Re: [Tcllib-devel] Trouble for Tcl 8.2/8.3, 64bit machines, seeking solution

[miguel <ms...@us...>]

Andreas Kupries wrote:
> A number of packages have trouble on 64-bit machines, when running against
> Tcl 8.2 or Tcl 8.3. There is no trouble with Tcl 8.4+. I believe this is
> because of incomplete/buggy 64-bit support in the 8.2/8.3 cores.
> 
> This means that the testsuites go read all over for this combination and I
> am getting tired of it.
> 
> The question, what to do ?
> 
> (1)	The packages currently declares Tcl 8.2 as their minium version.
> 	Move that up to Tcl 8.4.
> 
> 	Disadvantage. Users of Tcl 8.2 on still wide-spread 32bit machines
> 	cannot use the packages any longer, at least not without editing
> 	the 'package require Tcl' statement.
> 
> 	On the other hand, Tcl 8.2 is how old now ?
> 
> (2)	Like above, but make the Tcl 8.4 requirement dependent on detecting
> 	execution on a 64-bit machine (via tcl_platform(wordSize)).
> 
> Other ideas ? Preferences ? (I am currently favoring (2)).

I would go with (1) myself. It is cleaner, and sends the real message a
bit louder: upgrade Tcl.

Whatever reason users that can't/won't upgrade Tcl may have, it should
also apply to tcllib. We support "upgrade both" (without insisting on
anything newer than 5 years, mind you), or don't upgrade at all and keep
working as you were.

According to the SF download page: 8.4.0 is Sep 2002, 8.3.0 is Feb 2000,
8.2.0 is Aug 1999.


Miguel