Why is tcl broken?

Paul Duffin pduffin at mailserver.hursley.ibm.com
Mon Jun 28 08:51:03 EDT 1999


Skip Montanaro wrote:
> 
> Laurent POINTAL wrote:
> > Fernando Mato Mira wrote:
> > for Python vs Tcl
> > >:   If you have references to articles of the sort, that will be useful,
> > >: too.
> >
> > See http://www.cwi.nl/~sjoerd/PythonVsTcl.html
> 
> While I'm sure that what Sjoerd wrote is accurate, it described Python
> and Tcl as they existed around late 1995 or early 1996.  Both languages
> have changed more than a little since then.
> 

His descriptions of the languages were reasonably accurate when it was
written but some of his comments about them and his comparisons between
the two show a definite bias towards Python and show up his limited
use of Tcl.

> > I remeber having seen an article of a guy explaining why he switched
> > from Tcl to Python for a large project... but I loose the URL.
> 
> That would be Frank Stajano. He presented a paper at last November's
> Python conference entitled "Implementing the SMS server, or why I
> switched from Tcl to Python".
> 
> 
> http://www.foretec.com/python/workshops/1998-11/proceedings/papers/stajano/stajano.html
> 
> Frank's perspective is an interesting one, because unlike most of us, he
> used Tcl and [incr Tcl] happily for several years before encountering
> Python, so he brings a depth of understanding to the discussion most of

His article is very good and the main reason why he uses Python and not
Tcl is the large number of libraries shipped with the standard Python
distribution and the object oriented nature of Python.

> us don't have.  (I, on the other hand, got an immediate bad taste from
> Tcl and spit it right out. ;-)
> 

My son did that when he first tasted red cabbage but since then his
taste buds have matured and he know loves it ;-).


-- 
Paul Duffin
DT/6000 Development	Email: pduffin at hursley.ibm.com
IBM UK Laboratories Ltd., Hursley Park nr. Winchester
Internal: 7-246880	International: +44 1962-816880




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