tkMOO light (Unix, Mac, PC

 

tkMOO light is a new MOO client with interesting potential, e.g. it provides whiteboards and a graphical desktop. At TECFAMOO we so far (June 96) used the whiteboard successfully for experiments.

``tkMOO-light is a new client which brings mudding kicking and screaming into the early eighties. The client supports a rich graphical user environment, and can be extended to implement a wide range of new tools for accessing M**s.

The client is written entirely in the Tcl programming language and full source code is available in UNIX .tar.gz format and a prebuilt .zip version is available for Windows. The client requires both tk4.1 and tcl7.5 to be installed on your machine. Precompiled binary copies of tk/tcl are available for Windows, NT and Macintosh platforms.''

(from http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/User/Andrew.Wilson/tkMOO-light/

For general documentation about this client, please consult the official ``tkMOO light'' site. Using the tkmoo client gives you several advantages:

Multi-platform:

You can use the same client on Unix, Mac and Windows.

Local editing:

You can use local editing (i.e. forget about the in-moo editor). Note that you have to type '@edito +local' to enable ``local'' editing (same as with emacs clients).

Extensions:

You have access to fancier tools, e.g. whiteboards that are integrated with the MOO or ``desktops''.

Installing tkmoo light is probably overkill for beginners and people who just want to chat. For those purposes, you may want to select some ``easier'' tool, e.g. Mudwin (PC), Muddweller (Mac) or Tinyfugue (Unix).

Please be aware that Andrew produces updates tkMOO-light very frequently, therefore this description may be very outdated!

Installing tkMOOlite under Win95

[June 96]: We have installed tkMOO-lite 0.2.42 here (e.g. on a 486/66 with 16MB and running Swiss-French Windows 95) and it runs fine, Display is a bit slow. However, it is the only suitable MOO client for building and programming that works under Windows, so get it.

This is one possible installation procedure (it is not too hard, but you should know how to install software, how to use zipped files and how to edit text files).

1. Get tcl-tk (``win41.exe'') from SunLabs (http://www.sunlabs.com/research/tcl/install.html) or from our site (ftp://tecfa.unige.ch/pub/software/win/tk-tcl/). It is a self extracting file that will produce installation files.
2. Get the latest tkMOO-lite for Windows distribution from Andrew Wilson's site (http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/User/Andrew.Wilson/tkMOO-light/Source/, i.e. a file called *.zip (e.g. tm0.2.42.zip). Unzip the archive into some directory.
3. Edit the tkMOO-lite application with a text editor, i.e. the file called ``tkMOO'' and add the location of this same file as the first line like in the following example:

   set tkMOOLibrary "c:/ProgramFiles/tcl-tk/tm0-2-42/"

   Note that there is also an install script to run under wish, but I found it easiest to proceed as below [D.S].
4. To launch tkMOO-lite you have several alternatives. Here is one using the wish shell: Click on the wish41 application that is in the ``bin'' directory of the tcl-tk distribution and type: source "<full pathname of tkMOO-lite>" like in the following example. And don't forget the quotes around the path and use forward slashes (``/''):

   source "c:/Program Files/tcl-tk/tm0-2-42/source.tcl"

   Using wish and ``source'' is a good way to debug, e.g. it will complain if you entered a wrong file path name in the previous step.
5. A better solution under Win95 is to make a shortcut:
   • Click with the right mouse button on the file source.tcl in the Explorer and make a shortcut, you could name it tkMOO-lite or whatever. You may want to move the shortcut to the main menu.
   • Edit the properties of the shortcut (again using right click), i.e. select ``Shortcut'' and edit the ``Target'' field (dunno if those names are correct since I am using a french windoze) to launch tkMOO-lite with wish as in the following example (don't forget the quotes and put the commands on ONE line):

      "c:\Program Files\tcl-tk\Tcl\bin\wish41.exe" "c:\Program Files\tcl-tk\tm0-2-42\source.tcl"

     Now have fun MOOing, i.e. launch tkMOO-lite by clicking on the shortcut.

6. A third solution is to create a file type association for the extension ``*.tcl''. Under Win 3.1. you can do this with the File Manager I believe. Under Win95, click on the ``My Computer'' (``Poste de Travail'') icon and go to the ``File type'' menu. Create a new File Type for TCL (or modify it if you already tried something along this line). Call the new action ``open''. The command for the action (i.e. the application used) should be something like in the example below. Don't forget the ``

    "c:\Program Files\tcl-tk\Tcl\bin\wish41.exe" "%1"

   This will launch any *.tcl file under wish if you click on it and is therefore the most general solution.
7. Reminder: type '@edito +l' in the MOO to use this client's local editing facility! (@edito -l' will put you back to in-MOO line editing).

Disclaimer: We haven't fully tested this client under Windows (We rather use X servers under Windows and Macs to run the Unix version under Solaris instead... it's easier on installation). Also, while this client is under development consider making frequent updates. You just need to edit the first line of the ``source'' file.

tkMOOlite@TecfaMOO

In order to make optimal use of this client at TECFAMOO, do the following in the MOO (on other MOOs, please enquire):

1. Type: '@addfeature &xmcp_feature'
2. Optional: '@playero client=&ansi_tkmoo_client'
3. Finally, each time you want to use a whiteboard, type: '@xmcp_challenge' (or select this command from the tkmoo tools menu). Anyhow, enquire for using whiteboards ....

If you decide to use another client AND you set your @player-options to a special tk-moo client setup, don't forget to change it back:

1. To get the default client, type: '@playero $client'
2. you can leave the rest, though if you use a simple client also change back to '@edito -l'.

Also note that tkMOO-light is very new (as of May 96). Currently (July 96) the setup at TECFAMOO works with version 0.2.52 but we plan to ``stay'' in touch with further developments. On Tecfa's Unix machines type: 'tkMOO' to start the client.