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From: lord@x1.cygnus.com (Tom Lord)
Subject: Tcl in elisp?!?!?  (was Re: Why you should not use Tcl)
Message-ID: <LORD.94Sep27170133@x1.cygnus.com>
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Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 00:01:33 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu gnu.misc.discuss:18429 comp.lang.tcl:19467 comp.lang.scheme:10023




	edwards@world.std.com (Jonathan Edwards) writes (to RMS):

	   >Why not build an "algebraic" Tcl-like dialect on top of elisp?
	   ...
	   >Another view of the same idea: turn emacs into a windowing shell.


	sw@ishmael.UUCP (Steve E. Witham) adds:

	   or hook elisp to tk (plus an emacs-style text widget) and 
	   recode xemacs. 

	   --Steve


The idea of putting an algol-like or shell-like syntax on a lisp
language is becoming increasingly popular.  RMS' own post contained a
similar suggestion.  The post from Adam Sah
<asah@postgres.Berkeley.EDU> contained a reference for one proposal.
That reference was:

     A New Architecture for the Implementation of Scripting Languages.
     to appear in USENIX Symposium on Very High Level Languages.
     ftp://ginsberg.cs.berkeley.edu:/pub/papers/asah/rush-vhll94*



The idea of making a lispish binding to Tk is being explored in stk.
I know that you can find stk in at least one place (archie will
probably turn up more):

	ftp.cs.indiana.edu:pub/scheme-repository/imp/Stk-2.1.tar.gz


Another idea is to leverage the superior performance of Scheme by
doing much of the graphics programming in Scheme.  Taking this
approach, the graphical appearence of widgets is as much customizable
as all other aspects of the application.  I am working on a system
that takes this path, although it is early enough in the development
lifecycle that I harbor no illusions of attracting `clients' (but you
can always write to me for more information if you are curious).

-t
