my first job had a bit of linux aolserver and tcl for config and the web app, and writing cross-platform installers using tcl/tk. it was actually pretty nice.

my first job had a bit of linux aolserver and tcl for config and the web app, and writing cross-platform installers using tcl/tk. it was actually pretty nice. this was in the late 90s... it was a perl/tcl/java shop, and java was only used for some oracle dependencies that were set in stone due to the entire backend engine being written in stored procedures (lol). the native application itself was for windows, developed and cross-compiled (i can't remember what they had to compile - maybe a static version of the tcl or perl runtime or something like that) on linux using a bunch of stuff including cygwin. i can't believe they trusted a teenager to write their installer but it was really simple. pick a path, and it dumped the uncompressed contents into it, set some registry values, created a desktop shortcut, and ran the executable. they replaced it with that ubiquitous windows installer that everyone used back then a couple of years after i left for college when the install started bundling other commercial apps the users requested. probably some software marketing deals drove that once they hit some traction. also, i remember getting to use a sun workstation to develop oracle ETL scripts in perl which was pretty cool. i think at one point i had a linux dell workstation and sun workstation... that first job taught me how to actually ship software and work in a team with source control and software and infra engineers who actually knew what they were doing which was amazing for a 16 year old. they even ran their own mini datacenter in a back room before the explosion in colo facilities and good fiber networks. the whole thing ran off of a pair of T1's. the '90s were some wild times in internetland.