Tcl 8.4 for Windows

 RCS: @(#) $Id: README,v 1.30.2.1 2005/07/29 03:50:51 mdejong Exp $

 1. Introduction

 ---------------

 This is the directory where you configure and compile the Windows

 version of Tcl.  This directory also contains source files for Tcl

 that are specific to Microsoft Windows.

 The information in this file is maintained on the web at:

 	http://www.tcl.tk/doc/howto/compile.html#win

 The above URL includes a lengthy discussion of compiler macros necessary

 when compiling Tcl extensions that will be dynamically loaded.

 2. Compiling Tcl

 ----------------

 In order to compile Tcl for Windows, you need the following:

 	Tcl 8.4 Source Distribution (plus any patches)

 	and

 	Visual C++ 5 or newer

 	or

 	Msys + Mingw

 	http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/msys_mingw8.zip

 	This Msys + Mingw download is the minimal environment

 	needed to build Tcl/Tk under Windows. It includes a

 	shell environment and gcc. The release is designed to

 	make it as easy a possible to build Tcl/Tk. To install,

 	you just download the zip file and extract the files

 	into a directory. The README.TXT file describes how

 	to launch the msys shell, you then run the configure

 	script in the tcl/win directory.

 In practice, this release is built with Visual C++ 6.0 and the TEA

 Makefile.

 If you are building with Visual C++, in the "win" subdirectory of the

 source release, you will find "makefile.vc".  This is the makefile for

 the Visual C++ compiler and uses the stock NMAKE tool.  Detailed

 directions for using it, are in the comments of "makefile.vc".  A quick

 example would be:

 	C:\tcl_source\win\>nmake -f makefile.vc

 There is also a Developer Studio workspace and project file, too, if you

 would like to use them.

 If you are building with Msys or Cygwin, you can use the configure script

 that lives in the win subdirectory. The Msys or Cygwin based configure/build

 process works just like the UNIX one, so you will want to refer to

 ../unix/README for available configure options. An error will be

 generated by the configure script if you try to compile Tcl with

 the Cygwin version of gcc instead of the Mingw version. Check your

 PATH if you get this error. Be aware that gcc will generate

 lots of compile time warnings when building Tcl. Warnings are

 not errors, so please don't file a bug report about them.

 In order to use the binaries generated by these makefiles, you will

 need to place the Tcl script library files someplace where Tcl can

 find them.  Tcl looks in one of following places for the library files:

 	1) The path specified in the environment variable "TCL_LIBRARY".

 	2) Relative to the directory containing the current .exe.

 	   Tcl will look for a directory "..\lib\tcl8.4" relative to the

 	   directory containing the currently running .exe.

 Note that in order to run tclsh84.exe, you must ensure that tcl84.dll

 and tclpip84.dll are on your path, in the system directory, or in the 

 directory containing tclsh84.exe.

 Note: Tcl no longer provides support for Win32s.

 3. Test suite

 -------------

 This distribution contains an extensive test suite for Tcl.  Some of

 the tests are timing dependent and will fail from time to time.  If a

 test is failing consistently, please send us a bug report with as much

 detail as you can manage.  Please use the online database at

 	http://tcl.sourceforge.net/

 In order to run the test suite, you build the "test" target using the

 appropriate makefile for your compiler.