I haven't programmed seriously in Tcl for a number of years, but found it to be very useful for prototyping. So useful, in fact, that the prototype often becam

I haven't programmed seriously in Tcl for a number of years, but found it to be very useful for prototyping. So useful, in fact, that the prototype often became the production code. The code was robust and easy-to-understand. Still, when I recently needed to create a program for my own use (using only Tcl, not Tk), I was able to do so fairly quickly, after reviewing a few basics. I didn't need to worry about syntactic "sugar." And it was kind of nice having Tcl available on my Mac, already installed. Maybe it's there because of SQLite, I don't know. (Yes, I know Python is there too ... ) Years ago, the first time I needed to program a GUI, I recall, as part of my evaluation of the tools then available, reading Brian Kernighan's paper on his experience using Tcl/Tk . (That paper is available at http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/who/bwk/index.html http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/who/bwk/index.html). By the way, his book (written together with Rob Pike), "The Practice of Programming" is excellent, and uses Tcl for some of the examples. To hardwaresofton: I think the situation you find yourself in might be a blessing in disguise. You have the opportunity to really explore and to get to know a language that seems to be despised by many. You might try coding the same thing in different languages, and comparing the experiences. Is the world of programming that much more productive with languages other than Tcl? Perhaps in certain domains and for certain uses. But by how much more would you be productive if you were able to use your language of choice? Would there be any trade-offs? I wonder. At the very least, you might find that Tcl has a niche in your set of tools.