Re: [TCLCORE] TIP #291: Add the 'platform' Package to Tcl

[Donal K. F. <don...@ma...>]

Steve Landers wrote:
> Now, before I waste any more time p*ssing into the wind - what's the  
> feeling of the TCT re #291. If Joe's attitude is the predominant one  
> then I won't bother pushing this. Conversely, if the concept of #291  
> is reasonable and just needs refinement then I'm more than happy to  
> invest the time.

Right now, we're starting to move into the brave new world of supporting
a real package repository. This is great! (And about time too!) But
supporting this requires some small amount of code extra so that we can
know what platform we're dealing with (in the sense of "what package
instance do I download and/or use so that it will work in the current
interpreter") so that we can tie the whole thing together.

Steve's got a package that provides this (or at least a good approx to
this) and which will therefore complete the foundational work for the
repository by standardizing the platform descriptors. It's therefore
needed in the core, even if just as a "package that we import from
elsewhere from time to time". We do have precedents for this (the MP
math library, the timezone data). Just because the package is written in
Tcl doesn't mean that it should not be taken as a contribution!

Donal.