$Id: README 1078 2007-04-01 05:09:04Z sergei $

This file describes a sample startup script
for Tkabber starkits/starpacks.


I. Purpose.

The "main.tcl" file is the "main startup script" for starkits; it is
a Tcl script which task is to "bootstrap" the application wrapped in starkit.

Although this script is a sample, it's ready, without any modifications,
to be used for creation of a working starkit.

Note that throughout this text the "starkit" term is used to refer to
both Tkabber's starkits and starpacks since there is no difference between them
in this context.


II. Prerequisites.

This scripts expects the starkit's VFS directory to be organised
in this way:
VFS_root_dir/ -- starkit's VFS root directory;
  lib/        -- Tcl/Tk extensions (like BWidget);
  tkabber/    -- Tkabber's code (tkabber.tcl must be placed here);
  ...
  main.tcl    -- the starkit startup script.


III. How it works.

Besides the usual starkit initialization which is described in [1], this
script performs two major tasks:
* Defines the "starkit_init" Tcl procedure;
* Sources the main Tkabber script -- "tkabber.tcl".

Tkabber checks if the Tcl command named "starkit_init" is present in the
global namespace and executes it (without passing any arguments to it) if it
exists. At the time of calling "starkit_init" several global Tkabber
variables are guaranteed to exist:
* "rootdir", which is set to the full pathname of the directory
  containing the "tkabber.tcl" script;
* "configdir", which holds the full pathname of the Tkabber's
  user configuration directory;
* "toolkit_version", which holds the Tcl interpreter version.
Also the hooks subsystem is guaranteed to be initialized so that the
"starkit_init" procedure could make use of Tkabber hooks.

The purpose of the "starkit_init" procedure is to make some preparations
before the bulk of the Tkabber code is loaded but after Tkabber managed
to initialize some subsystems/variables which might be crucial for the
proper initialization of the starkit. The "starkit_init" procedure in
the "main.tcl" script discussed here performs the following steps:

* Appends the " (starkit)" string to the "toolkit_version" variable.
  This is done since the toolkit version is reported in response to the
  XMPP iq:version request, so it helps Tkabber supporters to better
  know a configuration a particular user runs.

* "Forgets" about a Tcl package named "zlib" which is internal to
  any tclkit and confuses Tkabber forcing it to think that the XMPP
  stream compression can be used (which, in fact, requires another package --
  "ztcl" -- which, in turn, provides another Tcl package named "zlib").

* Looks into two special directories and sources all the files whose
  names match the "*.kit" pattern. These directories are:
  * The directory where the running starkit is located;
  * The Tkabber's user configuration directory (held in the global
    variable named "configdir").
  This allows to bring some Tcl/Tk packages wrapped in starkits in.
  Two popular starkits known to work with Tkabber's starkit are
  img.kit (containing the Img package) [2] and the snack.kit (containing
  the Snack sound kit package) [2].

  If one or more of the kit files fail to load, a warning message with
  collected error messages is shown to the user and the loading
  process continues after the user dismisses this dialog.

* Restores the "::starkit::topdir" variable which could be mangled by
  external starkits.

* Sources the main Tkabber's script "tkabber.tcl".

So, the outline of Tkabber bootstrapping process looks like this:

* "main.tcl" is sourced by the tclkit reading the Tkabber's starkit.
* "main.tcl" creates the global "starkit_init" procedure and sources the
  main Tkabber script, transferring control to Tkabber's code.
* Tkabber performs some initialization steps, then finds the "starkit_init"
  command and executes it, effectively "calling the starkit code out".
* "starkit_init" does its initialization steps, possibly bringing some
  external Tcl/Tk packages in, then gives control back to Tkabber.
* Tkabber then continues with its loading as usually.


IV. Differences between 0.10.0 and pre-0.10.0 starkits:

Versions of Tkabber earlier that 0.10.0 had more limited support for
starkits. Since 0.10.0 Tkabber has received some changes that allow to
create fully-functional and customizable starkits without patching the
Tkabber's code (as must have been done earlier).

In short, the differences include:

* The "rootdir" global variable is now initialized based on the actual
  full pathname of the "tkabber.tcl" script, so that Tkabber's code
  can now be located in an arbitrary directory in the starkit VFS.
  Note though that the sample "main.tcl" does make its assumption about
  where Tkabber's code is located.

* Tkabber now "calls out" the starkit code in the course of its
  initialization process which differs from the old way the things
  worked when transferring the control to Tkabber's code was the
  last thing the starkit's initialization code did.

* The official Tkabber starkits/starpacks made a Tcl package from the
  Tkabber's source tree. There were not much point to do so, that's why
  the discussed "main.tcl" just sources the main Tkabber script now.


V. Additional stuff.

Ruslan Rakhmanin [3] has created a sample "Windows Tkabber starpack
tool" which contains all necessary files to build a Tkabber starpack for
Windows in the Windows environment (Windows 2000 and later is required).
To build starpack using this tool you only need (recent) Tkabber sources.

Also this starpack tool uses a modified tclkit which contains a full set
of cp* Windows charsets (which original tclkits lack) thus providing
the full support for non-Latin-1 alphabets.

There's an article (written in Russian) on the official Tkabber wiki 
describing this tool [4].

A direct link to the RAR-archive containing this tool is [5].


VI. Reference materials:

1. http://wiki.tcl.tk/8186
2. http://mini.net/sdarchive/
3. xmpp:archimed@jabber.ru
4. http://ru.tkabber.jabe.ru/index.php/Tkabber_starpack
5. http://ru.tkabber.jabe.ru/images/ru.tkabber.jabe.ru/a/ad/Tkabber_win32_starpack_template.rar
