Forum OpenACS Improvement Proposals (TIPs): TIP #87 (Approved): provide support for xotcl in oacs

The purpose of this tip is to make it more convenient to write and use
xotcl code in oacs.

Reasoning: xotcl is an accepted oo extension of tcl (part of active
state core, tcl-aqua, xdev of mac os x tiger). xotcl is one of the
fastest and most flexible oo extensions of tcl, it is thread save and
proven to work reliably with the aolserver 3 and 4 since years (e.g.:
learn@wu, Zoran's company uses it in their archiware products). xotcl
can help to improve the speed of oacs (by providing functionality
implemented in C, which is used in many places in oacs in tcl) and to
improve the flexibility and readability of the code. xotcl can be
used conservatively to implement the already present object
orientation of oacs in an improved fashion (see
https://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=181979).
xotcl is TEA compatible an can therefore be installed in the classical tcl
style on practically all common platforms (Active State tests its
releases on windows, intel linux, hpux, solaris, aix, mac os x).

Providing xotcl support means to
- include xotcl c-source like the other c-based modules
(nssha1, etc) in the main distribution; a top level
(configure; make; make install) would be great
- accept the two patches mentioned in
https://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=181979
to the oacs core
- include the xotcl-core package in oacs

If this TIP is approved it will make xotcl a required part of an oacs
installation and make it easy for package or core authors to provide
code in xotcl or to use components implemented in xotcl (look e.g. at
the mentioned RDF thread).

I approve under the condition that a documentation for xotcl installation becomes part of our standard installation documents. Furthermore help must be provided for the installer champions that provide packages e.g. for Debian et.al. in installing xotcl.

Our installation is already considerably complex, we should strive to not complicate matters further.

Definitly we need to make sure the install is smooth.

Also I think we would need documentation on how to write OpenACS code with XoTcl and possibly a guide on porting existing code, although that seems like a huge job and I would not necessarily encourge chaning existing code just to chnage it to using XoTcl.

I approve.

The OCT reviewed this proposal and agreed that it should go into HEAD for inclusion in the next branch and release, presumably 5.3. It's not clear from the original post who is proposing to do the work; we assume Gustaf will take the initiative, with assistance as needed, especially for documentation.