Re: [TCLCORE] "In the core"

[Julian N. <ju...@pr...>]

Aside from tls, Thread - which I would like to see available by default 
and I expect are relatively uncontroversial - I'm wary of things like 
linenoise.

The console space is a big curly one - currently undergoing lots of 
innovation across platforms and languages - but notoriously difficult to 
get working across platforms - especially windows.
The https://github.com/msteveb/linenoise repository still uses windows 
API calls that are not 'virtual terminal' suitable - and are somewhat 
deprecated in that context.
I haven't tried recently - but had difficulty attempting to build/use it 
on windows in the past - and judging by these calls, I don't think it's 
anywhere near a good solution on windows yet.

Aside from signal handling oddities - it's entirely possible to make 
cross-platform line editing and other advanced console features work in 
pure Tcl - it's just difficult.
(e.g I have a proof of concept that works on FreeBSD,linux,windows - but 
nothing releaseworthy)

I understand a cross platform console is a greatly desirable feature - 
and I guess if it's entirely an optional package it won't get in the way 
of other solutions - but I do also worry about buildability if too many 
things are considered 'core' in some sense.

It's hard enough to build for multiple platforms as it is, without extra 
things being required to be buildable to be considered a relatively 
'complete' Tcl release.
I am for example having initial success building using a zig build 
process - which entirely replaces the existing build/make process - and 
while in initial stages and not necessarily of wider interest yet, is 
promising for me anyway.
More items considered 'core' is more work in that regard.

For me, 'core' packages should generally be smaller units of basic cross 
platform functionality, and some platform specific things (like 
registry, maybe dbus?)

I find Twapi indispensable on windows - but it's large and I wouldn't 
consider it suitable as core due to size and build trickiness.
Just one of its useful features is signal handling - which I would like 
to see in 'core' one day.

JMN


On 2024-10-31 1:52 pm, Steve Landers wrote:
> So would adding dbus to tcl/pkgs achieve you goals?
>
> I can think of others - e.g. Steve Bennet"s linenoise fork to provide 
> a console on all platforms (much like the SQLite project has recently 
> done.
>
> -- Steve
> On 31 Oct 2024 at 10:48⬯AM +0800, Kevin Walzer <kw...@co...>, 
> wrote:
>>
>> On 10/30/24 9:47 PM, Steve Landers wrote:
>> > Does it mean all of the above or something else?
>>
>>
>> Depends on the package. A loosely-coupled "nice to have" package like
>> todbc is not really in the core. A key platform package like registry IS
>> in the core for all intents and purposes. It is distributed and built
>> with the core Tcl code. I have floated the idea of adding dbus to the
>> core in the latter form.
>>
>> --Kevin
>>
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