\documentclass[]{article}
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\title{TIP \#73: Export Tcl\_GetTime in the Public API}
\date{November 03, 2001}
\author{Kevin Kenny}
\urlstyle{sf}
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\begin{document}\maketitle
\begin{center}\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{|r@{: }X|}\hline
\textbf{TIP \#73}&\textbf{Export Tcl\_GetTime in the Public API}\\\hline
Author&

Kevin Kenny \tipmail{kennykb}{acm.org}
\\
Created&Saturday, \(\text{3}^{\text{rd}}\) November 2001\\
Type&Project\\
Tcl Version&\(8.4\)\\
State&Final\\
Vote&Done\\
Version&\tipversion$Revision: 1.4 $\\
Post History&\\
\hline\end{tabularx}\end{center}
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\begin{tipabstract}

This TIP proposes that the existing \textit{TclpGetTime} function be renamed to be \textit{Tcl\_GetTime} and included in the published API.
\end{tipabstract}
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\section{Rationale}

The Tcl library provides a uniform abstraction, \textit{TclpGetTime} that is implemented on each of the platforms to retrieve absolute time in a \textit{Tcl\_Time} object. This function is highly useful outside the Tcl library itself, since it hides a very complex set of interfaces, particularly on Windows, where several hundred lines of code enable its use for high-precision measurements. For this reason, it ought to be made part of the public API.

\section{Proposed Change}

The existing \textit{TclpGetTime} procedure shall be renamed to be \textit{Tcl\_GetTime}, and its declaration shall be added to \textit{tcl.decls}.
\begingroup\small\begin{verbatim}
 void TclpGetTime( Tcl_Time* timePtr );
\end{verbatim}
\endgroup

A definition of \textit{TclpGetTime} as a stub procedure that simply invokes \textit{Tcl\_GetTime} shall be retained in \textit{tclInt.decls} for compatibility with existing Stubs-enabled extensions that invoke it.

This change requires no other change to the public headers; the \textit{Tcl\_Time} structure is already exported in \textit{tcl.h}.

\section{Copyright}

Copyright (c) 2001 by Kevin B. Kenny. Distribution in whole or part, with or without annotations, is unlimited.

\section{Colophon}

\textit{TIP AutoGenerator --- written by Donal K. Fellows}
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