Marian Szczepkowski$Revision: 1.6 $

This TIP adds the ability to load Tcl files directly from URLs to the core, together with a basic mechanism to simply evaluate a stream of characters from a channel.

I propose to split the Tcl_EvalFile function into two components to enable the [source] command to use URL's to obtain source material. This will mean splitting Tcl_EvalFile into Tcl_EvalFile and Tcl_EvalChannel which are the two logical entities. Maintaining Tcl_EvalFile will preserve backward compatability. Creating Tcl_EvalChannel will provide generic functionality for future use. Adding Tcl_EvalUrl will enable handling standard URL format strings. This would enable this [source ] to be used. Code will also need to be added to Tcl_SourceObjCmd to select functionality requested.

In a corporate environment where scripts are subject to change but the interface is not, this allows scripts to be stored remotely on a central server. This also allows Tcl to interwork in a networked environment.

Security!!!! This may mean in the long run adding a signing layer, but don't use it if you don't want to.

I figure it looking something like this. Snipped from 8.3 source.

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The VFS extension interface of Tcl 8.4 plus the tclvfs and vfs::http packages provide the ability to [source] an URL. I believe that makes this proposal out of date.

This document has been placed in the public domain.