tbcload and 8.5

[Joi]

Hi,

(I guess this is more of a question for Jeff)

The expand syntax change for 8.5 meant that tbcload available at
tclpro.sf.net no longer works. The tbcload shipped with Tcl DevKit has
been updated and should work. Are there any plans for contributing
those changes back to the open source community version? I would be
happy to pay for a license of Tcl DevKit, but I need support for
'weird' platforms such as OpenBSD and IRIX, etc. that are not
supported by Activestate. So unless I can get the source for it to
compile myself, it does not solve the issue for me.

Thanks!

[Joi]

To answer myself, it seems the TDK installer does indeed include a ZIP
with tbcload sources (though the ChangeLog include shows no updates)
but I am unsure of what the license terms are, can it be used freely?

[Donal K. Fellows]

Joi wrote:
> To answer myself, it seems the TDK installer does indeed include a ZIP
> with tbcload sources (though the ChangeLog include shows no updates)
> but I am unsure of what the license terms are, can it be used freely?

I don't know about the license terms, but the need for an update to
handle new opcodes (not those involved in expansion as it happens, but
rather others relating to the bytecode compilation of other commands) is
needed in order to work with bytecode generated from an 8.5 interpreter.
Bytecode generated against 8.4 should load into 8.5 (but might need
tbcload to actually be built against 8.5 so as to get structure sizes
and offsets right).

Donal.

[Joi]

Hi Donal

> I don't know about the license terms, but the need for an update to
> handle new opcodes (not those involved in expansion as it happens, but
> rather others relating to the bytecode compilation of other commands) is
> needed in order to work with bytecode generated from an 8.5 interpreter.
> Bytecode generated against 8.4 should load into 8.5 (but might need
> tbcload to actually be built against 8.5 so as to get structure sizes
> and offsets right).

Unfortunately, the current version does not compile against 8.5 HEAD,
you get errors:

cmpRead.c:156: error: 'VAR_SCALAR' undeclared here (not in a function)
cmpRead.c:159: error: 'VAR_UNDEFINED' undeclared here (not in a
function)
cmpRead.c: In function 'ExtractJumptableInfo':
cmpRead.c:2484: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 2 of
'infoPtr->hashTable.createProc' differ in signedness
cmpRead.c:2485: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 1 of
'tclStubsPtr->tcl_Free' differ in signedness
cmpRead.c: In function 'ExtractCompiledLocal':
cmpRead.c:2684: warning: statement with no effect
make: *** [cmpRead.o] Error 1

These seem to be fixed in the ActiveState src release, that is why I
was wondering if those changes will make it into the open source
version (or if I can freely use for redistribution the src version
included in ActiveState)

Thanks

[Jeff Hobbs]

Joi wrote:
> To answer myself, it seems the TDK installer does indeed include a ZIP
> with tbcload sources (though the ChangeLog include shows no updates)
> but I am unsure of what the license terms are, can it be used freely?

The purpose of distributing the sources for tbcload is specifically so
you can compile it on the other platforms that we don't have binaries
for, as you mention below.

Jeff

[Joi]

> > To answer myself, it seems the TDK installer does indeed include a ZIP
> > with tbcload sources (though the ChangeLog include shows no updates)
> > but I am unsure of what the license terms are, can it be used freely?
>
> The purpose of distributing the sources for tbcload is specifically so
> you can compile it on the other platforms that we don't have binaries
> for, as you mention below.

Thanks for your prompt reply. Will I need to buy an ActiveState
license?
Will the code be eventually contributed back to the open source
version?

Thanks

[Jeff Hobbs]

Joi wrote:
>>> To answer myself, it seems the TDK installer does indeed include a ZIP
>>> with tbcload sources (though the ChangeLog include shows no updates)
>>> but I am unsure of what the license terms are, can it be used freely?
>> The purpose of distributing the sources for tbcload is specifically so
>> you can compile it on the other platforms that we don't have binaries
>> for, as you mention below.
>
> Thanks for your prompt reply. Will I need to buy an ActiveState
> license?

Only for use of the binary parts in conjunction with something like TDK
TclApp, not the tbcload source itself. You of course want TDK, don't
you? ;)

> Will the code be eventually contributed back to the open source
> version?

Yes, but it will be after 8.5 is finally settled (8.5.0). I would not
assume that the current tbcload source/binaries will work with 8.5.0 final.

Jeff