[Xotcl] Re: XOTcl is great!!

[Kristoffer Lawson]

On Thu, 8 Sep 2005, Gustaf Neumann wrote:

> i have started some work towards turning packages into objects, where a 
> package
> is an instance of a class Package. This allows in general to

OK, this sounds interesting. I think the most important for something like 
this is that it should be clearly stated why it is better than the normal 
Tcl mechanism, seeing as it would kind of compete with it (and more 
mechanisms isn't always best if one wants to keep the code clean).

>> The  problem with this is that classes are not automatically searched for 
>> in the same package. That is if Class A depends on Class B (A is B's 
>> sub-class), B needs to be read in before A is read.  In Java it is  enough 
>> that they are in the same package, they'll be found. With  XOTcl you need 
>> to build a kind of stub file that represents the  package and which then 
>> sources in all the other necessary files in  the required order.
>
> a few remarks to this:
> - what's wrong with "package req package-providing-class-B" in the package 
> containing class A?

That is two fine. I would prefer to have lots of related classes being 
part of the same Tcl package. For that, I have to build a stub package 
which then includes the rest in the appropriate order (or using some kind 
of sub-packaging).

So it doesn't really reflect the Java model, which is fairly 
straightforward.

And just for the record: I'm not a big Java advocate. In fact I think they 
have made serious design mistakes in many areas. Even in packages they 
forgot a very important part of the picture: version numbering.

                               / http://www.fishpool.com/~setok/