Peter Newman 8 January 2005:
The "Bootstrap File" is a plain ASCII text file that allows the script-level programmer to select the data types and command/functions they want, in their own personal or application specific programming toolkit.
It looks like (for example):-
module d:/UPL/lib/interpreters/Tcl.dll (.so on Linux) # module d:/UPL/lib/interpreters/C.dll (.so on Linux) # module d:/UPL/lib/interpreters/Perl.dll (.so on Linux) # module d:/UPL/lib/interpreters/Python.dll (.so on Linux) module d:/UPL/lib/interpreters/Lisp.dll (.so on Linux) # module d:/UPL/lib/interpreters/Scheme.dll (.so on Linux) module d:/UPL/lib/dataTypes/integers.dll (.so on Linux) module d:/UPL/lib/dataTypes/strings.dll (.so on Linux) module d:/UPL/lib/dataTypes/lists/basic.dll (.so on Linux) # module d:/UPL/lib/dataTypes/arrays.dll (.so on Linux) module d:/UPL/lib/io/files.dll (.so on Linux) module d:/UPL/lib/io/std.dll (.so on Linux) etc etc
Where module functions pretty much like Tcl's load - and 'loads' the dll/so whoose path follows on the command line.
The "Bootstrap File" is loaded by UPL: The Bootstrap Interpreter.
Which is a small program - typically a small C executable - that understands little more than the module command (and perhaps #, for commenting out un-wanted moduiles).
But once all the specified intepreter, data type and command/function dll/so's have been loaded - the script-level programmer then has their something with tclsh/wish level functionality.
The facility to then save the result so far, to a binary file, might also be useful.
But the programmer can then carry on to load their application.