Dear Community, We are pleased to announce the availability of the Next Scripting Framework (NSF) 2.1.0. This is a maintenance release. Since the release of 2.0.0, there have been 416 commits to our code repository. The Next Scripting Framework was tested with Tcl 8.5.19 and Tcl 8.6.6 on Linux, Mac OS X, and in Windows environments (MinGW, VC). Diff stats since 2.0.0: 173 files changed, 30651 insertions(+), 14286 deletions(-) Major changes relative to 2.0.0 are: - Improved debugging/tracing/profiling support (NSF) - Deprecated and debug modes for NSF procs and methods (NSF, NX, XOTcl2) - Script-level access to NSF parameter/argument parser (NSF). - Slot-trace reform (NX, XOTcl2) - ... New Features - NSF: * Improved debugging/tracing/profiling support: + Entering and exiting NSF procs and methods can be tracked upon invocation when profiling support is configured: ./configure --enable-profile (default: disabled) This can be controlled via nsf::__profile_trace -enable /bool/ ?-verbose /bool/? nsf::configure trace TODO: da fehlt noch eine erklärung, was die befehle genau machen + NSF procs and methods can be marked "deprecated" and/or "debug-enabled". For this, all NSF proc and method definitions in NX and XOTcl2 now accept the new flags "-debug" and "-deprecated". The low-level interface (nsf::method::property) enables introspection and selective enabling during runtime. nsf::proc ... ?-debug? ?-deprecated? ... /name/ /argspec/ /body/ nsf::method::property /obj/ /method/ deprecated ?0|1? nsf::method::property /obj/ /method/ debug ?0|1? A debug-enabled NSF proc or method will be reported on entering and exiting the proc and method (similar to a traced proc/ method incl. a time probe; see above): % nsf::proc -debug foo {} {;} % foo Debug: DB call(1) - foo Debug: DB exit(1) - foo 53 usec -> The enter and exit messages can be indirected at the script level by (re-)defining "::nsf::debug::call" and "::nsf::debug::exit", respectively. To actively manage API evolution, NSF procs and methods can be marked "deprecated". Using deprecated procs/ methods will result in a warning: % nsf::proc -deprecated foo {} {;} % foo Warning: *** proc foo is deprecated. The warning can be indirected at the script level by (re-)defining a proc "::nsf::deprecated". * Add script-level access to the NSF argument parser to conveniently process, e.g., non-positional parameters/arguments and value checkers. See https://next-scripting.org/2.1.0/doc/nx/tutorial/index1#_parameters for the details. The command ::nsf::parseargs /paramspec/ /arglist/ can be used to parse arglist based on the paramspec to set the parsed arguments in the local context. For example, the command % nsf::parseargs {{-x:integer 1} y} {123} % set x 1 % set y 123 will define variables x holding "1" and y holding "123" for the current Tcl scope. * Misc: + New flag "-notrace" for "nsf::var::set" and "nsf::var::get" to implement ability to use these low-level commands for accessing variables without firing Tcl traces. + New cmd "nsf::method::forward::property" for reading for writing introspection of forwarders. This is important for the serializer to map the per-object forwarder when different target objects are specified. + New option for callstack introspection: "::nsf::current level". It returns the stack level of the currently executing NSF method (like "info level"), or an empty string outside of an NSF context. - NX: * NX method definitions ("alias", "forward", and "method") now accept the optional flags "-deprecated" and "-debug". See NSF section above for usage details. /cls/ public alias ?-deprecated? ?-debug? /method/ ... /cls/ public forward ?-deprecated? ?-debug? /method/ ... /cls/ public method ?-deprecated? ?-debug? /method/ ... /obj/ public object alias ?-deprecated? ?-debug? /method/ ... /obj/ public object forward ?-deprecated? ?-debug? /method/ ... /obj/ public object method ?-deprecated? ?-debug? /method/ ... * Improved object and method introspection: Newly added introspection subcommands complete the set of introspection commands and reflect the newly introduced method options. /cls/ info method callprotection /cls/ info method debug /cls/ info method deprecated /obj/ info baseclass /obj/ info object method callprotection /obj/ info object method debug /obj/ info object method deprecated * Reform of traces on slot-managed object variables: Revised the interface and semantics for the interaction of variable traces and slots. It is now possible to specify in the definition of a "property" or "variable" whether the slot-accessor methods (value=get, value=set) should be fired whenever a variable is read/written or when it is initialized to a default value for the first time (value=default). /obj/ object property|variable ?-trace set|get|default? ... /cls/ property|variable ?-trace set|get|default? ... See the Object and Class manpages for details. This supersedes the experimental interface available in XOTcl: "initcmd", "valuecmd" and "valuechangedcmd". - XOTcl2: * XOTcl2 method definitions ("proc", "instproc", "forward", and "instforward") now accept the optional flags "-deprecated" and "-debug". See NSF section above for usage details. /cls/ instforward -deprecated|-debug /method/ ... /cls/ instproc -deprecated|-debug /method/ ... /obj/ forward -deprecated|-debug /method/ ... /obj/ proc -deprecated|-debug /method/ ... * New -return flag: XOTcl2 method definitions can now specify a return-value checker, similar to NX methods. /cls/ instproc -returns /method/ ... /obj/ proc -returns /method/ ... Bug Fixes ... Code Maintenance ... o) Improved robustness (under 8.6 and beyond): * Tcl command resolvers and command literals: Between Tcl 8.6.0 and (including) Tcl 8.6.6, there was a problem in the interaction between Tcl 8.6 and the command resolvers of NSF in certain corner cases and Tcl's command literals. The issue and patches were reported upstream to the Tcl core team, was recognized and will enter an upcoming patch release (8.6.7). Our regression test-suite was extended accordingly to track the issue. See Tcl Fossil tickets d4e7780ca1 and 3418547. * Finalizing NSF and NSF object systems: In this release, the finalization procedures of NSF (on process exits, thread exits, and interp teardowns) has been revised. For example, NSF's ExitHandler is guaranteed to be called just once in the above scenarios (e.g., to avoid double frees of NSF structures). * UnsetTracedVars: Provide for a two-pass deletion logic during object shutdown, to account for unset traces possibly reviving an object variable under deletion. This corresponds to a recent memory leak fix to Tcl itself. See also Tcl Fossil ticket 4dbdd9af144dbdd9af14. * Serializer: The combined NX and XOTcl2 serializer has been extended to cover newly added features (esp., NSF procs, method flags) and has been improved based on experiences from multi-threaded NSF/Tcl applications (NaviServer). Improvements and fixes relate to "info" methods and forwarders. o) Improved scripted shells (e.g., nxsh, xotclsh): * There is now an alternative implementation of nx::shell: nx::shell2. It is used by all four shell scripts. nx::shell2 builds on Tcl's event loop, rather than while + update. This avoids blocking the Tk main window (update). In addition, nx::shell2's behavior is more akin to Tcl's native shells (e.g., no extra lines on enter, catches EOF). * The improved shells now accept stdin input (-c option). * They are more robust: Don't quit due to inner [return] calls, [exit] is handled gracefully. * Shell tests were added (shells.test). o) Minor logging reform at the C-level (NsfLog, interp) so that "nsf::configure debugLevel /severity/" will print error messages at a level equal or greater than the given severity (0, 1, 2, 3). For example, "nsf::configure debugLevel 0" will print everything, and "nsf::configure debugLevel 3" will print just error messages while omitting warnings etc. This does not entail changed logging semantics, but helped remove some confusion at the C level. o) Improved NSF/C code generator: Allows for specifying and generating enum types. o) Preliminary support for a future Tcl 8.7 (as of Dec 2, 2016; commit 71fa1f9c91). NSF compiles under 8.7a0 and its regression tests execute successfully. o) API changes: o) Documentation (API and examples): Added: - New Rosetta implementations: Inheritance/single Add object variable dynamically Tree traversal Tokenizer Updated: - Object.man: * Added missing description on 'info lookup parameters' and 'info lookup syntax'. * Correct description of Object->copy. * info baseclass (TODO: check) - alias/forward/method: added debug/ deprecated switches, - current.man: Added description of 'level' option. - Extended/ updated Rosetta implementations: Inheritance/multiple Polymorphic copy Multiple distinct objects o) Code changes (C): * Refactoring: There is now a common infrastructure for hash-tables using function pointers as keys (as required for NSF/C command definitions and enumerations). * Removed all implicit type-conversions, signed/unsigned comparisons as flagged by the following gcc/clang flags (ensure cleanness on 64bit) -Wconversion -Wsign-conversion -Wfloat-conversion -Wsign-compare. * Reduced variable scopes. * Guarded against potential Tcl_Obj leaks, esp. when using NsfMethodNamePath(), as indicated by valgrind. * Refactored functions for topological sorting (TopoSort()) to avoid redundancies. * Addressed more than 18 code-quality issues as indicated by Coverity Scan, incl. control-flow issues (risking NULL dereferencing), dead code branches, etc. * Removed uses of deprecated functions: Tcl_AppendResult, ... * Based on the improve NSF/C code generator, proper enum types are used in generated function signatures and the respective control structures (switch). o) Packaging & distribution: * Updated TEA to 3.10 * Support for MSVC 14 (VS 2015; win/makefile.vc) * Debian package: https://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nsf.html * MacPorts port: https://trac.macports.org/browser/trunk/dports/lang/nsf/Portfile * Part of the KitCreator battery: https://kitcreator.rkeene.org/fossil/ * Part of the kbskit battery: https://sourceforge.net/projects/kbskit/ The Next Scripting Framework 2.1.0 (containing NX 2.1.0 and XOTcl 2.1.0) can be obtained from https://next-scripting.org/. The detailed changelog is available at https://next-scripting.org/xowiki/download/file/ChangeLog-2.0.0-2.1.0.log Best regards - Gustaf Neumann - Stefan Sobernig