4 ms·
I think it's interesting to look at Tcl's pedigree and compare it with Perl. Both definitely have a strong Unix heritage. Perl's initial use case was scripting
by mhd 7y ago
I think it's interesting to look at Tcl's pedigree and compare it with Perl. Both definitely have a strong Unix heritage. Perl's initial use case was scripting where you went beyond both awk and the shell, and regarding syntax stuck to the former. The target audience certainly was supposed to know a bit about programming, but shouldn't
Tcl on the other hand is more shell-like in its core syntax, trying to simplify that. Not really because it's supposed to supplant shell scripts, but because it has a similar target audience, people looking to automate things (or customize them).
At least that's the beginning, and if it would've stayed that way, nobody would lament either language's passing, as they'd be good in their niche. To truly fall, one must rise first. Perl did that with early web programming (CGI), Tcl with UI programming.
I like both a lot. I've had a lot of fun programming with Tcl, and it was interesting how your workflow changes if a UI is really, really close to hand (sorry, TKinter doesn't come close to me, the only other language I'd nominate for that would be Rebol).
Programming with BASIC I always asked for input, programming with Perl/Python I always pass command line parameters, with Tcl I often popped up small Windows.
- smacktoward 7y agoThere was a period in the early-Web days when Tcl looked like a serious contender to take the lead in Web programming too, thanks to its use as the main scripting language in the influential AOLServer (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOLserver https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOLserver). Of course that didn't end up happening, but it's interesting to think about what might have been different if it had.
- bch 7y agoIt was also embedded in browsers[0]. It “could have been javascript”. Sort of a bitter-sweet scenario - I think some were excited that Tcl could have been out there more, in people’s face, but others think Tcl dodged a bullet, as mass adoption would have laid a tough burden of backward compatibility and a bit of ossification that the core team is happy to not have mandated on them. [0] https://books.google.ca/books?id=GQIMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=%22tcl%22+web+browser+ncsa&source=bl&ots=P7j7qSO1FQ&sig=ACfU3U0mC1wybigQnPqzpl_FOByVZecLEw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi_lrbWyarnAhVaHDQIHQmYDGEQ6AEwAHoECAQQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22tcl%22%20web%20browser%20ncsa&f=false https://books.google.ca/books?id=GQIMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4...