An attempt to derive a weakly-Tcl like language using [unknown] to exploit Tcl's incompletely recursive definition to interpret the 0th (command position) of each command as either a 'section' or a 'variable'-within-a-section, permitting an .ini like configuration structure with almost-full Tcl syntax. This example uses three passes of evaluation: [subst]-for-commands, [subst]-for-vars and [eval]-of resultant form. It does so because there is currently no other way to distinguish command-application from the 0th position, and from substitution within word (per [Dodekalogue] 2.) This three-pass interpretation, as well as being less efficient than a single pass of [eval] where [unknown] was able to make the distinction through introspection, also precludes a variable from referring to other variables within its section (although access to previously defined sections is permitted using namespace-form.) ===== # Config.tcl - support tcl-like config files if {[info exists argv0] && ($argv0 eq [info script])} { lappend auto_path ~/Desktop/Work/Wub/ [file dirname [info script]] } if {[catch {package require Debug}]} { #proc Debug.config {args} {} proc Debug.config {args} {puts stderr HTTP@[uplevel subst $args]} } else { Debug define config 10 } package require OO package require Dict package provide Config 1.0 oo::class create Config { method dict {} { set result [configI eval ::_O::toDict] } method eval {config} { configI eval ::_O::namespace unknown ::_O::sunknown configI eval ::_O::namespace eval ::_C [list $config] return [my dict] } constructor {args} { Debug.config {Creating Config [self] $args} if {[llength $args]%2} { set cf [lindex $args end] set args [lrange $args 0 end-1] dict set args config $cf } variable config "" variable {*}$args catch {set args [dict merge [Site var? Config] $args]} ;# allow .ini file to modify defaults next? {*}$args variable interp [interp create configI] configI eval { namespace eval ::_O {} proc ::get {section var} { return [set ::_C::${section}::$var] } proc ::toDict {} { set result {} foreach ns [namespace children ::_C] { dict set result [namespace tail $ns] {} foreach v [info vars ::${ns}::*] { dict set result [namespace tail $ns] [namespace tail $v] [set $v] } } return $result } # construct the variable unknown proc ::vunknown {ns args} { lassign $args var val set ::_C::${ns}::$var $val } # construct the section unknown proc ::sunknown {args} { set args [lassign $args ns script] namespace eval ::_C::$ns {} ;# create the section namespace namespace eval ::_C [list ::_O::namespace unknown [list ::_O::vunknown $ns]] set script [namespace eval ::_C::$ns [list ::_O::subst -nocommands $script]] set script [subst -novariables $script] ;# first run the script in ::_O for [] namespace eval ::_C $script namespace eval ::_C [list ::_O::namespace unknown [list ::_O::sunknown]] } foreach cmd [info commands ::*] { if {$cmd ni {::rename ::if}} { ::rename $cmd ::_O::$cmd } } ::rename ::if ::_O::if ::rename ::rename ::_O::rename } my eval $config } } if {[info exists argv0] && ($argv0 eq [info script])} { Debug on config 10 set cf [Config new { section { var val ;# this is a variable var1 val1 v1 2 v2 [expr {$v1 ^ 2}] } sect1 { v1 [expr {[get section v1] ^ 10}] } }] puts stderr "RESULT: [$cf dict]" } =====