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From: martin@bsm.bioc.ucl.ac.uk (Andrew Martin)
Subject: Re: Why you should not use Tcl
Message-ID: <1994Sep28.094826.52336@ucl.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 09:48:26 GMT
References: <9409232314.AA29957@mole.gnu.ai.mit.edu> <364opm$fiu@yuggoth.ucsb.edu> <RV.94Sep25192903@cslab6b.cs.brown.edu> <id.2XBD1.L1G@nmti.com> <367cj1$bqt@admin5.hsc.uth.tmc.edu>
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In article <367cj1$bqt@admin5.hsc.uth.tmc.edu>, jmaynard@admin5.hsc.uth.tmc.edu (Jay Maynard) writes:
|> In article <id.2XBD1.L1G@nmti.com>, Peter da Silva <peter@nmti.com> wrote:
|> >It could be a lot worse. The standard scripting language on the Amiga is a
|> >variant of REXX, and there's been a few people pushing it on UNIX.
|> 
|> OS/2, too.
|> 
|> Why do you consider REXX to be "a lot worse"? It has a not insignificant
|> following, and not a few visual development tools, at least on OS/2.
|> -- 

I hate to add to this thread which seems to have gone on forever, but felt
I must also defend REXX (or, at least ARexx, the Amiga implementation).

Both REXX and Tcl seem excellent at what they were designed for, writing
SCRIPTS not great long programs.

I have never tried adding Tcl scripting to a C program, but from what I have
read of the book, it look more complex than adding an ARexx port on the
Amiga (which I have done). The philosophy of the two is completely different.
With Tcl, your program effectively becomes an extension of the Tcl language
while with REXX (at least ARexx), it is a completely separate entity which
is able to communicate with any number of programs. This does seem rather
more efficient (especially if memory is limited).

I have used Tcl/Tk (Wish) for generating a GUI for a program. In fact, the
interface simply writes a control file and spawns a C program which reads
this file and runs the program (which takes several minutes). I have no
need for anything like looping or control structures in my script so this
is a simple and efficient method. Even with this fairly simple Tcl/Tk
project (<2000 lines), I have found the code can easily get unmanageable.

However, Tcl/Tk is simple and easy to learn and quick to implement (This,
my first project with Tcl/Tk, was essentially complete in about 3 days).
I wouldn't have had the time to write a GUI using a conventional C toolkit
and as an academic, don't have the funds to buy a commercial WYSIWYG
interface design tool.

Andrew


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Dr. Andrew C.R. Martin,         University College London & SciTech Software
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