1
Introduction
2
License
3
Platform compatibility matrix
4
Downloads
- 4.1
  Precompiled Binaries
- 4.2
  Source
5
Examples
6
Tools
7
Games
8
Documentation

1 Introduction

TkScript ("TKS") is a free and open source "glue" script language for C / C++ frameworks.

It is mainly designed for audio / graphics / UI applications and text processing tools.

Features:

C-like syntax
classes with multiple-inheritance
reflection / type introspection
exception handling
namespaces
stream I/O and (de-)serialization
RAII, no garbage collection
(true / native) multithreading
dynamically (un-)loadable script modules and classes
self contained application and library packages ("pak" files)
extendable via native C(++) plugin functions / classes / methods

Software written in TkScript includes:

The Synergy MIDI sequencer and Eureka DAW
Games
Text processing tools
- md - a markdown to HTML converter
- org - an org-mode like text processor, mind map converter, and project plan scheduler + report generator

TkScript is accompanied by a set of add-on plugins / libraries that provide bindings for:

OpenGL
Window / Event handling (via SDL)
Math (linear algebra)
File I/O
Zip files
Networking
Low latency audio (ASIO, PortAudio, OSS, ALSA)
MIDI
XML based user interfaces (tkui)

TkScript has been tested on the following platforms:

M68K AmigaOS 3.x (CLI-only)
x86 / x64 Windows (2000 / XP / 7 / 8 / 10 / 11)
x86 / x64 / ARM Linux (e.g. Open Pandora, Raspberry Pi)
arm64 / x86_64 macOS 10 / 13

2 License

TkScript is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPLv2).

The add-on plugins and libraries are distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser (library) General Public License (LGPLv2), or the MIT / BSD licenses (see plugin / library source for details).

Software written in TkScript may use any license (FOSS, closed source, ..).

3 Platform compatibility matrix

Component	Windows	Linux	macOS
tks	Y	Y	Y
eqxmms	Y	Y	Y
tkanalogrytm	Y	Y	Y
tkbluetooth	Y	Y	-
tkchipmunk	Y	Y	Y
tkfileutils	Y	Y	Y
tkfreeglut	Y	Y	Y
tkfreetype2	Y	Y	Y
tkfreeverb	Y	Y	Y
tkgmp	Y	Y	Y
tkmath	Y	Y	Y
tkmidi	Y	-	-
tkmidi_alsa	-	Y	-
tkmidi_portmidi	Y	Y	Y
tkmidipipe	Y	Y	Y
tkoldmath	Y	Y	Y
tkopengl	Y	Y	Y
tkportaudio	Y	Y	Y
tkportaudio_alsa	-	Y	-
tkportaudio_oss	-	Y	-
tkradiastools	Y	Y	Y
tksamplechain	Y	Y	Y
tksampleedit	Y	Y	Y
tksampler	Y	Y	Y
tksdl	Y	Y	-
tksdl12-compat	-	Y	Y
tksdl2	-	Y	Y
tksdl_net	Y	Y	Y
tksidplay2	Y	Y	Y
tksmdi	Y	-	-
tkspeexdsp	Y	Y	Y
tksqlite	Y	Y	Y
tktriangulate	Y	Y	Y
tkui	Y	Y	Y
tkvst2	Y	-	-
tkvst2_stub	-	Y	Y
tkvst2_nogui	-	Y	Y
tkvst2_macos	-	-	Y
tkwii	Y	-	-
tkzip	Y	Y	Y
yingtest	Y	Y	Y

4 Downloads

4.1 Precompiled Binaries

Windows 10 x86_64	tks.zip (v0.9.82.12, 18Aug2023)
macOS 13 x86_64	tks_macos_x86_64.zip (v0.9.82.12, 18Aug2023)
macOS 13 arm64	tks_macos_arm64.zip (v0.9.82.12, 18Aug2023)

on macOS, copy the extracted the files to /usr/local/ (optional)

4.2 Source

The latest source-code packages are here:

tks-source
tks-build
yac, yingtest
tkanalogrytm
tkchipmunk (v7)
tkfreetype2
tkfileutils
tkmath, tkoldmath, tkgmp
tkopengl
tksdl (Windows), tksdl12-compat, tksdl2 (Linux, macOS)
tksdl_net, tkbluetooth
tkmidi (Windows), tkmidi_alsa (Linux), tkmidi_portmidi (macOS)
tkmidipipe
tkportaudio, tkportaudio_alsa
tkradiastools
svg_loader, tktriangulate
tksampler, tksamplechain, tksampleedit
tksmdi
tksqlite
tkui
tkunit
tkvst2 (Windows), tkvst2 (stub), tkvst2 (nogui), tkvst2 (macOS),
tkzip

How to build (via install helper):

$ wget http://tkscript.org/tks_install_helper.sh 
$ chmod +x tks_install_helper.sh 
$ ./tks_install_helper.sh 
$ sudo -- sh -c 'cd tks_install_helper_tmp/ ; . ./setenv_linux.sh ; m all_install'

downloads the source packages, builds and installs them
tested on macOS 13, Debian GNU/Linux 12, Windows 10

How to build (manually):

The first three packages (source, build, yac) are mandatory for building a command-line version of tks.
The remaining packages are optional.
Edit the toplevel makefile (makefile.linux, makefile.macos or makefile.msvc) to choose which additional plugins will be built.
Edit+Run . setenv_linux.sh, . ./setenv_macos_arm64.sh, . ./setenv_macos_x86_64.sh or . setenv_msvc.sh to set up cross compiling / target platform / include+lib paths.
It is recommended to set up a shell function for make invocation, e.g. m(){ make -j20 -f makefile.msvc $* ; } (done by setenv*)

Requirements / Prerequisites:

The Windows build environment requires MSYS2 and the Microsoft Visual Studio compiler, e.g. the free-as-in-beer Community Edition.
The Linux build environment requires GCC / G++, GNU make, and GNU Bash.
- optional (recommended) packages: $ sudo apt-get install build-essential libsdl2-dev libsdl1.2-dev libsdl-net1.2-dev libpng-dev libfreetype-dev libgtk2.0-dev libzip-dev libgnutls28-dev libasound2-dev
- optional packages: % apt install portaudio19-dev libportmidi-dev sox rubberband-cli
The macOS build environment requires Clang (xcode toolchain), make, zsh, and the following brew packages: sdl12-compat, sdl2, libpng, freetype (tested with arm64 and x86_64) (and optionally sdl_net, gnutls, libzip, portaudio, portmidi).

The plugin bindings use the YaC (Yet another Component object model) interface, and the YInG interface generator.
To rebuild the bindings for a specific module, run

$ m yac

in the plugin (or tks-source) directory.

5 Examples

tks-examples

6 Tools

dog (API documentation generator, from 2009) (docs)
md (markdown document generator, 2018-2022) (docs)
org (org-mode-like document processor, 2020) (docs)

7 Games

For your amusement, some of the older stuff can be downloaded here:

retrovaders2 (a Space Invaders like game, from 2001)
loadmd2 (a loader / viewer for Quake2 models, from 2002)
equalize_it (a SID player and collection of C64 tunes, from 2003)
gkraft (2D cave flyer, from 2004)
racer (3D racing game, from 2008)
jumpy (2D jump'n'run, from 2010)
tequila (a classic Amiga500 demo effect ported to OpenGL, from 2010)

8 Documentation

See here for language reference guide.

For historical purposes, here are the old changelogs from 2002 - 2015.

Document created on 18-Aug-2023 16:14:10

Document:	TkScript
Author:	bsp
Date:	2023