Considerations when adding extensions to Kitten

LV I'm looking into what steps I need to take if I want to add an extension into kitten.

  • Discussions can take place on the starkit mailing list.
  • Content questions
  • What kinds of extensions/scripts, etc. should go into kitten?
  • Or perhaps the better question, should everything go here, or should there be a series of developer starkits which have particular themes?
  • Or perhaps even better, should every extension be in its own starkit, and then one just get the pieces they want? Some users want even MORE granularity than that - for instance, asking that BLT, TclX, etc. be broken down into multiple packages so only the relevant pieces be available.
  • Build Issues
  • Is a particular compiler required or preferred - are there incompatibilities between compilers on Solaris/Windows/Linux?
  • Does one need to specify a --prefix or --exec-prefix ?
  • What platforms should be included?
  • Installation Issues
  • How are new items added into the kitten.vfs web repository?
  • How should updated packages be handled? How to coordinate updating?
  • Documentation Issues
  • How can reference material for the extensions be added to the kitten.tkd so that developers have access?
  • Other issues
  • Might the US government regard the extension as illegal, treasonous, libelous, ...? This is not as absurd as might first appear (see [L1 ], for example). I don't understand - kitten contains nothing that falls under munitions act. Also, kitten is not a US software product. Answer: having an encryption module in kitten potentially brings it into a category that's a problem for US residents. No, kitten doesn't have one now. It's not clear that it ever would be feasible, just because of the arcane US restrictions. And of course, there are the restrictions in other countries, which in some cases are said to make it illegal to even have encryption software on one's computer.

05nov02 jcw - Is the US Munitions Act still applicable? DES and 128-bit encryption have been taken out of it, AFAIK.

Ed Suominen, though not a lawyer, points out the following link to regulations (hopefully still current) making this a non-issue for free, open-source software: http://eepatents.com/privaria/exporting.html

GPS: As long as the encryption isn't too powerful it's allowed. The US government wants the ability to crack the code for encrypted files or else it's illegal. Although this could have changed with the new American KGB (Homeland Security Office). This is part of the reason the US government is interested in new types of computer processors that would help code cracking, because they realize that at the moment they don't have the power to crack codes by people using strong encryption with the existing technology. As long as the US continues to have people that say "If you're not doing anything wrong why are you concerned?" this silly restriction will be in place. (Note: I obey the laws of the US as I'm an American citizen, but I don't agree with some of them.)

George, look at the section of the Federal Register that Ed quotes. After the government took a public black eye on the Zimmerman prosecution, the regulations were significantly changed. You're reporting how it once was.

1984 Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery. War is peace.

DKF - As I understand it, if all you want to do is put in a module for signing some file (as opposed to encrypting it) then the US Govt isn't too worried. Probably because they've got better things to do than spending all day pretending to be Joe Schmoe from Bad Breath, Nebraska...

CMCc I've been digging around looking for some clues, too. There's this link, http://www.equi4.com/pipermail/starkit/2002-August/000117.html which exhorts us to do some basic tinkering to get your bearings ... which isn't really much of a substitute for some clear docco, is it?

08feb03 jcw - Would you be willing to post on the Starkit mailing list and explain what it is that you are looking for? What would you like to see documented? Auto_path? The package system? Stub-enabled extensions? Loading shared libraries? None of these issues is really specific to kitten or starkits.

I've written down some basic info, in the hope that it helps: http://www.equi4.com/266

Where do Starchives [L2 ] come into play?

Category Tclkit

Updated 2004-02-02 18:03:45