Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 09:20:31 -0700 (PDT) From: lamaster@george.arc.nasa.gov To: current@hub.freebsd.org Subject: Re: exmh and current.. anyone? Message-ID: <199708181620.JAA22195@george.arc.nasa.gov>
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Amancio Hasty <hasty@rah.star-gate.com> wrote: |> >From The Desk Of David Nugent : |> > As someone pointed out, if the new tcl8 initialisation files were |> > moved into /usr/libdata/tcl8.0/ rather than their current location, |> > it would mitigate problems with any transition from 2.2 to -current |> > as the existing files and libraries would remain intact. I honestly |> |> Wrong , again the issue is not tcl8.xxx rather is what it ought |> to be requirement: a resonable ability to resolve technical issues. Well, I'm new to FreeBSD, but, I'm not new to Tcl/Tk, and I regret to say I have to disagree with Amancio on this one. It may be in this case there may be a failure of the system to resolve technical issues (I wasn't involved, and my only comment on the situation is that I love the ports collection, *and*, I'm running -current because I wanted access to new drivers, even though I'm probably not an ideal -current candidate). Despite all that, I have to disagree, as I said, because, for one reason and another, historically, Tcl/Tk has been far less upwardly, and downwardly, compatible than it could or should have been. Of course, every change has a good justification, and all that, but the effect is that not only do lots of things break upon upgrades, but, sometimes, you just can't seem to build a version of your app which will work across multiple Tcl/Tk versions. That must make it difficult to try to maintain a single ports collection. Just recently, I attempted to move a package up to 7.6 (you folks are talking 8.x!), and, for some reason, numerical input in a particular labelled entry window is now getting mysteriously input incorrectly. Not a big deal, but, typical, and what with one thing and another, Tcl/Tk apps break a lot more frequently than you might expect based on other languages/packages. On some Unix systems, you can still compile and link (the libraries still work!) K&R C if you need to, but, you can expect some Tck/Tk apps to break with every new version release. That is why the issue might very well be which versions of Tcl/Tk are the standard, default release. Don't get me wrong, I think Tcl/Tk is the only way to go for many apps. But, I think that to avoid a lot of wasted time needlessly thrashing with Tcl/Tk apps, a single version should be the standard, default version used by system utilities and the ports collection for a particular system release. And, hopefully, one of these days Tcl/Tk will start being truly upward-compatible. |> Yes, we need users on current however people should understand that |> is a fluid environment. No question that -current should be a fluid environment. What drives some of us to use 3.0-current instead of 2.2.2 are new drivers that don't always get back-ported to previous versions. Apologies in advance for anything ignorant or misinformed I may have said herein. -Hugh LaMaster Hugh LaMaster, M/S 258-5, ASCII Email: hlamaster@mail.arc.nasa.gov NASA Ames Research Center Or: lamaster@nas.nasa.gov Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 No Junkmail: USC 18 section 2701 Phone: 415/604-1056 Disclaimer: Unofficial, personal *opinion*.
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