4 ms·

Having discovered the TCL programming language because of a single person using it in a bioinformatic lab I can second the recommendation.

swiley 8y ago
TCL/TK is probably one of the most underrated GUI frameworks out there.
- jolmg 8y ago
  I once tried it; well, Expect specifically, which is really an executable wrapper of TCL with a library loaded. I ended up ditching it and using ruby's "expect" library. I remember having issues with scope. Expect functions you call would manipulate the scope of the caller. So when I wrapped some code in a function and called that in its place, things wouldn't work, because state wouldn't be handled in the same scope anymore. That means I wouldn't be able to abstract anything. No reusable units of code. I'd have to keep expect's calls all in the same scope. TCL and Expect seem pretty cool in concept, but Expect's implementation seems awful.
  - Cyph0n 8y ago
    Tcl/Expect are both heavily used at Cisco for router and switch automation. But recently, we've been shifting to Python for testing and automation, which I think is a step in the right direction (e.g., pyATS[1]). [1]: https://developer.cisco.com/site/pyats/ https://developer.cisco.com/site/pyats/
- agumonkey 8y ago
  I used tkinter python bindings, very fun. Zero mental burden. Also tk was used as Digital Domain (James Cameron FX company) Nuke compositing software. Sooo.. I guess it's fine.
liftbigweights 8y ago
TCL/Tk is used heavily in finance/wall street.
- jolmg 8y ago
  I don't know about finance, but I think it's used heavily in aviation.
- Redoubts 8y ago
  Where? Aside from the few OCaml fans, I’ve only ever seen bog-standard Java/C++/Python
- chaosite 8y ago
  It's used heavily at Intel, in hardware verification.
  - Cyph0n 8y ago
    Virtually all EDA (electronic design automation) tools include a Tcl shell that echoes back any GUI action as a Tcl command. This makes it very easy to write Tcl scripts that perform repetitive actions (e.g., load HDL source, compile design, simulate, check value of signal).
- mruts 8y ago
  No it's not. Languages most commonly used in finance are: C/C++, Python, Java, Scala, Julia, Matlab, R, and KDB.
- patrickg_zill 8y ago
  Aplusdev.org used the tk part. While APL is used heavily in many financial institutions I am not sure how widely A+ is used.
  - 3rdAccount 8y ago
    A+ was invented by Arthur Whitney for JP Morgan (iirc). I'm sure they have some things in house still using it, but that it's mostly been deprecated by Whitney's Kdb+ environment which is sold by Kx Systems. It is the APL like "K" language bundled with a database generally run on SSD. I believe it is quite pricey.
dang 8y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18370226 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18370226 and marked it off-topic. Not that Tcl isn't a fine language.

swiley 8y ago

TCL/TK is probably one of the most underrated GUI frameworks out there.

jolmg 8y ago
I once tried it; well, Expect specifically, which is really an executable wrapper of TCL with a library loaded. I ended up ditching it and using ruby's "expect" library. I remember having issues with scope. Expect functions you call would manipulate the scope of the caller. So when I wrapped some code in a function and called that in its place, things wouldn't work, because state wouldn't be handled in the same scope anymore. That means I wouldn't be able to abstract anything. No reusable units of code. I'd have to keep expect's calls all in the same scope. TCL and Expect seem pretty cool in concept, but Expect's implementation seems awful.
- Cyph0n 8y ago
  Tcl/Expect are both heavily used at Cisco for router and switch automation. But recently, we've been shifting to Python for testing and automation, which I think is a step in the right direction (e.g., pyATS[1]). [1]: https://developer.cisco.com/site/pyats/ https://developer.cisco.com/site/pyats/
agumonkey 8y ago
I used tkinter python bindings, very fun. Zero mental burden. Also tk was used as Digital Domain (James Cameron FX company) Nuke compositing software. Sooo.. I guess it's fine.

liftbigweights 8y ago

TCL/Tk is used heavily in finance/wall street.

jolmg 8y ago
I don't know about finance, but I think it's used heavily in aviation.
Redoubts 8y ago
Where? Aside from the few OCaml fans, I’ve only ever seen bog-standard Java/C++/Python
chaosite 8y ago
It's used heavily at Intel, in hardware verification.
- Cyph0n 8y ago
  Virtually all EDA (electronic design automation) tools include a Tcl shell that echoes back any GUI action as a Tcl command. This makes it very easy to write Tcl scripts that perform repetitive actions (e.g., load HDL source, compile design, simulate, check value of signal).
mruts 8y ago
No it's not. Languages most commonly used in finance are: C/C++, Python, Java, Scala, Julia, Matlab, R, and KDB.
patrickg_zill 8y ago
Aplusdev.org used the tk part. While APL is used heavily in many financial institutions I am not sure how widely A+ is used.
- 3rdAccount 8y ago
  A+ was invented by Arthur Whitney for JP Morgan (iirc). I'm sure they have some things in house still using it, but that it's mostly been deprecated by Whitney's Kdb+ environment which is sold by Kx Systems. It is the APL like "K" language bundled with a database generally run on SSD. I believe it is quite pricey.

dang 8y ago

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18370226 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18370226 and marked it off-topic. Not that Tcl isn't a fine language.