.TH tclreadline n "@TCLREADLINE_VERSION@" "Johannes Zellner"

.\" (C) 1999 by Johannes Zellner
.\" FILE: "/home/joze/src/tclreadline/tclreadline.n.in"
.\" LAST MODIFICATION: "Mon Aug 23 22:31:24 1999 (joze)"
.\" (C) 1998, 1999 by Johannes Zellner, <johannes@zellner.org>
.\" $Id$
.\" ---
.\"
.\" tclreadline -- gnu readline for the tcl scripting language
.\" Copyright (C) 1999  Johannes Zellner
.\"

.\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
.\" along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
.\" Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
.\"
.\" <johannes@zellner.org>, http://www.zellner.org/tclreadline/


.\"	# CS - begin code excerpt
.de CS
.RS
.nf
.ta .25i .5i .75i 1i
..
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.SH "NAME"
tclreadline \- gnu readline for the tcl scripting language


.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.TP 6
\fB::tclreadline::readline\fP \fIcommand\fP [\fIoptions\fP]


.SH "DESCRIPTION"

The \fBtclreadline\fP package makes the gnu readline available
to the scripting language tcl. The primary purpose of the package
is to facilitate the interactive script development by the means
of word and file name completion as well as history expansion
(well known from shells like bash).

\fBtclreadline\fP is basically a shared library and a few tcl scripts
which are accessed with the tcl package require command. Therefore
\fBtclreadline\fP should work with all common extensions like
\fBblt, itcl, itk, tix ...\fP.


.\" .SH SOURCE FILES


.SH "COMMANDS"

If you want to use \fBtclreadline\fP as a line interface
for developing tcl scripts, you probably don't have to read
this section.

.PP
The following list will give all commands, which are currently

.TP 5
\fB::tclreadline::readline initialize\fP \fIhistoryfile\fP
initialize the tclreadline interface and read the history from
the \fIhistoryfile\fP. On succes an empty string is returned.
This command has to be called before any other tclreadline commands.


.TP 5
\fB::tclreadline::readline read\fP \fIprompt\fP
prints the \fIprompt\fP to stdout and enters the tclreadline event
loop. Both readline and X events are processed. Returns the
(eventually history-expanded) input string.


.TP 5
\fB::tclreadline::readline write\fP \fIhistoryfile\fP
writes the history to the \fIhistoryfile\fP. This command is called
automatically from the internal routine ::tclreadline::Exit.

.TP 5

which will be displayed as the primary prompt. This prompt will be
something like "[info nameofexecutable] \[[pwd]\]" possibly fancy colored.
The default proc is defined on entering the ::tclreadline::Loop,
if it is not already defined. So: If you define your own proc
::tclreadline::prompt1 before entering ::tclreadline::Loop, this
proc is called each time the prompt is to be displayed.
Example:
.CS
    package require tclreadline
    namespace eval tclreadline {
        proc prompt1 {} {
            return "[clock format [clock seconds]]> "
        }
    }
    ::tclreadline::Loop
.CE

Note that non-printable control characters as color control characters
must be enclosed in literal ctrl-a / ctrl-b to tell readline the length
of the printable prompt. See for example the variable `prompt_string'
in the file tclreadlineSetup.tcl in your tclreadline installation directory.


.\" .SH "EXAMPLES"


.\" .SH "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES"

.SH "VARIABLES"

The global variable \fBtclreadline_version\fP holds the version number
of the tclreadline package.

.SH "FILES"

the \fB.tclshrc\fP file in the HOME directory, which
is read on tclsh startup. Alternatively, the name of this initialization
file might be \fB.wishrc\fP ... depending on what interpreter you use.
These files should typically contain something like
.CS

    if {$tcl_interactive} {
        package require tclreadline
        ::tclreadline::Loop
    }
.CE

which will enter the tclreadline main loop.

.PP
the \fB.tclsh-history\fP file in the HOME directory. On startup
commands will be read from this file. On exit, the readline history
is written to this file. Note that if you abort tclsh with <cntrl-c>
no history is written. For the future it is planned to set up a signal
handler, which will write the history on <ctrl-c> before exiting.

.PP
the \fB.inputrc\fP file in the users HOME directory. This file
is used normally for all programs which use the gnu readline (e.g.  bash).
The `global' readline settings there will be valid also for
\fBtclreadline\fP. Additionally the .inputrc might hold conditional
settings for the implementation name \fBtclreadline\fP. Example of 
some lines in your .inputrc:
.CS

    $if tclreadline
    "\\C-xp": "puts $env(PATH)"
    $endif
.CE

For further documentation please refer to the gnu readline documentation.

.SH "BUGS"
probably.


.SH "SEE ALSO"


.PP
The official \fBtclreadline\fP web site at:

.PP
.RS 4
http://www.zellner.org/tclreadline/
.RE


.SH "AUTHOR"
Johannes Zellner, <johannes@zellner.org>

.SH "CONTRIBUTIONS, SUGGESTIONS AND PATCHES"
Magnus Eriksson <magnus.eriksson@netinsight.se>,
Les Johnson <les@infolabs.com>,
Harald Kirsch <kir@iitb.fhg.de>,
Christian Krone <krischan@sql.de>,
Larry W. Virden <lvirden@cas.org>,
David Engel <dlengel@home.com>, <david@debian.org>

.SH "DEBIAN PACKAGE"
David Engel <dlengel@home.com>, <david@debian.org>

.SH "DISCLAIMER"

This version of \fBtclreadline\fP is still a development version.
Pretty a lot of features and ideas are not implemented yet. The
reason for this is the lack of time and manpower.
So you are welcome to modify and contribute to the code.
If you have suggestions, please let me know.

\fBtclreadline\fP comes with the GPL (GNU General Public License).
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.