3 ms·

The vast array of Schemes available is part of what made me eventually land at Tcl and just dig in there.

by bch 3y ago

jrapdx3 3y ago
Interestingly I've had a similar experience. I used Chicken Scheme for a number of years after programming in Tcl for a long time. Tcl always seemed to be a kind of Lisp, an impression that only increased over time. Eventually I resumed using Tcl when I realized the language had been steadily improved over several years. With Tcl 9.0 on the horizon I see no reason to look elsewhere for accomplishing most programming tasks.
- bitwize 3y ago
  Tcl offers metaprogramming capability that rivals Lisp's, but they way it goes about doing it is... kinda nuts. I don't particularly care to stare into that yawning abyss for too long, so it sits well behind Scheme in terms of languages I'd reach for. Tcl/Tk is still an unrivalled way to prototype a GUI -- and with Snit megawidgets, it's almost like programming a modern JavaScript component framework like React.
  - jrapdx3 3y ago
    Yes, you're right, Tcl suffers from lack of Scheme-like macros. While a lot can be done using procedures, methods and introspection "tricks", often enough it's far from elegant. However I haven't been stymied all that often. Missing functionality can sometimes be provided by C-API extensions which I've gotten pretty good at writing. Completely agree about the utility of Tk. I remember reading somewhere that HTML/CSS widgets were influenced by Tk. Don't know how true that is but I can see how it could be.
a-french-anon 3y ago
Fun thing is that Tcl was relegated to the role of gateway drug to Common Lisp, in my case. I still use it when I want a more modern stdlib or its well-integrated event loop. (I actually tried to retrofit some of CL in Tcl, heh; https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/q3cpma https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/q3cpma)

3 ms·

The vast array of Schemes available is part of what made me eventually land at Tcl and just dig in there.

by bch 3y ago

The vast array of Schemes available is part of what made me eventually land at Tcl and just dig in there.

jrapdx3 3y ago
Interestingly I've had a similar experience. I used Chicken Scheme for a number of years after programming in Tcl for a long time. Tcl always seemed to be a kind of Lisp, an impression that only increased over time. Eventually I resumed using Tcl when I realized the language had been steadily improved over several years. With Tcl 9.0 on the horizon I see no reason to look elsewhere for accomplishing most programming tasks.
- bitwize 3y ago
  Tcl offers metaprogramming capability that rivals Lisp's, but they way it goes about doing it is... kinda nuts. I don't particularly care to stare into that yawning abyss for too long, so it sits well behind Scheme in terms of languages I'd reach for. Tcl/Tk is still an unrivalled way to prototype a GUI -- and with Snit megawidgets, it's almost like programming a modern JavaScript component framework like React.
  - jrapdx3 3y ago
    Yes, you're right, Tcl suffers from lack of Scheme-like macros. While a lot can be done using procedures, methods and introspection "tricks", often enough it's far from elegant. However I haven't been stymied all that often. Missing functionality can sometimes be provided by C-API extensions which I've gotten pretty good at writing. Completely agree about the utility of Tk. I remember reading somewhere that HTML/CSS widgets were influenced by Tk. Don't know how true that is but I can see how it could be.
a-french-anon 3y ago
Fun thing is that Tcl was relegated to the role of gateway drug to Common Lisp, in my case. I still use it when I want a more modern stdlib or its well-integrated event loop. (I actually tried to retrofit some of CL in Tcl, heh; https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/q3cpma https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/q3cpma)