From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Mo DeJong To: Kristoffer Lawson Cc: sourcenav@sources.redhat.com Subject: Re: Great work Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2000 10:40:00 -0000 Message-id: References: X-SW-Source: 2000-q3/msg00037.html On Fri, 21 Jul 2000, Kristoffer Lawson wrote: > Just tested the software out briefly and based on what I've seen of it the > programme really does look and feel good. > > A few initial questions: > > - As you use Tcl throughout the system (a good thing indeed!) I wondered > if it might be possible to build a parser in Tcl instead of > C? Specifically, is there a Tcl API like the C API for handling the > project database? (True, building one on top of the C API is not a big > chore). Specifically I would like support for XOTcl (www.xotcl.org) and > OTcl. See the documentation for the Tcl interface to the DB. That should at least get your started. http://sources.redhat.com/sourcenav/online-docs/progref/dbaseAPI.html#pgfId-996849 As for extending the Tcl support, we have talked about this at length and we think the best approach would be to use the Tcl parser API exposed by regular Tcl at the C layer. We currently use our own parser written for Tcl. To be honest, it would be better to toss out our Tcl parser and use the one from the Tcl core, and since the Tcl core is already part of SN, it is just waiting for someone to come along and use it :) > OTOH it probably wouldn't be horribly difficult to edit the Tcl parser. > The idea would be that: > > Class Foo -superclass Bar ;# Create Foo class, the superclass is Bar > Foo instproc ;# Create method in Foo > Foo proc ;# Create procedure in Foo (not seen in the object instance) > ;# Basically just means the parser should handle local variables > ;# as local instead of global (as it does now with anything that > ;# doesn't occur inside a proc command parameter). > Foo ob ;# Create object 'ob' of type 'Foo' > > The simple case should not be difficult but of course the problem with the > dynamic nature of XOTcl is that you can add and remove methods, change an > object's class or superclass at any point during run-time. How have you dealt > with it when dealing with Tcl namespaces, which are quite dynamic > themselves? Yes, this is another weak area in our Tcl parser. It was written before Tcl namespaces were in Tcl, so it has no namespace support. > - Is the Tcl parser behaviour correct when assuming that any "set" > statement inside curly brackets is actually setting a global variable? I > think by default it shouldn't do anything (ie. not add a variable to the > variable list) and have exceptions to the rule when dealing with while, > for, proc etc. The reason for this is that inside curlies I might have > data that might look like I'm setting a variable but actually I'm not. It > might just be plain data, or maybe I'm sending the code to another > interpreter or whatever. Tcl is very dynamic, so in general you can not assume that any command does anything. You need to make some assumptions otherwise you will get nowhere fast. Set should at least know if it is a local var, a global var, or a class instance or class common (static) var, but, this is not always possible. > This is related to the previous comment because currently XOTcl instance > variables appear as "global variables" which is not correct. While it > naturally would be nice if the environment recognized them as instance > variables I believe it's better not to recognize them at all than to mark > them as globals. You will need to hack it to fix that. > - I seem to be having problems with emacs/Xemacs and the IDE (btw. I think > it's great that you have put in extra effort to get emacs to interact with > the IDE). When looking up for a symbol with M-. I get the following error: > > (1) (error/warning) Error in process filter: (void-variable DisplayableOb) The emacs/xemacs stuff is in there for hackers, so if you have any problems you will need to fix them on your own. When you do, please send us the patches so the next guy will not need to. later Mo DeJong Red Hat Inc