages. After the book appeared, I decided to rework the Guide to use more pages, and different styles and fonts for clarity. I reworked the MS-Word version, to find out that the resultant PostScript file had increased from 90Kb to 180Kb! So I decided to start again, from scratch (well, almost) using the LaTeX typesetting system. The resultant PostScript file is now 80Kb, while it prints out almost identical to the 180Kb MS-Word version. When Perl 5 came out, the Guide was reworked to include the plethora of new features while still trying to be concise. I also used a scan of the Camel to create a real cover page. Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.) wrote me: You can do this, as long as you say somewhere in your text, "The camel as an image associated with perl is a trademark of O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. and is used with permission." Trademarks are funny. If you don't use due diligence to protect them, you lose them. We've applied to treat all our cover animals as trademarks, so they don't get abused by other publishers, and we need to acknowledge them as such if they are used elsewhere. Thanks Tim, for the permission. Paul Raines then borrowed the style file and other support files to create a Reference Guide for Tcl/Tk. Steve Lidie then borrowed Paul Raines' Tcl/Tk files to create a Reference Guide for Perl/Tk. COPYRIGHT ========= The Perl Reference Guide is copyrighted by the author. It may be reproduced, printed and distributed freely for non-profit purposes, as long as the original author gets the credits, and the copyright notice is not removed from the text. It may not be turned into a commercial product except with written permission of the author. ---------------------------- author info ----------------------------- Johan Vromans jvromans@squirrel.nl Squirrel Design & Consultancy Boskoop, the Netherlands http://www.xs4all.nl/~jvromans http://www.xxlink.nl/squirrel ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CREDITS ======= I like to thank everyone who has helped me (and encouraged me) to get the job done, and to get the results to you. Especially Tom Christiansen and JGreely (for "parr") And Larry Wall, of course, without whom I would have spent lots of time annoying myself. CREDITS FOR TCL/TK REFERENCE GUIDE ================================== The Tcl/Tk Reference Guide is copyrighted by the author. It may be reproduced, printed and distributed freely, as long as the original author gets the credits, and the copyright notice is not removed from the text. It may not be turned into a commercial product except with written permission of the author. ---------------------------- author info ----------------------------- Paul Raines MS 42 Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Stanford, California 94309-4349 tel. (415) 926 4378 email: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to Jeff Tranter for Tcl reference parts and of course John Ousterhout for creating Tcl and Tk. CREDITS FOR PERL/TK REFERENCE GUIDE =================================== I can't see how I can take credit for anything (-: This guide, of course, may be reproduced, printed and distributed freely under the same terms as Perl itself, but may not be used commercially without my permission. ---------------------------- author info ----------------------------- Stephen.O.Lidie@Lehigh.EDU Lehigh University Computing Center, USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- PostScript is a trademark of Adobe, I assume.