Re: [OT] My life after AS: shell commands, perl?
Re: [OT] My life after AS: shell commands, perl?
- Subject: Re: [OT] My life after AS: shell commands, perl?
- From: Kevin Walzer <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2005 17:24:12 -0500
- Organization: WordTech Software
Mark J. Reed wrote:
On 12/2/05, Kevin Walzer <email@hidden> wrote:
I'd like to add a quick word for Tcl. :-)
TCL is, even more than Perl, a very shellish language. If you don't come
from a shell background, it can be confusing; for those used to more
traditional programming languages, questions like "When do I need [...]?
When do I need $'s on my variables and when don't I? When do I have to call
expr?" have non-obvious answers. I don't think it's a good second language
for an AppleScripter.
Well, it was this AppleScripter's second language....
The trickiest thing about Tcl is quoting: the differences between
braces, quotes, etc. can be confusing for a newcomer. Its syntax is
somewhere between Perl and Python in knottiness.
2. Excellent resources for GUI programming. Tcl's Tk GUI tookit
... is fully usable from Perl, Python, and Ruby. Sure, TCL had it first, but
primacy isn't everything - or are you still using Mosaic to browse the web?
:) It is true that the most comprehensive Tk documentation is still
written from a TCL perspective, and the details of translating it to other
host languages are sometimes a bit cryptic, but nevertheless the full power
of Tk is at your disposal no matter which language you choose to work in.
True. Although, as you say, "the details of translating it to other host
languages are sometimes a bit cryptic." This is my biggest source of
frustration with Python: I don't want to have to learn C++ or Objective
C to build GUI's with it (as the GUI's are documented in terms of their
base language). I have a project that will probably require me to
develop in Python (as Python has some modules, wrappers for Mac Carbon
functionality, that Tcl currently lacks) and I will probably use Tkinter
as the GUI.
5. A nice, supportive user community. comp.lang.tcl and the wiki at
http://wiki.tcl.tk are excellent resources.
Also true of all the other languages being discussed. comp.lang.python,
comp.lang.ruby; http://www.python.org, http://www.perl.com, and
http://www.ruby-lang.org are all good starting points. Although Perl
outgrew comp.lang and now has its very own top-level Usenet hierarchy at
perl.*
Good point.
Really, any of these languages are useful to know. I consider them peers
in terms of their overall capabilities, although each has different
strengths. My choice came down to Tcl or Python and I chose Tcl because
the GUI learning curve was a bit simpler. Python remains something I
want to learn better. Perl looks a bit too knotty for my taste. And
AppleScript, while not as robust as the others, is an excellent "glue"
language for the Mac.
--
Cheers,
Kevin Walzer, PhD
WordTech Software - "Tame the Terminal"
http://www.wordtech-software.com
sw at wordtech-software.com
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