Tcl parser - requiring 'package require Itcl'

[bigfaceworm]

Tried using the new tags package, but it's not finding nearly as much in my Tcl files.
Looking into the unit tests, and the comments therein, it appears that the new parser(s) for Itcl do not activate unless the file contains 'package require Itcl'.

How do I force the parser for Itcl (and TclOO) to always be active when parsing a Tcl file?

Our code base uses Itcl in 90% of Tcl files, but due to the flow, doesn't have 'package require Itcl' in but a small handful.

[masatake]

but due to the flow

Could you tell me the detail of the flow?

ctags needs a hint for detecting whether the current input is Itcl source or non-Itcl tcl source.

[masatake]

In the current implementation, ctags detects iTcl in two ways:

• ctags/parsers/itcl.c

  Line 270 in f2dc744

  static void packageRequirementNotify (tclSubparser *s, char *package,

• ctags/parsers/itcl.c

  Line 278 in f2dc744

  static void namespaceImportNotify (tclSubparser *s, char *namespace,

[bigfaceworm]

The Tcl file just looks like this:

`itcl::class MyClass {
public method foo {}
private method bar {args} {}
}

itcl::body MyClass:foo {} {
}
itcl::body MyClass::bar {} {
}`

There's no 'package require'.

We have 1500 Tcl files, only 250 have 'package require Itcl'.

[masatake]

About tcl files having 'package require Itcl', does ctags work fine?

[bigfaceworm]

Yes, it appears to work fine, it is just not finding the information about the itcl classes/methods in files that do not have 'package require Itcl'

[masatake]

I read my code. As you wrote, itcl.c expects 'package require'. Without the statement, itcl.c does nothing.

To use itcl in your code, isn't "package require ITcl" needed?
I wonder why your code works without the statement.

What we have to do is simple, removing:

ctags/parsers/itcl.c

Lines 259 to 260 in f2dc744

	if (!itcl->foundITclPackageRequired)
	return r;

However, I need the reason why we have to remove the condition from the view of Tcl language semantics.

[bigfaceworm]

Imagine the following

file1.tcl:
package require Itcl source file2.tcl source file3.tcl

file2.tcl:
itcl::class MyClass { .... }

file 3.tcl
`itcl::class YourClass { .... }'

etc.
In fact, if you had a single Tcl interpreter in which these files were sourced, you'd only need one 'package require Itcl'

And, even more, you can easily (in Tcl) set up auto loading such that you never need 'package require Itcl' in your .tcl files.
(look at documentation for the 'auto_load' command and the 'auto_index' variable).

[masatake]

See #3139 .

[masatake]

@bigfaceworm, thank you.
I will remove the condition, itcl->foundITclPackageRequired.
Please, wait a while.

[masatake]

If you want to provide that functionality as a command line (forcing Itcl parsing when parsing Tcl), I'm open to that too.

I wonder when we want to provide the extended command line interface.

My guessing:

file1.tcl:

package require Itcl
namespace import itcl::*
source file2.tcl

file2.tcl:

class MyClass { .... }

In this case, do you expect MyClass is tagged by the ITcl parser?
In the other words, file2.tcl is a valid ITcl program file?

[bigfaceworm]

Yes, I'd expect MyClass to be tagged by the ITcl parser.
file2.tcl is a valid ITcl file. It is not self-contained, but that is immaterial.

[masatake]

Thank you. I have one more question which is more popular、 ITcl or TclOO?

[bigfaceworm]

I don't know the answer to that, it kind of depends on the application. TclOO is much newer, and ITcl has been used in a lot of legacy code (that's my situation). ITcl also has been used in building graphical widgets, which are fairly popular. So I'd guess ITcl, but I don't know for sure.

[masatake]

Thank you. I will introduce a command-line option specifying a sub parser (TclOO or ITcl) as class keyword handler.