Mktclapp
A Tool For Mixing C/C++ with Tcl/Tk

Mktclapp is a utility that helps you mix C/C++ with Tcl/Tk to make a standalone executable. Using mktclapp, you can write programs where:

• C code can call Tcl procedures or execute Tcl commands,
• Tcl code can invoke C functions,
• The executable is a single binary file that will run on machines without Tcl/Tk installed,
• The same source code will compile without changes under both Unix and Windows, and
• The source code is hidden from the end user,

Mktclapp gives programmers the freedom to use C code for the things that C is good at (computation, complex data structures, etc.) while simultaneously using Tcl for the things that Tcl is good at (the user interface.)

Mktclapp is a command-line program that can be run from a makefile. But there is also a GUI "application wizard" that makes it easy to use. The mktclapp program itself and the GUI application wizard are each contained in a single source file.

The Mktclapp program and the application wizard are covered by the GNU Public License. But the output generated by mktclapp is in the public domain and can be used in any way you want.

The following items are available for download:

• Documentation and instructions for using mktclapp.
• The release history of mktclapp.
• A Quick Reference highlighting everything you need to remember to use mktclapp.
• A note on how to use autoconf with mktclapp.
• C source code: mktclapp.c
• Tcl/Tk sources to the application wizard: xmktclapp.tcl
• Screen-Shots of the app wizard.
• This entire website, including all of the above (but not the contributed software) as a tarball or as a zip archive.
• Contributed documentation and code.

Contact drh@acm.org for comments, questions and/or bug reports. If you find mktclapp helpful, a quick e-mail to the author will be greatly appreciated.

Mailing List

New! A mailing list has been started for users of mktclapp. Sign up if you want to receive notifications of updates or ask questions about using mktclapp.

Related Websites

• Freewrap generates a standalone executable from pure Tcl/Tk code, without the need for a C compiler.
• Eduardo Ochs maintains an auxiliary mktclapp website that describes how mktclapp is built for the Debian linux distribution. This site also contains pointers to some sample programs that use mktclapp.

• SWIG is a utility that creates a Tcl interface (or Perl or Python) to existing C code.
• Some versions of Jan Nijtmans' Plus Patches for Tcl contain aids for making Tcl/Tk programs into standalone executables. More recently, Jan has made available the wrap program which works like Freewrap but achieves a smaller executable using some clever compression techniques.
• The TclPro product from Scriptics includes the ProWrap utility for converting Tcl/Tk scripts into standalone executables.
• The ICE compiler from ICEM CFD Engineering converts Tcl scripts into C code which can then be compiled using a C compiler for faster execution.
• Cameron Laird's personal notes on Tcl Compilers contains comparisons and reviews of many Tcl compilation techniques.
• Mktclapp is a replacement for Embedded Tk (ET). Mktclapp tries to achieve the same result as ET, but it uses a very different interface. Mktclapp was written to address deficiencies in the design of ET.

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