Dependency or a port on private header files of Tcl

[Gustaf Neumann]

Dear all,

The version of the Tcl extension XOTcl included in macports 
is outdated since many years (the current version of XOTcl 
is 1.6.6). The extension depends on the private header files 
of Tcl (in particular tclInt.h). A straightforward approach 
would be to define a variant of the port "tcl" with headers, 
such one could use e.g.

     sudo port -f install tcl +header

I have submitted this suggestion with a patch in reply of a 
ticket about a year ago [1] (see end of the page).

Packaging support for XOTcl (and therefore tcl package 
variants including the tcl header files) exists for the 
major other packaging systems, like e.g. for the debian 
family [2] (e.g. ubuntu) or for freebsd [3].

Is there any hope for a "+header" variant for the tcl port 
in MacPorts? The only other option for XOTcl would be to 
write a install script for mac os x that determines the tcl 
version on the fly and fetches via Internet on the fly the 
needed (and matching) .h files, and copies this in the local 
install tree.... or to make a special mac-ports release that 
contains already the .h files for various tcl versions.

best regards
-gustaf neumann

(Core developer of XOTcl)

[1] https://trac.macports.org/ticket/25827
[2] http://packages.debian.org/en/sid/xotcl
[3] http://www.freebsdports.info/ports/lang/xotcl.html