The Tcl Bean
The Tcl Bean is a Java Bean for use with Sun's Java Studio. The Tcl Bean provides two main features:- Dynamic allocation of Bean ports from a Tcl Script
- Bean Customizers using Tcl Blend scripts that call java.awt methods
Java Beans have control panels called Customizers that are used to set bean parameters, such as the name of the bean and the names of the connections. Using a Tcl script to develop the Customizer is much faster that writing Java code, compiling it, reloading it into Java Studio and testing it. With a Tcl script implementation of the customizer, modifications can be made and tested on-the-fly.
What's a "bean"
Depending on your point of view, nothing or everything. At the most basic level, a "bean" is nothing more that a Java object, which also follows some very simple naming conventions for methods that access properties end events. At a higher level, this naming convention, together with Java's introspection ("reflection") capability and a BeanInfo class, provide a powerful means of allowing previously-unknown components to be glued together in GUI builders and even distributed object systems.
If you're interested in exploring the Tcl Bean further, see:
