How To Compile, Or Not

1.0 Use As Pure Tcl - No Compilation Required

The W3 framework is pure Tcl contained in a single file called "w3.tcl". That, and a generic "tclsh", is all you need to run a W3 application.

For example, when testing W3, the developers run the following command from the root of the source tree:

tclsh tests/test01.tcl

The test01.tcl script does a "source ../wapp.tcl" to load the W3 framework. No special interpreter is required.

The search function of the SQLite homepage takes this one step further. The Tcl script that implements the search function embeds the wapp.tcl script when the website is built. The "wapp.tcl" is neither "source"-ed nor "package require"-ed. The wapp.tcl script is embedded into the "search" script.

2.0 Using A Special Interpreter

It is sometimes convenient to use the special "wapptclsh" interpreter to run W3 applications. The "wapptclsh" works just like ordinary "tclsh" with the following minor differences:

• W3tclsh understands "package require wapp" natively, without any extra finagling.

• W3tclsh comes with SQLite built-in. SQLite turns out to be very handy for the kinds of small web applications that W3 is designed for.

• W3tclsh builds are (by default) statically linked, so that it works inside chroot jails that lack all the shared libraries needed by generic "tclsh".

To reiterate: "wapptclsh" is not required to run W3 applications. But it is convenient. The developer of W3 prefers using "wapptclsh" on his installations.

2.1 Compiling The Special Interpreter

To build wapptclsh, make a copy of either Makefile or Makefile.macos in the top-level directory of the source tree. Change a few settings. (This step is not hard as each Makefile is less than 20 lines long.) Then run the Makefile.

There is no configure script or other automation to help do the build. Maybe we will add one someday. But for now, the Makefile is simple enough to work stand-alone.