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Kevin Walzer, software developer.

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Tk-Cocoa is the best cross-platform toolkit for the Mac

I'd like to make a bold claim: Tk-Cocoa is now, in terms of its platform-specific integration, the best cross-platform toolkit for OS X.

With the release of tclservices, Tk-Cocoa now has a range of core features and extensions that no other cross-platform GUI toolkit can match. In other words, Tk-Cocoa provides fuller access to Mac-specific technologies--the features and user experience that help define the Mac--than any other toolkit.

Here's how I support this claim:

• Services: With the tclservices package, Tk-Cocoa allows Tk applications to be both providers and consumers of services via the Services menu. No other toolkit--not wxWidgets, not Qt, not Gtk, not Java--supports this. Java allows Mac applications to access the Services menu, but provides no simple mechanism for providing them.

• AppleScript: With its built-in AppleScript support via the "do script" command, Tk-Cocoa allows any Tk application to provide AppleScript support that goes beyond opening documents, launching the application, and so on. No other toolkit--not wxWidgets, not Qt, not Gtk, not Java--supports this.

• Mac-specific window styles: Tk-Cocoa provides, via its core features and extension packages, access to such features as sheets and drawers. Qt provides full access to Mac-specific window styles, while Java provides access to sheets. Neither wxWidgets nor Gtk provide this.

• Displaying Mac-native icons: Tk-Cocoa provides, via core features and extension packages, the ability to display Mac-native icons in an aplication. Qt and Java support this; wxWidgets and Gtk do not.

Does this mean that Tk-Cocoa is superior to these other toolkits? No, certainly not. Tk still lacks some significant features, most notably platform-native printing and a modern HTML library like WebKit. But if you're looking for platform-native integration, no other cross-platform toolkit offers as much specific support for these features as Tk-Cocoa.

I hope this brief discussion may persuade other developers to take a closer look at what Tk-Cocoa provides.

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Tclservices 1.0

I've released version 1.0 of tclservices, a Tcl/Tk library that provides access to the Mac's Services menu, allowing Tcl/Tk applications built against the Cocoa frameworks (Tk-Cocoa) to function as both providers and consumers of services. (Tk-Carbon is not supported.) With tclservices, Tcl/Tk applications can send data to other applications via the Services menu, and can also provide functionality that can be accessed from the Services menu. This package adds yet another aspect of platform-native integration that can improve Tk applications on the Mac.

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