'\" '\" Copyright (c) 1993 The Regents of the University of California. '\" Copyright (c) 1994-1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc. '\" '\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution '\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES. '\" '\" RCS: @(#) $Id: AppInit.3,v 1.2 2001/09/14 01:42:06 zlaski Exp $ '\" .so man.macros .TH Tcl_AppInit 3 7.0 Tcl "Tcl Library Procedures" .BS .SH NAME Tcl_AppInit \- perform application-specific initialization .SH SYNOPSIS .nf \fB#include <tcl.h>\fR .sp int \fBTcl_AppInit\fR(\fIinterp\fR) .SH ARGUMENTS .AS Tcl_Interp *interp .AP Tcl_Interp *interp in Interpreter for the application. .BE .SH DESCRIPTION .PP \fBTcl_AppInit\fR is a ``hook'' procedure that is invoked by the main programs for Tcl applications such as \fBtclsh\fR and \fBwish\fR. Its purpose is to allow new Tcl applications to be created without modifying the main programs provided as part of Tcl and Tk. To create a new application you write a new version of \fBTcl_AppInit\fR to replace the default version provided by Tcl, then link your new \fBTcl_AppInit\fR with the Tcl library. .PP \fBTcl_AppInit\fR is invoked after by \fBTcl_Main\fR and \fBTk_Main\fR after their own initialization and before entering the main loop to process commands. Here are some examples of things that \fBTcl_AppInit\fR might do: .IP [1] Call initialization procedures for various packages used by the application. Each initialization procedure adds new commands to \fIinterp\fR for its package and performs other package-specific initialization. .IP [2] Process command-line arguments, which can be accessed from the Tcl variables \fBargv\fR and \fBargv0\fR in \fIinterp\fR. .IP [3] Invoke a startup script to initialize the application. .LP \fBTcl_AppInit\fR returns TCL_OK or TCL_ERROR. If it returns TCL_ERROR then it must leave an error message in \fIinterp->result\fR; otherwise the result is ignored. .PP In addition to \fBTcl_AppInit\fR, your application should also contain a procedure \fBmain\fR that calls \fBTcl_Main\fR as follows: .CS Tcl_Main(argc, argv, Tcl_AppInit); .CE The third argument to \fBTcl_Main\fR gives the address of the application-specific initialization procedure to invoke. This means that you don't have to use the name \fBTcl_AppInit\fR for the procedure, but in practice the name is nearly always \fBTcl_AppInit\fR (in versions before Tcl 7.4 the name \fBTcl_AppInit\fR was implicit; there was no way to specify the procedure explicitly). The best way to get started is to make a copy of the file \fBtclAppInit.c\fR from the Tcl library or source directory. It already contains a \fBmain\fR procedure and a template for \fBTcl_AppInit\fR that you can modify for your application. .SH KEYWORDS application, argument, command, initialization, interpreter