critcl_devguide - Critcl - The Developer's Guide
C Runtime In Tcl, or CriTcl , is a system for
compiling C code embedded in Tcl on the fly and either loading the resulting
objects into Tcl for immediate use or packaging them for distribution. Use
CriTcl to improve performance by rewriting in C those routines that
are performance bottlenecks.
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.
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.
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.
+----------------+
|Applications |
| critcl |
| critcl::app |
+----------------+
+----------------+
|Core Packages |
| critcl |
| critcl::util |
+----------------+
+----------------+
|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.
- [2]
- Below that is the core package providing the essential functionality of
the system, plus various utility packages which make common tasks more
convenient.
- [3]
- Lastly a layer of supporting packages, mostly external to critcl.
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.
- 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.
Jean Claude Wippler, Steve Landers, Andreas Kupries
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.
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 (c) Jean-Claude Wippler
Copyright (c) Steve Landers
Copyright (c) 2011-2018 Andreas Kupries