Ubuntu Manpage: critcl_devguide - Critcl

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NAME

       critcl_devguide - Critcl - The Developer's Guide

DESCRIPTION

       Welcome  to the C Runtime In Tcl, CriTcl for short, a system to build C extension packages for Tcl on the
       fly, from C code embedded within Tcl scripts, for all who wish to make their code go faster.

       This document is a guide for developers working on Critcl, i.e. maintainers fixing  bugs,  extending  the
       package's functionality, etc.

       Please read

       [1]    Critcl - License,

       [2]    Critcl - How To Get The Sources, and

       [3]    Critcl - The Installer's Guide

       first, if that was not done already.

       Here  we  assume  that  the sources are already available in a directory of your choice, and that you not
       only know how to build and install them, but also have all the necessary requisites to  actually  do  so.
       The  guide  to the sources in particular also explains which source code management system is used, where
       to find it, how to set it up, etc.

PLAYING WITH CRITCL

       The sources of Critcl, should you have gotten them, contain several larger examples  show-casing  various
       aspects  of the system. These demonstration packages can all be found in the sub-directory "examples/" of
       the sources.

       Lots of smaller examples can be found in the document Using CriTcl, an introduction to Critcl by way of a
       of  examples.  These  focus  more on specific critcl commands than the overall picture shown by the large
       examples mentioned in the previous paragraph.

DEVELOPING FOR CRITCL

ARCHITECTURE & CONCEPTS
The system consists of two main layers, as seen in the figure below, plus a support layer containing
general packages the system uses during operation.

+----------------+
|Support Packages|
| stubs::* |
| md5, platform |
| ... |
+----------------+

[1] At the top we have an application built on top of the core packages, providing command line access
to the second and third usage modes, i.e. Generate Package and Generate TEA Package.

critcl

critcl::app

[2] Below that is the core package providing the essential functionality of the system, plus various
utility packages which make common tasks more convenient.

critcl

critcl::util

[3] Lastly a layer of supporting packages, mostly external to critcl.

md5 For this pure-Tcl package to be fast users should get one of several possible accelerator
packages:

[1] tcllibc

[2] Trf

[3] md5c

cmdline

platform

stubs::container

stubs::reader

stubs::writer

stubs::gen

stubs::gen::init

stubs::gen::header

stubs::gen::decl

stubs::gen::macro

stubs::gen::slot

stubs::gen::lib

REQUIREMENTS
To develop for critcl the following packages and applications must be available in the environment. These
are all used by the build.tcl helper application.

dtplite
A Tcl application provided by Tcllib, for the validation and conversion of doctools-formatted
text.

dia A Tcl application provided by Tklib, for the validation and conversion of diagram-formatted
figures into raster images.

Do not confuse this with the Gnome dia application, which is a graphical editor for figures and
diagrams, and completely unrelated.

fileutil
A Tcl package provided by Tcllib, providing file system utilities.

vfs::mk4, vfs
Tcl packages written in C providing access to Tcl's VFS facilities, required for the generation of
critcl starkits and starpacks.

DIRECTORY STRUCTURE
Helpers

"build.tcl"
This helper application provides various operations needed by a developer for critcl, like
regenerating the documentation, the figures, building and installing critcl, etc.

Running the command like

./build.tcl help

will provide more details about the available operations and their arguments.

Documentation

"doc/" This directory contains the documentation sources, for both the text, and the figures. The
texts are written in doctools format, whereas the figures are written for tklib's dia(gram)
package and application.

"embedded/"
This directory contains the documentation converted to regular manpages (nroff) and HTML.
It is called embedded because these files, while derived, are part of the git repository,
i.e. embedded into it. This enables us to place these files where they are visible when
serving the prject's web interface.

Testsuite

"test/all.tcl"

"test/testutilities.tcl"

"test/*.test"
These files are a standard testsuite based on Tcl's tcltest package, with some utility code
snarfed from Tcllib.

This currently tests only some of the stubs::* packages.

"test/*.tcl"
These files (but not "all.tcl", and "testutilities.tcl") are example files (Tcl with
embedded C) which can be run through critcl for testing.

TODO: These should be converted into a proper test suite.

Package Code, General structure

Package Code, Per Package

critcl

"lib/critcl/critcl.tcl"
The Tcl code implementing the package.

"lib/critcl/Config"
The configuration file for the standard targets and their settings.

"lib/critcl/critcl_c/"
Various C code snippets used by the package. This directory also contains the
copies of the Tcl header files used to compile the assembled C code, for the major
brnaches of Tcl, i.e. 8.4, 8.5, and 8.6.

critcl::util

"lib/critcl-util/util.tcl"
The Tcl code implementing the package.

critcl::app

"lib/app-critcl/critcl.tcl"
The Tcl code implementing the package.

critcl::iassoc

"lib/critcl-iassoc/iassoc.tcl"
The Tcl code implementing the package.

"lib/critcl-iassoc/iassoc.h"
C code template used by the package.

critcl::class

"lib/critcl-class/class.tcl"
The Tcl code implementing the package.

"lib/critcl-class/class.h"
C code template used by the package.

dict84

lassign84

"lib/util84/dict.tcl"

"lib/util84/lassign.tcl"
These are two packages implementing forward compatibility emulations of the dict and
lassign commands introduced with Tcl 8.5. These are used automatically when critcl
is run by Tcl 8.4.

stubs::*

"lib/stubs/*"
A set of non-public (still) packages which provide read and write access to and
represent Tcl stubs tables. These were created by taking the "genStubs.tcl" helper
application coming with the Tcl core sources apart along its internal logical lines.

critclf

"lib/critclf/"
Arjen Markus' work on a critcl/Fortran. The code is outdated and has not been
adapted to the changes in critcl version 3 yet.

autoscroll

cmdline

md5

md5c

platform

snit

snitbutton

wikit These are all external packages whose code has been inlined in the repository for easier
development (less dependencies to pull), and quicker deployment from the repository
(generation of starkit and -pack).

The packages autoscroll, snit, snitbutton, and wikit are for the support of the Wikit GUI
accessible from starkit and -pack when the application functionality (critcl::app) is run
with an empty command line.

TODO: These should all be checked against their origin for updates and changes since they
were inlined.

AUTHORS

       Jean Claude Wippler, Steve Landers, Andreas Kupries

BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK

       This  document,  and  the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain bugs and other problems.  Please
       report them at https://github.com/andreas-kupries/critcl/issues.  Ideas for enhancements you may have for
       either  package,  application,  and/or  the documentation are also very welcome and should be reported at
       https://github.com/andreas-kupries/critcl/issues as well.

KEYWORDS

       C code, Embedded C Code, code generator, compile  &  run,  compiler,  dynamic  code  generation,  dynamic
       compilation, generate package, linker, on demand compilation, on-the-fly compilation

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) Jean-Claude Wippler
       Copyright (c) Steve Landers
       Copyright (c) 2011-2013 Andreas Kupries

NAME

DESCRIPTION

PLAYING WITH CRITCL

DEVELOPING FOR CRITCL

AUTHORS

BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK

KEYWORDS

CATEGORY

COPYRIGHT