Tcl (Tool Command Language) is a very powerful and easy to learn dynamic programming language, suitable for a very wide range of uses. Tcl is regarded as one of the best-kept secrets in the software industry. This book gives you a hands-on experience on Tcl, helping you develop network-aware applications using this mature yet evolving language.
This book shows you how to create network-aware applications with Tcl language. Packed with practical examples, the book not only takes you through the implementation of network protocols in Tcl, but also key aspects of Tcl programming.
The book starts with the basic element of Tcl programming as we take a look at the syntax and fundamental commands of the language. To get us ready for network programming, we look at important Tcl features such as object-oriented programming, accessing files, packaging in TCL, event driven programming, and multithreaded applications. To create standalone single-file executable applications with Tcl we take a look at the Starpack technology, and ensure that we’ll be able to create robust applications with a thorough coverage of troubleshooting and debugging Tcl applications.
The book is really about network programming, and it will not let you down with its deep coverage of these topics. Of course we look at protocols, but there are plenty of practical examples to keep things moving along. We start with the TCP and UDP protocols, and look at some other protocols to see examples of synchronizing time with other servers, querying user information and authenticating users over LDAP and performing DNS queries.
The book explains Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), which is often used for monitoring and gathering information from various devices, such as routers, gateways, printers and many other types of equipment. We’ll also look at web programming in Tcl; processing the requests coming from the clients via the HTTP protocol and responding to these requests. You’ll be able to create a complete solution for creating a client-server application in Tcl.
To round things off, you’ll see how to secure your networked applications, build public key infrastructure into your application and use Tcl’s safe interpreter feature to reduce risk of running code from unknown source.
Get to know the the tools available to ease up development of Tcl code
Discover Tcl’s approach of using events over threads, which is very different from many other languages
Learn the VFS feature that allows the usage of Metakit database as normal file system
Create loggers, define log levels, write your logs to file or channel, and trace the execution of your code
Get to know the key differences between free TclPro Debugger and paid ActiveState Tcl Dev Kit Debugger
Handle different text encoding, dependent on the region you live, and create multi-language, internationalized application with msgcat package
Handle UDP communication in Tcl was presented, with TclUDP extension as the implementation
Manage files remotely over File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and learn to download a file from a web site using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP),
Learn the usage Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) to look up information and/or authenticate users, manually querying host names and time servers
Get to know the Tcl package Scotty that handles SNMP and provides a Tk based GUI application that can be used for inspecting devices, discovering systems within our network and browsing data that can be retrieved over SNMP
Use Tcl code as legacy CGI scripts and improve it with ncgi package
Create client-server application based on HTTP protocol and Tclhttpd as embedded web server packed into Starkit technology for easy deployment
Connect to XML-RPC services and issue methods remotely, and easily integrate with major blogging engines
Create SOAP services using Tclhttpd and Web Services for Tcl; define complex data types for storing structured information
Learn to use encrypted connections from Tcl and the method to make sure you know whom your application is communicating with