[Plplot-devel] tkwin doesn't work as dynamic driver :(

[Alan W. I. <ir...@be...>]

As an experiment I tried the following local changes to turn tkwin into
a dynamic driver (i.e., a tiny dll that is loaded as needed by the core
plplot routines):

cvs diff
Index: configure.in
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/plplot/plplot/cf/configure.in,v
retrieving revision 1.134
diff -u -3 -p -r1.134 configure.in
--- configure.in        11 Jul 2002 20:05:52 -0000      1.134
+++ configure.in        12 Jul 2002 00:47:18 -0000
@@ -133,12 +133,12 @@ hp7470, hp7580, lj_hpgl, ljiip, imp, xwi
 # Note specifically which drivers are known to be loadable.  Eventually,
 # hopefully, every driver will show up on this list.  However, we add them one
 # at a time since each will have its own peculiarities in the build process
-# (only ones missing at present: xwin and tk and tkwin).
+# (only ones missing at present: xwin and tk).

 define([PL_DYNAMIC_DRIVER_LIST],
 [plmeta null xterm tek4010 tek4010f tek4107 tek4107f mskermit \
 conex linuxvga vlt versaterm dg300 png jpeg cgm ps psc xfig ljii \
-hp7470 hp7580 lj_hpgl ljiip imp pbm gnome pstex ntk])
+hp7470 hp7580 lj_hpgl ljiip imp pbm gnome pstex ntk tkwin])

 # We think of a "device" as the output medium.  Could be a machine
 # style (Tektronix, X11), or a file format (Postscript).
Index: dyndrv.in
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/plplot/plplot/cf/dyndrv.in,v
retrieving revision 1.24
diff -u -3 -p -r1.24 dyndrv.in
--- dyndrv.in   9 Jul 2002 19:52:58 -0000       1.24
+++ dyndrv.in   12 Jul 2002 00:47:18 -0000
@@ -61,8 +61,8 @@ drivers/impress$(LIB_TAG).drv : shared/i
 drivers/gnome$(LIB_TAG).drv : shared/gnome$O $(PLLIBS)
        $(SHLIB_BUILD) $@ $< @GNOMELIBS@ $(driverlibs)

-#drivers/tkwin$(LIB_TAG).drv : shared/tkwin$O $(PLLIBS)
-#      $(SHLIB_BUILD) $@ $< @TKLIBS@ $(driverlibs)
+drivers/tkwin$(LIB_TAG).drv : shared/tkwin$O $(PLLIBS)
+       $(SHLIB_BUILD) $@ $< @TKLIBS@ $(driverlibs)

 drivers/ntk$(LIB_TAG).drv : shared/ntk$O $(PLLIBS)
        $(SHLIB_BUILD) $@ $< @TKLIBS@ $(driverlibs)

However, these changes do not work (so I won't commit them).

The problem is that the link step for applications shows undefined symbols:

make
gcc -g   plrender.o -L. -lplplotd -ltclmatrixd -o plrender \
         -litk3.1 -ltk8.3 -litcl3.1 -ltcl8.3 -L/usr/X11R6/lib -lX11 -ldl -lm
-lg2c -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/home/software/plplot_cvs/HEAD/plplot_working3/tmp
./libplplotd.so: undefined reference to PLColor_from_TkColor_Changed'
./libplplotd.so: undefined reference to plplot_tkwin_ccmap'
./libplplotd.so: undefined reference to plD_dispatch_init_tkwin'
./libplplotd.so: undefined reference to plD_open_tkwin'
./libplplotd.so: undefined reference to pltkwin_setBGFG'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [plrender] Error 1

These symbols are referred to by plplotter.c, and putting plplotter.o into
libplplot is causing the problem.

My understanding is that similar problems (Tcl/Tk stuff integrated into
libplplot) keep the tk driver (and therefore xwin) from being dynamic.

I think it is crazy to have Tcl/Tk stuff (or code from any other front end)
inside libplplot so I hope we can rationalize this situation.  Of course,
once the Tcl/Tk front end code is in its own separate library, then the next
step is to turn that into a dll which could be dynamically loaded into wish
or tclsh (using the TEA-based approach, I presume). Separating out the
python front-end stuff into dll's is exactly the python approach we have
used both with the old and present python interfaces.  That idea works very
well so I am anxious to see it tried for the Tcl/Tk case, and a side benefit
I understand is it allows us to convert our remaining static drivers (tk,
xwin, and tkxwin) optionally into dynamic drivers as well.

I believe we have concluded previously that a separate Tcl/Tk library and
ultimately dll was the way to go. I don't have the expertise to do this
myself, but if somebody is inspired to take responsibility for this change,
I will certainly cheer from the sidelines, and also I will be more than
happy to help with the configuration and testing of the result!

Alan

email: ir...@be...
phone: 250-727-2902	FAX: 250-721-7715
snail-mail:
Dr. Alan W. Irwin
Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria, P.O. Box 3055,
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8W 3P6
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