For Tcl, is there an equivalent to perl's CPAN?

Question

Given that the Tcl Wiki had a page titled "Why isn't there a Comprehensive Tcl Archive Network like Perl's CPAN?", it seems the short answer to this is "no". Is there however someplace with an approximation - web sites, or FTP sites, with tarballs of multiple packages, ideally with older versions?

I'm an infrequent user of Tcl, and am undertaking a new x86_64 install of ActiveTcl, attempting to reproduce the package set of an i386 installation on older machines.

Using ActiveState's teacup package installer, it seems I'm able to find and install equivalents to two-thirds of the packages that were installed under the old tree. For the remaining set of packages, searching finds package-specific webpages across a variety of sites, some with only their latest version of source available.

As I'd like to avoid up-reving dependancies that some of these latest-version Tcl packages demand, I'd like to be able to install older versions of the packages.

Is there a repository that maintains broad and deep sets of Tcl add-on packages?

Answer 1

ActiveState's “teapot” repository is pretty good (especially for 32-bit builds) since they include nearly everything that is a sane (and reusable outside that one application) package with a sane build process. I use their stuff (and sometimes submit bug reports where the packaging has gone wrong).

There's also tcllib (as @glennjackman mentions in comments). The large majority (maybe even all) of that is available from the ActiveState repo; that which isn't is either because it isn't yet finished or because it's seriously broken in some other way. The main downside of tcllib is that it only has Tcl (and Tk, for tklib) as a binary dependency, which restricts what can be in there quite a bit; there's no database drivers in there, for example.

For binary packages, where you're not getting them via the teapot, the best place to start looking is Joe English's Gutter (Great Unified Tcl/Tk Extension Repository). It doesn't include builds but it does let you find things and then build them yourself. Most packages will also have a page (at least) on the Tcler's Wiki; that tends to be a reasonable place to look for usage samples and collected tips. (Also remember you can ask here if you've got a question specific enough.)

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If you're working with tclkits, the space of libraries is a little different (as you're looking for a .kit-ted version). However I don't know that area so well.