Re: [Tcllib-devel] Tcllib 1.21 Release To Come, And Further

[Harald O. <har...@el...>]

Am 26.04.2022 um 19:29 schrieb Evan Rempel:
> On 4/26/22 09:42, Pietro Cerutti via Tcllib-devel wrote:
>>> On 26 Apr 2022, at 17:21, Andreas Kupries <and...@gm...> 
>>> wrote:
>>>>> On 2022-04-26 03:53, Andreas Kupries wrote:
>>>>> And looking beyond 1.21 my plan is to have a larger cleanup, as in:
>>>>>   1. Even Tcl 8.5 is end of life for oever 6 years now (8.5.19 was 
>>>>> 2016-02-12).
>>>>>      Let alone 8.4 and older.
>>>>>      Some of the packages in Tcllib still declare 8.2 as min 
>>>>> requirement/
>>>>>      I want to declare everything before 8.6 as unsupported now.
>>>>>      There was enough time to switch.
>>>>>      That will make development much easier as there is no need to
>>>>>      think about if a command, function, syntax is supported by the
>>>>>      declared min-version of the package, or not. Recently seen with a
>>>>>      patch using the `max` function. Does not exist in 8.4.
>>>> Redhat Enterprise Linux 7 uses tcl 8.5
>>>> Redhat Enterprise Linux 7 is a supported product through 2024, and with
>>>> extended support until 2026.
>>>> https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata
>>>> If there isn't a technical reason to increase the minimum tcl
>>>> requirement can I request that a minimum of 8.5 be used until 2026?
>>> Fair argument.
>>>
>>> Are there __strong objections__ (i.e. with good arguments) against 
>>> keeping to
>>> 8.5 as the minimum over 8.6 ?
>>>
>>> If not I would change the plans for after 1.21 to go with 8.5.
>> Not very strong, but it feels weird to me that long-term distros would 
>> push the maintenance burden upstreams.
>>
>> I contribute(d) very little to tcl/tcllib, but having to be 
>> retro-compatible with 8.5 has already meant you Andrea had to modify a 
>> patch of mine.
>>
>> Is the message really going to be that 8.5 is unmaintained but tcllib 
>> still needs to run on it?
>>
>> If users of RHEL can install a newer tcllib, I guess they can surely 
>> install a newer Tcl?
>>
>> -- 
>> Pietro Cerutti
> 
> tcl is provided by Redhat and they generally have a policy that they 
> don't change the versions of things within the life of the major Redhat 
> OS version. They are getting better ar being able to introduce different 
> versions, but that is a different story.
> 
> tcllib is NOT provided by Redhat. Anyone trying to install tcllib onto 
> RHEL7 would either have to install an old version of tcllib (supported 
> by tcllib maintainers?) or have the latest tcllib release accept the 
> minimum tcl version of 8.5
> 
> It is a lot more difficult to replace a Redhat package than it is to 
> provide one along side the Redhat package set.
> 
> Just for discussion, Redhat 8 includes 8.6 and the normal life cycle for 
> that is to 2029

Thank you, Evan, for your contribution.

As the TCLLIB installer is run by the TCL on the system, maybe the 
installer may check, if TCL8.6 is available.
If it is 8.5, the installer may point to an older TCLLIB version.

If there is TCL8.5 on the system, the system lacks anyway many features.
So, an older TCLLIB release would be perfectly suitable for this system.

Thank you,
Harald