Version 5.5 issue

Testing hadn't been fully completed as yet since the major commit for V5.5 (which is why there has not been a formal release), but nevertheless, you are correct. Removing the errant "i" from the variable name on line 932, should result in proper behavior from the code in question. We applaud your industriousness in checking out the soon-to-be-released version, and appreciate your reporting of it. Rest assured we have repaired this and the actual release is imminent.

Hello Michael, unfortunately correcting the "i" does not solve the problem of not having a
preexisting .tkdiffrc file (e.g. a new user). In this case one still gets the above message and
tkdiff does not start. FYI.

Actually our records indicate repairing line 932 was NOT sufficient (although it WAS necessary). The entire processing of preference-morphing should only be attempted when a preexisting preference file was actually READ (as performed by the immediately preceding code block). In short, this means MOVING the close-brace on line 901 until just past the code block containing the "appears NEWER" message. The GOOD news is that testing has since been completed and release of V5.5 is commencing as we speak. Once again, our thanks for the extra testing assistance. We sincerely appreciate the effort.

Doing the above bracket change resulted in a different error, again when no .tkdiffrc exists.
Seems like something may not be defined when we skip the pref file reading block.

Error in startup script: unknown option "-wrap none"
while executing
"$widget configure {*}$opts(textopt)"
(procedure "build-client" line 103)
invoked from within
"build-client"
(procedure "create-display" line 32)
invoked from within
"create-display"
(procedure "main" line 91)
invoked from within
"main"
(file "/usr/bin/tkdiff" line 18246)

And this is why we hadn't released anything yet - there were a handful of other mistakes that we detected and resolved. I apologize if I hadn't made that clear...

The sad part of unpaid open-source software is that doing the necessary work to test, resolve, and ultimately FIX problems takes TIME that often doesn't exist when and where it would be most convenient. Unfortunately, I've had a number of other NON-software related issues to deal with lately and I am just getting to the point where I can commit the fixes, followed by an ACTUAL release. You are correct that there is yet another RELATED change that dealt with the things that went wrong for the "new user" scenario - but such is the kind of thing that happens when you pull in-progress code which is the only way you could be playing with V5.5 - its never guaranteed to actually WORK in that state. As we have come this far, the last piece of your particular issue is on Line 543: the initial value of the "diffcmd" array element should read as "diff" and NOT "" (eg. empty), but MAKING this change will NOT clear the message you are seeing now.

THUS remember - there can be other bugs - it would likely be best to WAIT at least until the next commit is posted before grabbing a new copy of the unofficial code; or better yet, waiting for the actual RELEASE of V5.5 if your INTENTION is to have a working version. THAT choice is, of course yours. It just seems silly (to me) for you to keep hitting problems that have been resolved but not yet committed to the testbed, unless you enjoy the debugging challenge.

But BECAUSE this is open source, what you choose to do is up to you.

My "brew upgrade" updated tkdiff to 5.5 and now its breaking with the same error as reported in this ticket:

Error in startup script: can't read "FV": no such variable
    while executing
"popmsg "Your Preference file (V$FV) appears to be
                    NEWER
    than the $g(name) V$CV currently running.
         This MAY NOT operat..."
    invoked from within
"if {[file exists $g(rcfile)]} {
    if {[catch {source $g(rcfile)} error]} {
        set startupError [join [list "There was an error in processing yo..."
    (file "/usr/local/bin/tkdiff" line 894)

Is this a beta release or something? Wonder why "brew upgrade" upgraded me to it.

The zip file seems to contain the fix for this.

V5.5 is now (11Aug2022) technically OFFICIAL (although admittedly the release ANNOUNCEMENT has not been written yet - recovery from surgery slowed things down a bit),,,,
I cant answer why "brew update" seems to have given you the EARLY ALPHA version:
I don't use a Mac, and have zero idea WHERE it is pulling from, but the official zipfile is correct (as noted by the original poster, above). The original poster had independently grabbed the ALPHA version - AHEAD of any kind of official release. Perhaps HIS actions somehow "contaminated" whatever your"brew" was thinking (maybe he is a coworker?). All I can say is the DOWNLOAD-ABLE zipfile contains the version you should be installing. I am hoping to get the actual announcement out shortly. Please feel free to post any FURTHER issues once confirming that you actually installed the CORRECT version. The proper version of the script should indicate that it contains 18247 lines of text

I tried deleting ~/.tkdiffrc and tkdiff 5.5 (from SourceForge) started up OK