[Xotcl] XOTcl / Tcl Namespace issues

From: Adam Turoff <adam.turoff_at_gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 16:20:41 -0400

Hi,

Can anyone explain why this program:

    package require XOTcl
    namespace import xotcl::*

    proc ns {} {return "global"}
    proc examine {} {puts "[ns] EXAMINE"}

    Class Outer
    Outer instproc test {} {return [examine]}

    namespace eval inner {
        proc ns {} {return "inner"}
        proc examine {} {puts "[ns] examine"}

        Class Inner
        Inner instproc test {} {return [examine]}
    }

    Outer o
    o test

    inner::Inner i
    i test

    namespace eval inner {
        ::o test
        ::i test
    }

produces this output:

    global EXAMINE
    global EXAMINE
    inner examine
    inner examine

I've defined the class 'Inner' within the namespace 'inner'. I'd
expect that proc in methods defined within that namespace should first
look within that namespace before looking in the global namespace.
Instead, they look in the namespace currently in use when a method call
is made. (Note how ::o test picks up the definition of inner::examine
when invoked from the inner namespace.)

This is the opposite behavior of how Tcl proc calls work -- when I land
on inner::examine, the [ns] is actually shorthand for inner::ns, not ::ns.

I'm guessing there's a good reason for this behavior, but I can't seem
to find it in the docs.

Thanks,

-- Adam