[TCLCORE] FW: Report biweekly TCL/Tk meeting on 2024-12-23

[<apn...@ya...>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Harald Oehlmann <har...@el...> 
Sent: Monday, December 23, 2024 6:29 PM
To: Ashok P. Nadkarni <apn...@ya...>
Subject: Report biweekly TCL/Tk meeting on 2024-12-23

Dear TCL/Tk group,

the biweekly TCL/Tk meeting took place today to celebrate great TCL/Tk 
9.0.1 release ! Great release with a lot of bug-fixes and additions.

1) Version field of Tcl_InitStubs(i,"8.6-9",0)
The migration hints recommend: "Tcl_InitStubs(i,"8.6-9",0)".
The proposal is to better use: "Tcl_InitStubs(i,TCL_VERSION,0)".
If a library is compiled for 9, it will probably crash, when loaded into 
8.6 due to missing stubs entries.
There was work by Jan (not present in the call) to make a library work 
for 8.7 and 9, so "Tcl_InitStubs(i,"8.7-9",0)" might be senseful. 
Currently, 8.7 is not planned for release and a library author may 
require a lot of background information, what 9 feature is emulated in 8.7.
So, the TCL_VERSION argument is seen as mostly appropriate.

In addition, the macro magic in Tcl 9 about Tcl_InitStubs is seen as 
critical:
- the parameter "exact" is abused to encode TCL_VERSION
- there is a 4th magic parameter not exposed
It would be preferable, to have a new call:
Tcl_InitStubsEx(i,v,e,TCL_VERSION,MAGIC_PARAMETER)
instead of the macro magic.
In addition, a macro magic is added to Tcl_InitStubs, which replaces 
Tcl_InitStubs by something like Tcl_PackagePresent("TCL",Version), if 
USE_TCL_STUBS is not defined. That is great, but not tipped and not 
understandable for the user, as the command name is not correct.
So, also this may be included in a new command with a different name.

Don pointed to his historic ticket, probably outdated now:
https://core.tcl-lang.org/tcl/tktview/3588687fffffffffffff

2) Further releases
There was a brainstorming discussion how to proceed.
In the next meeting, a plan should be done and be published about 
tentative release dates for the next versions.
The loose idea is to have two release waves per year.
The dates to define:
- 9.1a0 release
- 9.1b0 release
- 9.1.0 release
- 9.0.x maintenance period
- 8.6.x maintenance period

3) Next telcos
7th of January 2025: Tk meeting at 18:00 UTC (Don probably not present)
20th of January 2025: biweekly TCL/Tk at 12:00 UTC

We wish a blessed time and a happy new year to everyone !
Ashok & Harald