Subject: Re: TclX package again

From: Philippe Troin <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 09:32:30 -0700

On Tue, 20 Aug 1996 09:51:39 CDT David Engel ([email-masked]) 
wrote:

> Note: I'm copying this to debian-devel to get feedback on my response
> to Philippe's question #3.  If you do respond, please include a direct
> response to me in addition to the list.  I was inadvertantly dropped
> from debian-devel three weeks ago and no amount of trying on my or
> Bruce's parts has been able to get me back on the list.

Can anyone put me on the list too ? In the meantime can you post 
followups to my address as well as the list, please...

> Philippe Troin writes:
> > 1) When compiling (make -f debian.rules) Tcl (needed to build tclX, 
> > what a shame that you need the tcl/tk source tree), I have errors 
> > in tclPosixStr.c about a case having same value (EDEADLOCK and 
> > EDEADLK are both defined and have the same value). Fixed by adding 
> > an #if EDEADLOCK != EDEADLK.
> > Did you recompile it lately ?
> 
> I'm aware of the problem, but haven't had time to fix it yet.

It's a two lines fix actually. BTW, Tcl 7.4 has the same problem.

> > 2) I've tried to 'make test' in both tcl7.5 and tk4.1 source trees, 
> > both failed. Shouldn't we report this to the Tcl/Tk maintainers 
> > and/or try to fix it ? This works perfectly on other systems (tried 
> > Solaris).
> 
> What do you mean by failed?  If you mean some individual tests fail,
> then that is expected.  I believe all of the Tk failures are due to
> non-portable tests.  I have not had time to look into the Tcl
> fileevent failures yet, but I suspect they are either due to
> non-portable tests also or libc bugs.

Some individual test failed for Tcl 7.5 (one test), Tk 4.1 (3 or 4 
tests), TclX 7.5 (4 or 5tests). I'll try to check them out... when 
I've got time.

> > 3) I think I should have tclX be the same (regarding package 
> > management) and tcl and tk. ie, I will have tclX74 and tclX75, both 
> > incompatible with tclX. tclX74-dev and tcl75-dev being mutually 
> > exclusive too... What do you think about it ?
> 
> I agree, for now.  One change I'm considering is to give each major
> Tcl version it's own include directory (e.g. /usr/include/tcl7.4,
> /usr/include/tcl7.5).  This would make it easier to have multiple
> development packages installed simultaneously.  The limitation of only
> having one installed at a time is quickly becoming a problem because
> of the way Tcl/Tk-based packages are tied to a specific version of
> Tcl/Tk.  What do you think?

I think it's fine. Tcl and Tk will need a little package work, but 
TclX is already version clean as it's installed in 
/usr/lib/tclX/<version>. But we'll have to implement 
/etc/alternatives stuff for the .a and the .so.
Do you see any other problem ?

> > 4) I plan having a separate tclX7[45]-doc package for the help 
> > system ( and /usr/bin/tclhelp). What's your 
> > opinion on that one ?
> 
> I've considered doing something like this with the section 3 manual
> pages for Tcl/Tk.  The reason I hadn't done it yet is that I didn't
> want to create yet another package unless I really needed to or
> someone else wanted it.

I think keeping the manual pages within the devel package is good.
However for TclX, /usr/lib/tclX/7.*/help contains a duplicate of 
all the man pages formatted differently to be used with tclhelp, 
hence the new 'doc' package. I must admit I never use this feature 
myself.
But generally, keeping the manpages with the development stuff 
should be a good thing.

Phil.

---

From: [email-masked] (David Engel)
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 09:51:39 -0500 (CDT)

> system (/usr/lib/tclX/7.*/help and /usr/bin/tclhelp). What's your 
> opinion on that one ?

> 5) I haven't had time yet to look after the other platform stuff. 
> Last time you told me to remove any hard-coded "i386" for the 
> debian support. I assume you're talking about the debian.* file,s 
> right ?

Yes.

David
-- 
David Engel                        Optical Data Systems, Inc.
[email-masked]                      1101 E. Arapaho Road
(214) 234-6400                     Richardson, TX  75081