Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: Tcl development: "core team" approach
Author: Ralph Hempel Posted: 7/24/2000; 1:52:30 PM Topic: Tcl development: "core team" approach Msg #: 18969 (In response to 18931) Prev/Next: 18968 / 18970
Hmmm. I've used Tcl as my main scripting language for application development for a couple of years now. The big advantage Tcl has is that the same source code runs on Linux/Win/Mac boxes.That being said, the biggest disadvantage is that there is no cohesive development on basic stuff like support for serial ports (a personal peeve) across the platforms. The core team focusses on Linux/Win issues, and there is one tireless worker at Apple (James Ingham) that does the Mac stuff in his spare time......
I'll admit that when Ousterhout separated Scriptics out from under Sun, development on new stuff happened a lot faster. Unfortunately, the marketing/capital source team has decided that a name change to Ajuba Solutions would serve the B2B needs better. Oh, sorry, I'm waxing sarcastic about the buzzwords in the press release....
I have to believe that Ajuba Solutions will make no money at all, and that releasing Tcl to a core team "out there" will make the product better and at least maintainable. The .com shakeout will kill these Ajuba guys as surely as cyanide and they won't know why.
Here's what I really think. Tcl is a good idea that is bogged down by Ajuba's perceived need to address B2B needs. What they need to do is get the basic product finished and stable across the platforms. It is almost there. Unfortunately, I think that since it is getting harder to con VC guys out of their money, the development will happen for free, which might mean that it never gets done at all.....sigh.
So now I'm resigning myself to the eventual loss of Tcl, and keeping my eyes open for a real cross-platform scripting tool that does data translation as well as GUI prototyping and serial ports. It's funny, but Python and perl GUI addons use the TclTk GUI toolkit....
Cheers, Ralph Hempel
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