#! /bin/env bash

: ${TCLSH:=tclsh}

#generate a Tcl list from a sequence of arguments 
#example: mylist=$(tcllist one two three '{' )
tcllist () {
    local libpath
    local res 
    res=$("$TCLSH" - "$@" <<-'EOF'
        puts [lrange $argv 1 end]
    EOF
    )
    printf %s "$res"
}

#load a Tcl list into an array
#example:  tcllist_arr myarray '{one two {three four} five}'
tcllist_arr () {
    assert declare "$1"
    eval $1'=()'
    while read -d $'\0'; do
        eval $1'[${#'$1'[*]}]="$REPLY"'
    done < <( "$TCLSH" - "${@:2:$#}" <<-'EOF'
        proc main {arg0 argv} {
            set list [lindex $argv 1]
            foreach item $list {
                puts -nonewline $item\0
            }
        }
        main $argv0 $argv
    EOF
    )
}