Re: a typeof command for debugging?

On Sun, 22 Jun 2025 13:08:53 +0200, Ralf Fassel wrote:

* Mark Summerfield <m.n.summerfield@gmail.com>
| I've incorporated that but I still have an actual bug. The catch
always | returns false (failed) so objects always get returned as
list_or_str. Yet, | if I use info object class directly it correctly
returns the class name.
| So clearly I'm doing something wrong in the catch.

>

|     proc typeof x {
|         # puts "\n[tcl::unsupported::representation $x]"
|         if {![catch {[info object class $x] name}]} {
|             return $name
 
This looks suspicious: you are calling
  [info object class $x]
and whatever that returns, you use as a command to call with argument
'name',
and discard the result.  The variable $name should not be set when you
hit the return.
 
Did you rather mean
 
  catch {info object class $x} name
 
?
R'

Thank you, you are right. (I haven't got up to catch in the 2nd edition of
Ashok's book yet.)

With your correction I now get class names:

    proc typeof x {
        # puts "\n[tcl::unsupported::representation $x]"
        if {![catch {info object class $x} name]} {
            return $name
        } else {
            if {[string is boolean -strict $x]} { return bool }
            if {[string is integer -strict $x]} { return int }
            if {[string is double -strict $x]} { return real }
            if {[string match "value is a dict*" \
                    [tcl::unsupported::representation $x]]} {
                return dict
            }
            if {[string is list -strict $x]} { return list_or_str }
            return str
        }
    }

    set i 55
    set j 0d55
    set x 9.9
    set b true
    set L {1 2 4 8}
    set d [dict create a 1 b 2 c 4]
    set s "red\therrings"
    set t "long\telephants €"
    set r [Range new 5]

    puts "i=$i typeof=[typeof $i]"
    puts "j=$j typeof=[typeof $j]"
    puts "x=$x typeof=[typeof $x]"
    puts "b=$b typeof=[typeof $b]"
    puts "L=$L typeof=[typeof $L]"
    puts "d=$d typeof=[typeof $d]"
    puts "s=$s typeof=[typeof $s]"
    puts "t=$t typeof=[typeof $t]"
    puts "r=$r typeof=[typeof $r]"

Output:

    i=55 typeof=int
    j=0d55 typeof=int
    x=9.9 typeof=real
    b=true typeof=bool
    L=1 2 4 8 typeof=list_or_str
    d=a 1 b 2 c 4 typeof=dict
    s=red herrings typeof=list_or_str
    t=long elephants € typeof=list_or_str
    r=::oo::Obj24 typeof=::Range