Project Scandium - Tcl meets microservices

A general purpose framework for Java CLI applications based on Tcl and OSGi.

Overview

The framework consists of 2 bundles and an executable jar file:

• ScLauncher - executable
• ScAPI, ScUI - bundles

ScLauncher starts the OSGi framework and passes command line arguments to ScUI.

ScAPI provides core services such as the Tcl interpreter.

ScUI finds TclCommandProvider's, extends the Tcl interpreter with new commands, services command line arguments, and starts the Tcl shell.

Demo

For a quick demostration, clone the project, make submodule, make, then make run.

demo will contain the following:

ScLauncher-1.0.0.jar
conf
    config.properties
bundle
    ScAPI-1.2.0.jar
    ScUI-1.0.0.jar
    ScTest-1.0.0.jar
    ...

It also makes a link to the jaxb jar to demonstrate third-party compatibility.

You can also start the application using:

java -jar --enable-native-access=ALL-UNNAMED ScLauncher-1.0.0.jar

You should see the prompt of the Tcl shell:

sc_shell>

In addition to standard Tcl commands, ScAPI provides 3 commands:

• help
• printvar
• print_versions

ScTest demonstrates adding a new feature to the framework. ScTest wraps the jtcl internal tests in a bundle and provides them with a new command called internal_test.

You can also try removing ScTest from the framework:

1. Move ScTest-1.0.0.jar to a different directory.
2. Remove the Felix cache: rm -rf felix-cache
3. java -jar --enable-native-access=ALL-UNNAMED ScLauncher-1.0.0.jar

Note the internal_test command is no longer available in the Tcl shell.

To return the functionality,

1. Move ScTest-1.0.0.jar back to the bundle directory
2. Remove the Felix cache: rm -rf felix-cache
3. java -jar --enable-native-access=ALL-UNNAMED ScLauncher-1.0.0.jar

Now the internal_test command is available again.

Documentation First

The Documentation directory contains code to automate generating aspects of the application:

1. Help files ready for internationalization.
2. cmd classes.
3. Error messages ready for internationalization.
4. Internal variables declared by bundles.
5. Written documentation for help, errors and variables.

The definitions are written to a XML schema and provide the means to always keep the source code and written documentation in sync. The code also checks the definitions in the XML to the code, and vice versa.

Building

Tools Required

You will need the following to build:

• JDK22 or greater
• make
• Maven

Setup

Just use "make" at the top level.

Creating a New Bundle

TO BE REVISED

1. Create a new Bnd project.
2. Create a cmd subdirectory if the bundle provides Tcl commands.
3. Create XML files in the Documentation/definitions directories for commands/help, errors and variables.
4. Use make to create the cmd class templates, etc.
5. Use Eclipse to add functionality.
6. Use Bndtools to release the bundle.
7. Link the released bundle under cnf/release to the demo/bundle directory.
8. Test and have fun.

Other Projects

Project Scandium stands on the shoulders of giants to provide its functionality.

ScLauncher and ScAPI:

• ANTLR ANother Tool for Language Recognition. BSD-3-clause license
• Apache Felix OSGi Release 6 layer. Apache-2.0 license
• JTcl Project Tcl. Sun Labs license
• Apache Commons CLI CLI support. Apache-2.0 license
• JLine Command line editing. BSD-2-clause license

Documentation:

• Apache ODF Toolkit ODF file output. Apache-2.0 license

ScTest:

• JUnit4 Unit test framework. EPL v1.0 license
• Hamcrest JUnit support. BSD-3-clause license

Branches

Any file modifications are stored under the external directory.

Change Log

• 2.0.1 Moved github build to JDK23
• 2.0.0 Moved to JDK22, removed JNA, BND and Eclipse
• 1.2.0 Changed ClassResolver for Java9
• 1.1.0 Added ANTLR v4 to ScAPI
• 1.0.0 Initial Release