[vtk-developers] proposed vtk build changes

[Michael Halle]

> load vtktcl

> This is probably better than loading all the .so files (particularly 
> for the sake of portability... remember that the ".so" extension only 
> exists on ELF-based unix distributions).


Agreed, but that's not why I made the change.  I made the change so
that user-created extension libraries could be, as much as possible,
created independently of the rest of the vtk source tree.  

What I'm working towards is a new directory, called "extensions" or
"modules" or something like that, where new vtk classes (or sets of
classes) can be defined, each in their own subdirectory.  If each of
these extensions depends only on the vtk core, they can be built
independently and loaded using the vtk executable (or wish when
preceded by "load vtktcl") without hacking vtkAppInit.  

That way, users can work on their own code without interdependencies,
sources can easily span more than a single file, external libraries
can be loaded without making the core dependent on them, and modules
can be developed and used on an "as needed basis."  The changes will
work for python and java as well as tcl, and to some extent will
benefit C++ too.


							--Mike