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I suppose you would use this to do low level stuff because it's much harder to do in TCL, but it just doesn't feel right. It makes more sense to me to embed Tk

I suppose you would use this to do low level stuff because it's much harder to do in TCL, but it just doesn't feel right. It makes more sense to me to embed Tk into a C program.

ofalkaed 1y ago
Depends on how much C you need, it might make more sense to write a proper Tcl extension and it might make sense to just embed Tcl/Tk but having this middle ground is nice because swinging to the fences is rarely the best course of action. Critcl looks to be quite nice in those situations when Tcl/Tk is almost but not quite, you get the speed and ease of Tcl/Tk but a little more as well. The big gotcha looks to be having the foresight of identifying when writing a proper Tcl/Tk extension or switching language is the better plan, but this is almost always the big gotcha.
Joel_Mckay 1y ago
TCL is popular for automated scripting, and is still quite popular with "expect" and "autoexpect" package users. The key feature is opening a remote scripted or interactive ssh session, and running setup/install commands admins would otherwise have to type in thousands of times a month (or worse, leave sensitive information/CSR on short lived host nodes.) Being able to compile ephemeral objects is actually pretty useful in some use-cases. =3
- kemyd 1y ago
  Not contributing much to the discussion, but thanks for explaining who still uses Tcl. It was my first programming language about 20 years ago (I used it to write scripts for Eggdrop - an IRC bot). Just stopped by the comments out of nostalgia.
  - Joel_Mckay 1y ago
    The language core is still actively used, but not in the way most people assume. Expanding TCL C support proves it is not deprecated as some suggested (most Java VM also run a dual stack with C/C++ native binary object support.) Automated remote host administration with TCL is one area where it still works extremely well... I guess it is not relevant if people like pseudo-repetitive typing... so much typing people actually know all the parameters to tar without the manual. lol Have a great day =3
    - johnisgood 1y ago
      Nitpick: it is Tcl, not TCL, just like how Ada is not ADA.
      - Joel_Mckay 1y ago
        Following the Wikipedia citation will point people here: https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/Tcl+vs%2E+TCL https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/Tcl+vs%2E+TCL Which gets into the syntactical preference people developed over time. The Tool Command Language acronym allusion is rather distinct from a popular "Tcl" colloquialism for the "tickle" project. From my perspective Tcl is a TCL, but not all TCLs are necessarily Tcl nor include a specific extension package. Have a glorious day friend =3
        johnisgood 1y ago
        When I say it out loud, I say T-C-L, too, but I write it as Tcl. You have a nice day too! =3

I suppose you would use this to do low level stuff because it's much harder to do in TCL, but it just doesn't feel right. It makes more sense to me to embed Tk into a C program.

ofalkaed 1y ago

Depends on how much C you need, it might make more sense to write a proper Tcl extension and it might make sense to just embed Tcl/Tk but having this middle ground is nice because swinging to the fences is rarely the best course of action. Critcl looks to be quite nice in those situations when Tcl/Tk is almost but not quite, you get the speed and ease of Tcl/Tk but a little more as well. The big gotcha looks to be having the foresight of identifying when writing a proper Tcl/Tk extension or switching language is the better plan, but this is almost always the big gotcha.

Joel_Mckay 1y ago

TCL is popular for automated scripting, and is still quite popular with "expect" and "autoexpect" package users. The key feature is opening a remote scripted or interactive ssh session, and running setup/install commands admins would otherwise have to type in thousands of times a month (or worse, leave sensitive information/CSR on short lived host nodes.) Being able to compile ephemeral objects is actually pretty useful in some use-cases. =3

kemyd 1y ago
Not contributing much to the discussion, but thanks for explaining who still uses Tcl. It was my first programming language about 20 years ago (I used it to write scripts for Eggdrop - an IRC bot). Just stopped by the comments out of nostalgia.
- Joel_Mckay 1y ago
  The language core is still actively used, but not in the way most people assume. Expanding TCL C support proves it is not deprecated as some suggested (most Java VM also run a dual stack with C/C++ native binary object support.) Automated remote host administration with TCL is one area where it still works extremely well... I guess it is not relevant if people like pseudo-repetitive typing... so much typing people actually know all the parameters to tar without the manual. lol Have a great day =3
  - johnisgood 1y ago
    Nitpick: it is Tcl, not TCL, just like how Ada is not ADA.
    - Joel_Mckay 1y ago
      Following the Wikipedia citation will point people here: https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/Tcl+vs%2E+TCL https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/Tcl+vs%2E+TCL Which gets into the syntactical preference people developed over time. The Tool Command Language acronym allusion is rather distinct from a popular "Tcl" colloquialism for the "tickle" project. From my perspective Tcl is a TCL, but not all TCLs are necessarily Tcl nor include a specific extension package. Have a glorious day friend =3
      - johnisgood 1y ago
        When I say it out loud, I say T-C-L, too, but I write it as Tcl. You have a nice day too! =3