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There's a situation that springs up sometimes that is perfect for Tcl/Tk: when you need to write a small app with a GUI and you would like it to be multiplatfor

by forinti 10y ago

There's a situation that springs up sometimes that is perfect for Tcl/Tk: when you need to write a small app with a GUI and you would like it to be multiplatform. Say you want to write an app to rename files in batch, or a wrapper for Ghostscript that automates certain tasks. With Tcl/Tk you can immediately run it on most Linux distros and with Freewrap you get a Windows executable that's a few MB+your source (it's a lot better than having your users install Java).

mappu 10y ago
My usual solution for this is C++/Qt. Runs well on Linux, and on Windows you can statically link Qt into the single .exe if your small app is FOSS (at least LGPL-compatible), otherwise you should ship a few extra .dll files. Compared to Tcl/tk you get (A) catch errors at compile time, and (B) Qt apps usually look better than Tk apps. With mxe+qmake it's one command to cross-compile from Linux to a Windows binary.
- eggy 10y ago
  I am now looking at the Red programming language [1] for exactly this, but it does not have the libraries of C++ or Tcl. Still it is under 1 meg complete with libraries and it is homoiconic, cross-platform, and has a REPL and a systems language Red/System for going low level. The GUI and UI DSL and drawing DSL work on Windows and Mac for now, with Linux close behind. [1] http://www.red-lang.org/p/about.html
  - mappu 10y ago
    There's also Lazarus in this category.
  - deckiedan 10y ago
    The default download didn't have GUI support on my Mac when I just tried it, and the documentation seems to indicate it's Windows only so far?
    - eggy 9y ago
      I think it is in 0.63 or the latest binary now available. I'll check on my iMac later and get back to you. I use it on my Windows box for now.
    - eggy 9y ago
      @mappu above (no reply link by his reply): I like Lazarus a lot. I am not a fan of Pascal though, and Red is under 1 MB batteries included. I like how it seems a cross between Lisp, Forth and other languages.
- pjmlp 10y ago
  Back in the day a big mistake from Tk devs was how it just looked like Motif everywhere. Eventually that got fixed, but we were already busy with other languages.

by forinti 10y ago

mappu 10y ago

My usual solution for this is C++/Qt. Runs well on Linux, and on Windows you can statically link Qt into the single .exe if your small app is FOSS (at least LGPL-compatible), otherwise you should ship a few extra .dll files. Compared to Tcl/tk you get (A) catch errors at compile time, and (B) Qt apps usually look better than Tk apps. With mxe+qmake it's one command to cross-compile from Linux to a Windows binary.

eggy 10y ago
I am now looking at the Red programming language [1] for exactly this, but it does not have the libraries of C++ or Tcl. Still it is under 1 meg complete with libraries and it is homoiconic, cross-platform, and has a REPL and a systems language Red/System for going low level. The GUI and UI DSL and drawing DSL work on Windows and Mac for now, with Linux close behind. [1] http://www.red-lang.org/p/about.html
- mappu 10y ago
  There's also Lazarus in this category.
- deckiedan 10y ago
  The default download didn't have GUI support on my Mac when I just tried it, and the documentation seems to indicate it's Windows only so far?
  - eggy 9y ago
    I think it is in 0.63 or the latest binary now available. I'll check on my iMac later and get back to you. I use it on my Windows box for now.
  - eggy 9y ago
    @mappu above (no reply link by his reply): I like Lazarus a lot. I am not a fan of Pascal though, and Red is under 1 MB batteries included. I like how it seems a cross between Lisp, Forth and other languages.
pjmlp 10y ago
Back in the day a big mistake from Tk devs was how it just looked like Motif everywhere. Eventually that got fixed, but we were already busy with other languages.