T6pm   Tcl and Java Programming: Practice and Pitfalls John Reekie and Christopher Hylands, University of California, Berkeley Who should attend: Tcl programmers interested in interfacing Tcl scripts to Java, and Java programmers interested in adding high-level scripting to their Java applications. Participants should have some exposure to Tcl, the basic principles of object-oriented program-ming, and be confident enough to "pick up" new syntax as needed. Tcl Blend and Jacl are interfaces that allow Tcl scripts and Java classes to communicate. Tcl Blend uses the Java Native Interface and is written in C, while Jacl is a Tcl interpreter written in Java. This tutorial will show how, when, and why to effectively use these interfaces. After completing this tutorial, participants will understand the strengths and weakness of the two interfaces, the relative strengths of Tcl and Java, and will have the knowledge to evaluate them for their own applications. Topics covered include:    Basics    Overview of Tcl Blend and Jacl    How to create and call Java objects from Tcl: variable lifetime issues    Applications    Writing Tcl extensions in Java    Tcl JavaBean    Tcl test scripts for Java packages    Adding Tcl front-ends to Java subsystems    Practical hints and tricks    Sing System.out.println    Printing the Java stack trace from Tcl    Exception handling    Pitfalls    JDK1.2 issues    Type system limitations    Problems using Jacl in applets   John Reekie   is a post-doctoral researcher for the Ptolemy Project at UC Berkeley, and Christopher Hylands is the software manager. They are two of the principal authors of Tycho, a Tcl/Tk user interface for the Ptolemy simulator project, and are currently involved in the design and development of the Java version of Ptolemy.

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