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User's Guide to the Tcl Console Window

A console window in Tycho provides a shell for interacting with the Tcl interpreter. Note that Tk and Itcl are understood by this interpreter, as are, of course, all Tycho commands. If you are running a version of Tycho with Ptolemy attached, the ptcl commands are also understood. Commands are executed at the global scope. A console windows is derived from the Edit window, and therefore inherits all of its features. This page documents the additional features provided.

Key Bindings

Return
execute the current line as a Tcl command
C-a
go to the beginning of the command
C-e
go to the end of the command
C-k
erase to the end of the command (save to cliboard)
C-n
down one command
C-p
up one command
C-u
erase the current command (save to clipboard)

Special Features

The Console window has a number of features designed to make it easier to experiment with Tcl scripts. Foremost among these is the history mechanism, which keeps a record of previously executed commands. A "Special" menu provides two commands related to this:

Edit history
Open a window that contains the history (previously executed commands) for the specified console window. This is opened as an Itcl context-sensitive editor, so it can be edited and evaluated.
Clear history
Reset the history buffer.

Note that the Save-As command, unlike the Edit history command, saves a snapshot of the previously executed command together with the returned values and prompts. Thus, it provides a mechanism for documenting an interaction with the Tcl interpreter.


Copyright © 1996, The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Last updated: 96/04/09, comments to: eal@eecs.berkeley.edu