Creating a Multimedia Extension for Tcl Using the Java Media Framework

As multimedia capable computers become cheaper and more pervasive in the consumer and corporate markets, and as the availability of digital information increases, the need for low-cost, cross-platform multimedia applications will steadily rise. However, because Tcl lacks native support for continuous media streams, such as audio, video, and animation, it is not well suited for this emerging application domain. At the same time, Java now provides a set of class libraries, called the Java Media Framework (JMF), which provides the multimedia support that Tcl lacks. With the recently introduced integration of Tcl and Java, Java can now be used to provide the cross-platform multimedia support required by Tcl; whereas Tcl can be used to provide the easy-to-use programming environment required for building multimedia applications. In this paper, we introduce a Tcl extension that provides a high-level scripting interface to the Java Media Framework. In addition, we will highlight some interesting problems in the current Tcl/Java package as well as suggest some potential solutions. This paper will benefit Tcl programmers who would like to learn more about using Tcl to build multimedia applications, integrating Tcl and Java, or the multimedia support provided by the JMF.