Re-using TCL code from python over network

[sharad1087 at gmail.com]

Hi

We've a test automation framework written in TCL (including the automated test cases). We are evaluating shifting to Python and have a test framework in Python (including the automated test cases). Python provides a lot more 3rd party libraries that we'd like to make use of.

We use a pretty old version of TCL (8.4.5, 32 bit). It's on FreeBSD and we've compiled it in-house. Compiling it to 64 bit or moving to a newer version is a massive task (since we've a lot of libraries - written in C and compiled as well as pure tcl).

Also, we are evaluating having this Python infrastructure on Linux (CentOS).

I've explored Python's Tkinter but it won't suit our case as it points to system installed TCL. I've also explored Python's subprocess (launch an interactive TCL shell remotely) and pexpect but none of them worked well for me to allow me to use TCL code interactively from Python.

I'd like to gather any ideas/experience around this. If anyone has tried a similar stuff before and can share his/her experience, I'd appreciate it.

Regards
Sharad