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:-
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. And to make progress on these issues, we need to create a Tcl Standard Library Specification that describes how all of these things fit together.
Or to put it another way - a properly designed Tcl Standard Library should (in my opinion,) provide answers and solutions to all the problems/issues listed above.
But the first thing to do, is to create a Tcl Standard Library Specification - that describes exactly what the Tcl Standard Library is. And how it addresses and solves all these outstanding issues/problems.
So that's what this page and theTcl Standard Library are all about.
daapp 2004-04-24:I suggest to use following scheme:
My candidates:
Well, it look like the Standard Tcl Library Specification :).
davidw I'd rather create a mailing list than use wiki's for discussion, but here are some of my thoughts on the matter:
Worse is better! - let's get something working, and save the more contentious pieces until later.
Every module should have one or more people willing to take responsibility for it.
Every module should attempt to harmonize on a documentation standard.
Every module should have some tests demonstrating its functionality.
Every module (except where obviously not appropriate) should function on MacOS X, Linux/BSD/Unix and Windows.
Every module should have a BSD or compatible license.
Initial candidates: thread, TclX, XML stuff, tcl big number package, udp extension.