install-tl GUI mode on Mac

Having a look at the future pretest instructions at

https://tug.org/texlive/pretest.html

I noticed this piece

> install-tl -repository location -gui
> is the default on Windows and Macs. It runs a Tcl/Tk-based GUI if Tcl/Tk is available, simple at startup but with a button to invoke the advanced interface. If Tcl/Tk is not available, falls back to text mode.

Tcl/Tk is still bundled with macOS, but that's old version 8.5.9. It won't be updated, as Apple announced it's obsolete and will be removed. Specifically, running tclsh brings

> WARNING: This version of tcl is included in macOS for compatibility with legacy software. 
> In future versions of macOS the tcl runtime will not be available by default, and may require you to install an additional package.


A few years back, since Apple introduced dark/light modes I think, this meant install-tl and tlshell still launched, but gave big black squares on screen.

Now they crash, as Wish crashes on launch. For example

% sudo ./install-tl -gui
/usr/bin/wish: line 2: 26268 Killed: 9               "$(dirname $0)/../../System/Library/Frameworks/Tk.framework/Versions/8.5/Resources/Wish.app/Contents/MacOS/Wish" "$@"

and a crash report is created, containing

Exception Type:    EXC_CRASH (SIGKILL (Code Signature Invalid))
Exception Codes:   0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Termination Reason:  Namespace CODESIGNING, Code 4, Launch Constraint Violation

That error has been reported over two years ago already, for example

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255271714

and won't be fixed.

Compiling Tcl/Tk 8.6 or 9.0 fixes the problem, the install-tl and tlshell GUIs work as intended. But the typical Mac user can't be expected to do that.

All this say: given Tcl/Tk is still built in macOS, but does not allow the install-tl GUI to run, I wonder whether this GUI should be kept the default on the Mac.

Bruno Voisin