[TCLCORE] Re: trace command patch

[Vince D. <vin...@bi...>]

> Variable traces support read, write, and unset operations; 
> command traces
> support rename and delete operations; execution traces are 
> used to trace
> command execution, and have several additional options:
> 
> trace add execution name ops ?-minlevel m -maxlevel n 
> -truncate t -depth d?
> 
> The full patch is at
> 
> ftp://ftp.ucsd.edu/pub/alpha/tcl/tracecommand.patch.gz
> 
> If you are so inclined, please take a look at it and give us some
> comments.  I think the patch looks very good; I've tested it 
> out and it
> works as advertised, has tests, and doc's.  My only concern 
> is with the
> syntax of the execution traces.  I think that "execution" 
> should just be
> another operation for command traces, rather than an entirely 
> separate set
> of traces.  My guess is that Vince split it out because of 
> the need for
> the extra options.  But I don't feel strongly that it should 
> be changed.
> Does anybody else have any comments on this, or on any other 
> parts of the
> patch?

Indeed, I split it out because 'execution' and 'command' traces are
semantically very different.  'command' traces simply notify you when a
command is renamed/deleted, whereas 'execution' traces give you ongoing
information about what is happening while a command is being executed.  The
only commonality between the two is that both take a 'name' parameter which
is a valid command in the current interpreter.  Beyond that the ops and
options allowed are completely incompatible between execution/command. 

I'd be happy to help clarify this issue, or anything else with the patch.

Please note that trace.n needs some work.  My nroff skills were not up to
the job (the information is all there, I believe, but not the formatting).
I'd be more than happy to look over a redone trace.n to make sure all the
docs are correct and/or clarify any remaining issues.

cheers,

Vince.