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-rw-r--r--doc/eval.n50
1 files changed, 43 insertions, 7 deletions
diff --git a/doc/eval.n b/doc/eval.n
index 81b9b1f..a642d23 100644
--- a/doc/eval.n
+++ b/doc/eval.n
@@ -25,10 +25,39 @@ Tcl interpreter recursively, and returns the result of that
evaluation (or any error generated by it).
Note that the \fBlist\fR command quotes sequences of words in such a
way that they are not further expanded by the \fBeval\fR command.
-.SH EXAMPLE
-This procedure acts in a way that is analogous to the \fBlappend\fR
-command, except it inserts the argument values at the start of the
-list in the variable:
+.SH EXAMPLES
+Often, it is useful to store a fragment of a script in a variable and
+execute it later on with extra values appended. This technique is used
+in a number of places throughout the Tcl core (e.g. in \fBfcopy\fR,
+\fBlsort\fR and \fBtrace\fR command callbacks). This example shows how
+to do this using core Tcl commands:
+.CS
+set script {
+ puts "logging now"
+ lappend $myCurrentLogVar
+}
+set myCurrentLogVar log1
+# Set up a switch of logging variable part way through!
+after 20000 set myCurrentLogVar log2
+
+for {set i 0} {$i<10} {incr i} {
+ # Introduce a random delay
+ after [expr {int(5000 * rand())}]
+ update ;# Check for the asynch log switch
+ \fBeval\fR $script $i [clock clicks]
+}
+.CE
+.PP
+.VS 8.5
+Note that in the most common case (where the script fragment is
+actually just a list of words forming a command prefix), it is better
+to use \fB{*}$script\fR when doing this sort of invocation
+pattern. It is less general than the \fBeval\fR command, and hence
+easier to make robust in practice.
+.VE 8.5
+The following procedure acts in a way that is analogous to the
+\fBlappend\fR command, except it inserts the argument values at the
+start of the list in the variable:
.CS
proc lprepend {varName args} {
upvar 1 $varName var
@@ -38,9 +67,16 @@ proc lprepend {varName args} {
set var [\fBeval\fR [list linsert $var 0] $args]
}
.CE
+.VS 8.5
+However, the last line would now normally be written without
+\fBeval\fR, like this:
+.CS
+set var [linsert $var 0 {*}$args]
+.CE
+.VE 8.5
+
+.SH "SEE ALSO"
+catch(n), concat(n), error(n), interp(n), list(n), namespace(n), subst(n), tclvars(n), uplevel(n)
.SH KEYWORDS
concatenate, evaluate, script
-
-.SH "SEE ALSO"
-catch(n), concat(n), error(n), list(n), subst(n), tclvars(n)