Author:         Jan Nijtmans <[email protected]>
State:          Final
Type:           Project
Vote:           Done
Tcl-Version:    9.0
Tcl-Branch:     bug-ea39ab591e
Vote-Summary:	Accepted 7/0/1
Votes-For:	AK, DP, JN, KW, KK, MC, SL
Votes-Against:	none
Votes-Present:	FV

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Abstract

The "load" command, and its supporting C API is quite misleading. For example the 3th argument of "load" is case-insensitive: It is converted to Titlecase, (ASCII-only), then _Init is attached to it, then the C-function in the shared library with this name is called. No package handling is done, still the 3th argument of "load" is called "packageName".

See also bug report ea39ab591e: Tcl_StaticPackage allows case sensitvity; [load] prevents it which describes in better wordings what's wrong.

This TIP proposes to get rid of the case-insensitivity of the "load" command, except in the guessing of the prefix from the filename. In order to distinguish libraries from packages (libraries are available globally while package are per interpreter), a number of renamings will be done.

Specification

In Tcl 8.7, rename Tcl_StaticPackage to Tcl_StaticLibrary, Tcl_PackageInitProc to Tcl_LibraryInitProc and Tcl_PackageUnloadProc to Tcl_LibraryUnloadProc. Also add the following defines in tcl.h:

    #define Tcl_PackageInitProc Tcl_LibraryInitProc
    #define Tcl_PackageUnloadProc Tcl_LibraryUnloadProc
    #define Tcl_StaticPackage Tcl_StaticLibrary

This way, the new names of the functions already can be used in Tcl 8.7, but the functionality stays the same. Hopefully those new names make it clear that those functions take part in the load mechanism, not the package mechanism.

In Tcl 9.0, if the "load" command's 3th parameter is missing, this parameter is guessed from the filename. Starting with Tcl 9.0, a Unicode Titlecase will be used, not a ASCII one. The full algorithm becomes:

• If the filename starts with lib, strip it.
• If the filename then starts with tcl9, strip it.
• Take the characters following that, up to (but not including) the first character which is a (Unicode) digit or not a (Unicode) word.
• Convert those characters to (Unicode) Titlecase.
• The result will be the guessed prefix parameter.

This is almost the same as the Tcl 8.x algorithm, the enhancement is that the characters used in the filename are no longer limited to ASCII. For example, a shared library libπ.so will result in a prefix Π, so the initialization function Π_Init() will be called when loading this file.

When using Tcl 9.0, the following existing library names will be changed:

• tcldde14.dll -> tcl9dde14.dll
• tclregistry13.dll -> tcl9registry13.dll
• tk87.dll -> tcl9tk87.dll (on Windows)
• libtk8.7.so -> libtcl9tk8.7.so (on UNIX)

This makes it possible to install Tk 8.7 in the same directory when compiled for Tcl 8.7 resp 9.0. Since the filename is different, the pkgIndex.tcl file can load the correct Tk library no matter Tcl 8.7 or 9.0 is doing the call. (Of course, Tk 8.7 needs to be compiled twice then, once with Tcl 8.7 headers, once with Tcl 9.0 headers)

Implementation

Implementation is in Tcl (and Tk) branch bug-ea39ab591e.

Compatibility

This is not compatible with Tcl 8.x, but there is a simple way to make code compatible with both Tcl 8.x and 9.0: Just replace all "load" invocations:

• load <fileName> <prefix> ?<interp>?

by

• load <fileName> [string totitle <prefix>] ?<interp>?

.

Of course, if the 3th argument of load already is in Titlecase (it usually is) nothing needs to be done.

Copyright

This document has been placed in the public domain.