I've made an "interim snapshot" release, numbered 0.2002.01.26, of
the aqtools package (formerly known as jstools).  aqtools is a suite
of applications, and some libraries they share.  The most interesting
application is multi-mode editor with support for WYSIWYG generation of
HTML and PostScript, among other goodies.  There are also a number of
small graphical utilities intended to be used from within shell scripts
or window-manager configuration files.

The newest application (still in the "works in progress" directory)
is an editor/browser for small simple databases like addressbooks and
CD catalogues.  It's customizable by writing a config file for whatever
along those lines you want to use it for, but comes with a config file
to use it as an addressbook.  Currently there's no documentation for
it, but once you've installed aqtools you can start it with the command
"aqdb ~/.addresses" (or specify any filename that ends in ".addresses").

The libraries are intended to be general-purpose, so the distribution 
may be of interest to Tcl and/or Tk programmers as well as people 
who want to use the applications.

I am _still_ in the process of converting the libraries from old-style
autoloaded procedures to modern Tcl packages (using namespaces and
"package require").  Currently, something like two thirds of the
library files have been packagized; the rest is still autoloaded.
I'm also converting the package from the "jstools" nomenclature to the
"aqtools" nomenclature; there are still lots of internal references to
"jstools" in the code.  While this process is going on, aqtools will be
changing rather a lot from release to release, and I'll be breaking APIs
left and right.  I may well also take this chance to make some other
incompatible changes, e.g. in file formats.  When all the libraries
have been packagized, the APIs will settle down and I'll go back to a
more normal version numbering scheme (rather than a date-based scheme).
Also, for this period releases will be a lot more rough than normal - for
instance, the documentation is largely outdated.

This release requires at least Tcl/Tk 8.0, and has been most extensively
tested under Tcl/Tk 8.3.  It runs with full functionality under Unix,
and most features of aqedit at least also work under Windows.  (I'd be
interested to hear if it works on Macs.)

More information about jstools is at http://www.aq.org/~js/jstools/ ,
although as of this writing that page isn't current (as you can tell 
from the URL).

(The French and Portuguese support hasn't been updated since jstools
version 4.1/4.2, and the newer apps haven't been internationalized at all,
so there will be some quirks if you're not using English, especially in
preferences panels.)

Applications included with the distribution are:
  aqabbrevs - an abbreviation manager (used by aqedit)
  aqdoc - a documentation viewer
  aqedit - an multi-mode, multi-window text editor
  aqmore - a file viewer, essentially a graphical analogue to more(1)
  aqprefs - a tool to set preferences shared by the jstools applications

Shell Utilities
  aqalert - display an alert panel
  aqcolname - prompt for a colour name
  aqcolrgb - prompt for a colour by RGB values
  aqconfirm - ask user for confirmation
  aqfs - allow user to select a file
  aqprompt - ask user to supply a string

There are also some unsupported applications and demos, including 
the address database mentioned above.

Jay Sekora
2002.01.26

-- 
Jay Sekora            http://www.aq.org/~js/            js@aq.org

`A language that doesn't have everything is actually easier to program
in than some that do.' - Dennis M. Ritchie