TIP #214: Add New Object Introspection Command
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TIP:	214
Title:	Add New Object Introspection Command
Version:	$Revision: 1.7 $
Authors:	Ulrich Schöbel <usus@aladyn.de>
	Larry W. Virden <lvirden@yahoo.com>
State:	Withdrawn
Type:	Project
Tcl-Version:	8.7
Vote:	Pending
Created:	Tue Aug 24 00:00:00 UTC 2004
Keywords:	Tcl, info, representation
Abstract
This TIP proposes the new representation subcommand to info which returns the internal representation of a variable's contents.
Rationale
Inspired by a posting on news:comp.lang.tcl by Victor Wagner, I considered a facility to obtain the internal representation of the value of a variable to be useful.
It further extends the Tcl introspection commands.
It offers a method to check the type of a variable without conversion.
During the development process it is useful to detect/avoid shimmering and its negative performance effects.
Proposed Change
Add the new subcommand info representation with the following syntax:
info representation varName
It returns the type of the variable varName or an error, if
varName doesn't exist,
varName is an array and no index is provided,
varName is a scalar variable but an index is provided.
Implementation
A patch against Tcl8.4.6 is available [http://sf.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1015338].
Copyright
This document has been placed in the public domain.
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