Tcl/Tk: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:57, 9 February 2015

Scripting language originally called Tool Command Language that unlike most other such languages is maintained and controlled by a single company that has a core version that is open source and sell more advanced versions as closed source commercial software. Originally intended as an "embedded language" that was designed to be linked into compiled programs and used as an internal scripting and extensions language but has over time grown into a toolkit more suitable to build standalone applications with. Note that the usage of the term "embedded language" was correct at the time but the use of the term has changed and these days it is used for languages used/designed for embedded applications.

The convention is to call it Tcl rather than TCL since its name is now considered to be Tcl and not an acronym for Tool Command Language. Development of the language and toolkit was extremely rapid in the 1990's but has slowed down considerably in the last 15 years.

Somewhat REXX like in structure although the syntax is completely different, this has meant that the language has never been as popular on OS/2 as on some other system, the main advantage of the Tcl/Tk system on OS/2 or eComStation has been the Tk widget toolkit and portability.

Tk

Platform independent graphics library and engine, although perhaps better describes as a widget toolkit.

A list of OS/2 ports of Tcl

[PM Tcl/Tk] - Open source - Discontinued

A list of DOS ports of Tcl

A list of Tcl ports run under WinOS/2

Last known version Tcl8.0.2 or 7.6.2

Requires Win32s.

A list of Tcl implementations that run under Java

Publications

Tutorials and other learning material

Links

Active State's Tcl page - Info from the company behind Tcl
http://www.tcl.tk
Hobbes TCl directory

USENET

comp.lang.tcl - Low volume group - Go to the Google groups version if your ISP does not offer USENET access or you are in any other way newsgroup challenged.

The Tcl Wars

This was in its day a rather infamous flame war initiated by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation who fired a somewhat incoherent rant on comp.lang.tcl telling people not to use Tcl. It turned out this was much like the famous Linux/Minix "Microkernel war" a rather cheap way of getting publicity by attacking what was perceived to be the most popular freeware product at the time. In this case it was to publicise two upcoming scripting languages the FSF had been working on in the form of Guile and another GNU product by now dead and buried. Unlike the "Microkernel War" were people overall had not enough knowledge about the subject to realise that it was essentially trolling on part of the flame war initiator, in this case most of the viewers had both knowledge and experience of multiple programming paradigms and were rather unimpressed with the initial argument (suhs as it was). This backfired somewhat in the face of the FSF as it generated a lot of positive noise about Tcl and negative ones about Guile, the FSF and Stallman.

http://www.vanderburg.org/OldPages/Tcl/war/

There was a second "Tcl War" a couple of years later, when a post attributed to Richard Stallman was posted in the same newsgroup in a somewhat conciliatory tone,

Standards

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 The convention is to call it Tcl rather than TCL since its name is now considered to be Tcl and not an acronym for Tool Command Language. Development of the language and toolkit was extremely rapid in the 1990's but has slowed down considerably in the last 15 years.
-Somewhat [[REXX]] like in structure although the syntax is completely different.
+Somewhat [[REXX]] like in structure although the syntax is completely different, this has meant that the language has never been as popular on OS/2 as on some other system, the main advantage of the Tcl/Tk system on OS/2 or eComStation has been the Tk widget toolkit and portability.
 ====Tk====