tcllib-devel

[Tcllib-devel] Version numbers ! ...

[Andreas K. <aku...@sh...>]

No, this is _not_ about which version number to give to the next
release of Tcllib.

Recently we had a change in the Tcl core, in the handling of errors
thrown by the package management. A bug was fixed, a bug whose
presence swallowed errors and their messages.

The net effect of the fix from the user perspective is that the
package management now _strictly enforces_ that the 'package ifneeded'
and 'package provide' commands for a package have to use _identical_
version numbers.

Example:

	pkgIndex.tcl:
		package ifneeded FOO 1.0 "source $dir/foo.tcl"

	And foo.tcl:
		package provide FOO 1.0.1

	This discrepance, 1.0 vs 1.0.1, was always an error, now such
	an error is actually reported.

In the recent weeks I ran into lots of packages which had such
discrepances. Accumulated cruft, the fact that such problems were not
reported by the core caused people to quickly forget about keeping the
version number in sync.

Tcllib was quite lucky in this regard. Whenever we made a release the
release manager went through all packages and ensured that everything
was ship-shape.

So, if you commit a change to a package which touches version numbers
please take the extra minute and check that truly all of the relevant
locations have been updated and are in sync.

Before the laziness of not checking this was fine. Now it bites.

And yes, we do have tools which help us to do such checks. It is
called

    .../tcllib > ./sak.tcl validate <module>

-- 
So long,
	Andreas Kupries <aku...@sh...>
			<http://www.purl.org/NET/akupries/>
	Developer @	<http://www.activestate.com/>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: [Tcllib-devel] Version numbers ! ...

[Cameron L. <Ca...@Ph...>]

On Tue, Nov 15, 2005 at 10:24:14PM -0800, Andreas Kupries wrote:
			.
			.
			.
> Recently we had a change in the Tcl core, in the handling of errors
> thrown by the package management. A bug was fixed, a bug whose
			.
			.
			.
> 	pkgIndex.tcl:
> 		package ifneeded FOO 1.0 "source $dir/foo.tcl"
> 
> 	And foo.tcl:
> 		package provide FOO 1.0.1
> 
> 	This discrepance, 1.0 vs 1.0.1, was always an error, now such
> 	an error is actually reported.
			.
			.
			.
I'd welcome a few more words of explanation.

My memory of version arithmetic was that "package require FOO 1.0"
means that 1.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.8, ... are all accepted, but 0.9 is not.
Have I had that wrong all along?