Ubuntu Manpage: critcl_devguide - Critcl

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

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