Version 1 of Tcl Standard Library Specification

Updated 2004-04-23 23:41:19

Peter Newman 24 April 2004

INTRODUCTION

The Tcl Standard Library Specification is an idea that arose from the April 2004 discussion on Tcl Common library.

The idea of a Tcl Standard Library was floated, and generated a lot of interest. But there were so many ideas, so many issues! Lots of people want a Tcl Standard Library. But there were many different ideas as to what that actually was.

During that discussion, I realised that though Tcl is great, there are still lots of outstanding issues that haven't been resolved. For example:-

• The lack of a standard distribution system - like Perl's CPAN and RPM.
• The Tiny/Minimal Core versus Batteries Included Core issue. We seem to have a compromise solution at the moment, that neither side is entirely happy with.
• The stagnation of certain aspects of Tcl - like skinning/theming of the core widgets, for example.
• The poor documentation of many of the core commands, widgets and concepts.
• Outstanding issues regarding TEA and CVS and how to create packages and enhancements to Tcl.
• The continual talk/work on megawidgets and MegaWidget Librarys.
• And there may well be many more. If there is, just let me know.

These issues seem to have been discussed/debated for many years. But progress seems either painfully slow or non-existent.

But what struck me about the debate in Tcl Common Library was that though these issues are always thought of as separate and un-related - in fact the are all really just subsets of the Tcl Standard Library.