[vtk-developers] Tcl wrapping and output array arguments

[Bill Lorensen]

Andrew,

There are also other tests that use tcl that have not been converted:

./Common/Core/Testing/Tcl/otherPrint.tcl
./Common/DataModel/Testing/Tcl/otherDataSetAttributes.tcl

there may be more…
like
MassProperties
TestAmoebaMinimizer
TestArrays
TestEmptyInput
TestPolygonWriters
TestSetGet
TestString
VolumeOutlineSource
deciPlane
financialField
financialField2
financialField3
otherInterp
otherPrint
probe
skinOrder
squadViewer


On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 4:38 PM, Andrew Maclean
<andrew.amaclean at gmail.com> wrote:
> David, David, Will, John
>
> I remember the TCL discussion, maybe the time has come to raise dropping it
> again. I would certainly support that. It was useful before Python was
> widely used but nowadays I think C++/Python/Java programmers would rarely
> (if ever) need to use it. Personally I find it difficult to understand and
> use.It is not a modern language,
>
> One of the reasons TCL was useful in the "old days" was that a lot of the
> testing code was written in it but that is hardly relevant now since we
> converted almost all of it into Python.
>
> Will, I did translate most of the VTK Textbook exercises into Python soon
> after that discussion (way back in 2012). There were a couple that I
> couldn't convert, see the attached document for a summary of what I have
> done.
>
> I'll look at converting TestSetGet and TestEmptyInput to python.
>
> Regards
>    Andrew
>
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: David Lonie <david.lonie at kitware.com>
>> To: David Gobbi <david.gobbi at gmail.com>
>> Cc: VTK Developers <vtk-developers at vtk.org>
>> Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2015 09:00:01 -0400
>> Subject: Re: [vtk-developers] Tcl wrapping and output array arguments
>> On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 5:54 PM, David Gobbi <david.gobbi at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 2:28 PM, David Lonie <david.lonie at kitware.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> My questions:
>>>>
>>>> 1) Is the concept of an "output array argument" even supported by Tcl?
>>>
>>>
>>> Yes.  I imagine something like this could create a new array called
>>> "bounds":
>>>
>>>   % mapper GetBounds renderer bounds
>>>
>>>>
>>>> 2) If so, how can I teach the wrappers about it?
>>>
>>>
>>> Adding things like this to Tcl is easier than for Java or Python, but
>>> it's more than an afternoon's work.  I believe that Tcl will already wrap
>>> this method, but the wrapped method will expect 6 values as input, instead
>>> of expecting one name for an output array that it should create.  Because
>>> the wrappers can't really tell whether "double[6]" is meant to be used for
>>> input or output, the method will actually have to be wrapped twice, once for
>>> input, and once for output.  There are undoubtedly some tricky complications
>>> that I haven't though of, however.
>>
>>
>> Unfortunately, the method is not wrapped currently (according to the
>> generated vtkPropTcl.cxx file, anyway).
>>
>>>> And perhaps the most curious question from my point of view,
>>>>
>>>> 4) Why do we still provide Tcl bindings in 2015?
>>>
>>>
>>> Because they're cool!  Actually, at this point I'm fine with them going
>>> away, but I'd still like to keep Tkinter (which works just fine without the
>>> Tcl wrappers).
>>
>>
>> The general consensus from the developers I've talked to out here is the
>> same -- we'd love to see Tcl go. I had a heck of a time trying to even find
>> a developer who remembered enough about Tcl to begin tracking down this
>> issue before I posted on the mailing list...and this includes the people who
>> wrote the original Tcl wrappers ;)
>>
>>>>
>>>> But seriously, can we deprecate them for 6.3?
>>>
>>>
>>> Any volunteers to convert TestSetGet and TestEmptyInput to python?
>>
>>
>> Looks like Andrew has volunteered :D
>>
>> I found this discussion from around v6.0's release:
>>
>>
>> http://vtk.1045678.n5.nabble.com/Modularization-Context2D-and-Tcl-td5594211.html
>>
>> Looks like there was a fair bit of resistance against dropping Tcl 2-3
>> years ago, so I'm not sure how worthwhile it would be to push for this now.
>>
>> But if supporting such a simple method like this requires "more than an
>> afternoon's work" to teach Tcl to understand it, it sounds like more of a
>> burden than a benefit. From what I'm seeing, it's a non-trivial amount of
>> work to keep Tcl working with new APIs and few active developers actually
>> remember Tcl well enough to work on it. Not to mention that in my few years
>> here at Kitware, I've never actually come across an active project that uses
>> Tcl -- not to say they don't exist, but they seem quite rare these days.
>>
>> In any case, decisions like these are beyond me. I'm just a C++ guy trying
>> to add a simple new method to the library :-)
>>
>> Dave
>>
>
> --
> ___________________________________________
> Andrew J. P. Maclean
>
> ___________________________________________
>
> _______________________________________________
> Powered by www.kitware.com
>
> Visit other Kitware open-source projects at
> http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html
>
> Search the list archives at: http://markmail.org/search/?q=vtk-developers
>
> Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe:
> http://public.kitware.com/mailman/listinfo/vtk-developers
>
>



-- 
Unpaid intern in BillsBasement at noware dot com