
This directory contains a PRE-ALPHA release of a BibTool-Tcl integration.  The
functionality of BibTool is made available  through a dynamic loadable library
to Tcl.

This module has been tested against Tcl 7.6 and Tcl 8.0.

These  files are included in  the distribution of  BibTool to get some kind of
feedback. If you try/port/improve it contact me please.  The implementation is
by far  not complete. Thus the  usual rules apply: incompatible  changes might
occur.



Since I  don't know  how to  figure  out  the  proper  ways to set   up things
automatically yet the installation is a little bit awkward (Also remember that
this is a pre-alpha release). I know how to do it on UNIX systems only. If you
know the procedure  for other systems  drop me a mail  such that I can improve
this description.


WINDOWS
=======

Tcl/Tk is said to be running under Windows and the portability of the files is
high. Thus it should be easy to create a dll and use the bibtool/Tcl extension
on windows. Drop me a mail if you have done it.


MACINTOSH
=========

Tcl/Tk is said  to be running  under Macintosh. Thus  it should be possible to
port the library to this architecture. Drop me a mail if you have done it.


UNIX
====

- Configure and compile bibtool in the parent directory (..).
  The object files must be present in this directory.

- Go to the directory BibTcl. This is the directory containing this file.

- Ensure that the command  tclsh is present on  your path. This tclsh needs to
  be not too old and it needs to be installed properly.

- If you have wish at hand you can try the program install.tcl in this
  directory.  This program performs the following tasks and displays
  the results in a window:

  - Run
	./configure

    You need to give the same arguments as for the configuration of BibTool in
    the previous directory. Especially prefix  and exec-prefix are required to
    be the same.

    This should produce the file Makefile in the current directory.

  - On Solaris edit the Makefile and remove  '-z text'  from SHLIB_LD.

  - Run
	make

    This  should produce the shared library  and a small  Tcl  loader which is
    independent of the architecture.  In fact  it figures out the architecture
    and uses the appropriate version which should be installed.

  - Run
	make install

    This creates a  subdirectory of  LIBDIR according  to  the OS used.   This
    directory contains the  shared library as well as  the loader script.  The
    loader script can be freely copied to any  other place. The shared library
    must stay in this directory since the location is compiled into the loader
    script.

  - Run
	make clean

    to remove the intermediate files.


This procedure can  be repeated  for different  architectures which  share the
same installation directory.



DOCUMENTATION
=============

I have started to describe the Tcl interface  in the document bibtcl.ltx which
can be   found  in this     directory.   Consult this  document  for   further
descriptions.


Gerd Neugebauer
gerd.neugebauer@sdm.de
