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Exploring Expect: A Tcl-based Toolkit for Automating Interactive Programs
Expect is quickly becoming a part of every UNIX user's
toolbox. It allows you to automate Telnet, FTP, passwd,
rlogin, and hundreds of other applications that normally
require human interaction. Using Expect to automate these
applications will allow you to speed up tasks and, in many
cases, solve new problems that you never
would have even
considered before.
For example, you can use Expect to test interactive programs
with no changes to their interfaces. Or wrap interactive
programs with Motif-like front-ends to control applications
by buttons, scrollbars, and other graphic elements with no
recompilation of the original programs. You don't even need
the source code! Expect works with remote applications,
too. Use it to tie together Internet applications including
Telnet, Archie, FTP, Gopher, and Mosaic.
Don Libes is the creator of Expect as well as the author of
this book. In Exploring Expect, he provides a comprehensive
tutorial on all of Expect's features, allowing you to put it
immediately to work on your problems. In a down-to-earth
and humorous style, he provides numerous examples of
challenging real-world applications and how they can be
automated using Expect to save you time and money.
Expect is the first of a new breed of programs based on Tcl,
the Tool Command Language that is rocking the computer
science community. This book provides an introduction to
Tcl and describes how Expect applies Tcl's power to the new
field of interaction automation. Whether your interest is
in Expect or interaction automation or you simply want to
learn about Tcl and see how it has been used in real
software, you will find Exploring Expect a treasure trove of
easy-to-understand and valuable information.
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