Re: [Tcllib-devel] dictutil commands on the wiki ...

[Neil M. <ne...@cs...>]

On 12 Feb 2007, at 19:07, Andreas Kupries wrote:
> http://wiki.tcl.tk/17686
>
> 	Good enough for adding them to tcllib ?
> 	(Under struct, I would say, should our answer be 'yes')

I'm certainly happy to see them added to tcllib. A test-suite is  
needed, of course. If it goes in to tcllib alongside struct::list,  
then it might be worth examining the API. For instance, struct::list  
equal assumes that its elements are either strings or sub-lists,  
whereas dictutils equal requires an explicit equality predicate for  
the elements. You could probably add a predicate to list equality, as  
an optional first argument, and let it default to the current  
behaviour. Problem is the format -- should it be a simple [eq? $a $b]  
or include the index too [eq? $i $a $b]? The first is simpler (and  
allows using things like {string equal}), whereas the latter is  
perhaps more flexible (e.g., if a list is being used like a tuple).

I've some other bits of code that could be contributed to tcl/tklib  
at some point:

* A higher level channel API (http://wiki.tcl.tk/17012) -- I have a  
bunch of updates/changes to this that I want to finish up, then I  
think it might be worth adding.
* A thread-safe message queue (http://wiki.tcl.tk/17652) -- might be  
better bundled directly with the Thread extension, but could also go  
in tcllib. I have some tests and docs for this too, so it could go  
straight in (subject to review).
* Simple download progress widget (http://wiki.tcl.tk/10571) -- with  
a bit of polish this could find its way into tklib. I have some half- 
finished code generalising this into a task-progress dialog.

I also have a variety of other bits and pieces sitting on my laptop  
that could be polished up -- e.g., an "article" widget for displaying/ 
composing email/usenet articles, various implementations of algebraic  
datatypes and pattern matching, a couple of unification algorithms, a  
scrolling ticker widget, etc. If any of these appeal I could be  
tempted into packaging them up.

-- Neil