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I quite like TCL, but had my issues with the syntax as well, unless I read about how it works in the TCL book by Ousterhout (highly recommended). The key bing,
by _ph_ 6y ago
I quite like TCL, but had my issues with the syntax as well, unless I read about how it works in the TCL book by Ousterhout (highly recommended). The key bing, that the syntax is extremely simple and systematic - a little bit like Lisp s-expressions - which allows for a very simple general parser and also makes it possible to write TCL extensions in pure TCL. This is a very Lisp-like trait of TCL.
- the_hoser 6y agoAll of this is true, but it doesn't matter. Most programmers are put off by s-expressions, too. Aesthetics matter.
- _ph_ 6y agoIt does matter. Aesthetics do matter, but for a programming language, technical capabilites matter much more. The regular syntaxes of Lisp and TCL give it many powers not being present in languages with more "fancy" syntaxes.
- the_hoser 6y agoI'd like to live in a world where that is true, but we just don't. Languages only need to be powerful enough to solve the problems actually being solved by 9 to 5 programmers. Aesthetics and ergonomics matter much more.
- bch 6y ago_ph_, on this case I think it’s fair to say the aesthetic and ergonomics are the technical capability, to degrees. For example, building a custom looping control does benefit aesthetics and ergonomics. It could be viewed as 2 sides of the same coin.