Revision – Page 3 – freeWrap Home

Changes for version 5.61

Corrected a problem with the freeWrap Make files which could result in improper assembly of the freeWrap program. This problem affected the official version 5.6 release packages. Therefore, the version 5.6 release packages of freeWrap should not be used. Download and use version 5.61 instead.
All TCL encoding files have been included in freeWrap. Prior versions only included cp1250.enc.
FreeWrap 5.61 has been compiled with TCL/TK 8.4.6.

A new freeWrap command line option has been added to specify the Windows program icon to use for the wrapped application.
A generic ZIP file creation capability has been added with a new ::freewrap::makeZIP command. This command incorporates the capabilities of the Info-ZIP ZIP2.3 program directly into the freeWrap code.
FreeWrap no longer uses a separate ZIP program to do its work. ZIP capabilities have been compiled directly into freeWrap.
The WINICO extension for Windows has been added back into freeWrap.
The ::freewrap::getStubSize command now returns a correct, non-zero value under Linux. This fix also enables the ::freewrap::reconnect command to work under Linux since ::freewrap::reconnect called ::freewrap:getStubSize.
FreeWrap no longer performs source code encryption. This “protection” is rather weak when used in script-wrapping applications. Therefore, this feature has been removed.
You no longer need write permission to script files you will be wrapping.
FreeWrap 5.6 is based on TCL/TK 8.4.4

The WINICO extension for Windows has been removed. A similar Windows icon feature was added to the TK “wm iconbitmap” command in TK 8.3.3
Special Makefiles for building static versions of TCL and TK under Windows are no longer included in the freeWrap package. As of TCL/TK 8.4.0 static TCL and TK libraries can be built using the OPTS=static option on the NMAKE command line.
Compiled with newer version of ZLIB library (revision 1.1.4).
FreeWrap 5.5 is based on TCL/TK 8.4.1

Corrected problems that occurred when storing the executable file in directory paths that included spaces.
The generated executable output file is now placed in the current working directory.
The [info script] command now returns the name of the called script when using freeWrap as a stand-alone TCLSH or WISH.
Due to conflicts with antivirus software, under Windows freeWrap is no longer compressed using UPX or any other EXE compressor.
FreeWrap 5.4 is based on TCL/TK 8.3.5

Removed replacement glob command. There were too many bugs in the replacement code.
Fixed ::freewrap::unpack procedure to prevent addition of newline character at end of unpacked file.
Double-clicking on the console window background no longer produces an error condition.
For the BLT version of freeWrap: Added / blt to auto_path variable
FreeWrap can now be built using TCL/TK 8.4.

::freewrap ::getStubSize command now returns correct value.
Modified info command to return a value when using the [info script] command for wrapped files. This makes wrapping of TCL package libraries much simpler.
freeWrapBLT will now properly decrypt its wrapped BLT script library.
The Windows versions of freeWrap are now compressed using PEcompact instead of UPX. UPX compressed executables have serious incompatibility problems with some Windows-based anti-virus programs (e.g. Norton, McAfee). This incompatiblity expresses itself in slow listings for directories containing wrapped applications, slow startup of freeWrap and wrapped applications . The Linux versions of freeWrap are still compressed with UPX.
Made minor adjustment to initialization of auto_path variable

freeWrap 5.0 now compresses all wrapped files into a ZIP Virtual File System (ZVFS) archive attached to your executable. Bottom line: wrapped applications will be smaller.
The file name referencing rules have changed slightly with the adoption of ZVFS for use in freeWrap.
Some ::freewrap:: variables and procedures have been deleted and some new ones added.
Encoding file cp1252.enc is now included as the default encoding for freeWrap.
The freeWrap source code has been restructured to produce a simpler process for building different versions of freeWrap under different operating systems. The MKTCLAPP program is no longer needed.
freeWrap 5.0 is based on TCL/TK release 8.3.4.
“file stat” and “glob” now work on wrapped files.
freeWrap will now complain and exit without producing an executable file if the filename specified with the -f switch cannot be found.
freeWrap will now complain and exit if the executable file already exists and is open/running.
The ZVFS used by freeWrap now preserves the case of file names under both UNIX and Windows.

freeWrap 4.4 is based on TCL/TK 8.3.2
Added a -w “wrap using” option to specify the file to use as the freeWrap stub. This allows cross-platform creation of wrapped applications without the use of the target computer system.
All extensions compiled into freeWrap ( Blt, winico, dde, registry, Tk) are now statically loaded and are available for loading into TCL interpreters created with the interp command.
Created ::freewrap namespace and moved all existing freewrap variables, commands and procedures into it.
Added some commands to install new file types and associations into the Windows registry.
Added a ::freewrap::shortcut command to create shortcuts under Windows.
Added a ::freewrap::getSpecialDir command to find “Start Menu”, “Desktop” and similar directory locations under Windows.

freeWrap 4.3 is based on TCL/TK 8.3.1.
Fixed a bug introduced by TCL/TK 8.3 that prevented the use of the “\” path separator on the freeWrap command line. Paths on the freeWrap command line can again use either the forward or backward slash character.