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I had essentially the same relationship with Tcl until I went through the Brent Welch book in great detail. From that point on, the only real cost in using it b

I had essentially the same relationship with Tcl until I went through the Brent Welch book in great detail. From that point on, the only real cost in using it became not remembering the ... soup of what I ( or someone else ) had done when returning to old code. That's true of anything. I presume that by "look up in which order..." refers to lsearch vs "string first". Yup. Annoying; one's "needle haystack" the other is other way 'round. This being said, I am skeptical that this grinds anyone down. It'd have to be one grain of sand on a piece sandpaper. My experience with Tcl is mainly that if I have to extend or modify a script, some care must be taken to design the thing for that upfront. But after a couple decades watching comp.lang.tcl, I think the big leap is that you either embrace the event driven model or it's not nearly as much fun.

kazinator 10y ago
> My experience with Tcl is mainly that if I have to extend or modify a script, some care must be taken to design the thing for that upfront. That matches my experience with assembly language. Even in C, I can just begin coding and a good design emerges from prototype code. Months later I understand everything, and have a good time maintaining it.
- bch 10y ago
  It may be the case that you've got Good Style, for whatever reason (inherent gift, good training, school of experience), but my take ( personal experience/view only ) on the two languages is that C style largely falls out of data structures[0], and Tcl out of action-directive (commands). I think of Tcl as a long lever where a small amount of code lifts a lot, either by composability[1], or leaning on heavy-lifting extensions, but very command-oriented none-the-less. By comparison, I feel my C more often is centered around structs. [0] Show me your code and conceal your data structures, and I shall continue to be mystified. Show me your data structures, and I won't usually need your code; it'll be obvious. -Eric S. Raymond, The Cathedral and the Bazaar [1] http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.4/TclCmd/Tcl.htm#M10 http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.4/TclCmd/Tcl.htm#M10
- ArkyBeagle 10y ago
  I understand it, it's just that I have to pick at it a while before I do again. Y'know what, though? I don't often have to look at it again.

kazinator 10y ago

> My experience with Tcl is mainly that if I have to extend or modify a script, some care must be taken to design the thing for that upfront. That matches my experience with assembly language. Even in C, I can just begin coding and a good design emerges from prototype code. Months later I understand everything, and have a good time maintaining it.

bch 10y ago
It may be the case that you've got Good Style, for whatever reason (inherent gift, good training, school of experience), but my take ( personal experience/view only ) on the two languages is that C style largely falls out of data structures[0], and Tcl out of action-directive (commands). I think of Tcl as a long lever where a small amount of code lifts a lot, either by composability[1], or leaning on heavy-lifting extensions, but very command-oriented none-the-less. By comparison, I feel my C more often is centered around structs. [0] Show me your code and conceal your data structures, and I shall continue to be mystified. Show me your data structures, and I won't usually need your code; it'll be obvious. -Eric S. Raymond, The Cathedral and the Bazaar [1] http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.4/TclCmd/Tcl.htm#M10 http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.4/TclCmd/Tcl.htm#M10
ArkyBeagle 10y ago
I understand it, it's just that I have to pick at it a while before I do again. Y'know what, though? I don't often have to look at it again.