diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'tcl.html.markdown')
-rwxr-xr-x | tcl.html.markdown | 46 |
1 files changed, 37 insertions, 9 deletions
diff --git a/tcl.html.markdown b/tcl.html.markdown index 5402ce04..44805b5c 100755 --- a/tcl.html.markdown +++ b/tcl.html.markdown @@ -13,15 +13,43 @@ programming language. It can also be used as a portable C library, even in cases where no scripting capability is needed, as it provides data structures
such as dynamic strings, lists, and hash tables. The C library also provides
portable functionality for loading dynamic libraries, string formatting and
-code conversion, filesystem operations, network operations, and more.
-
-Tcl is a pleasure to program in. Its discipline of exposing all programmatic
-functionality as commands, including things like loops and mathematical
-operations that are usually baked into the syntax of other languages, allows it
-to fade into the background of whatever domain-specific functionality a project
-needs. Its design of exposing all values as strings, while internally caching
-a structured representation, bridges the world of scripting and systems
-programming in the best way. Even Lisp is more syntactically heavy than Tcl.
+code conversion, filesystem operations, network operations, and more.
+Various features of Tcl stand out:
+
+* Convenient cross-platform networking API
+
+* Fully virtualized filesystem
+
+* Stackable I/O channels
+
+* Asynchronous to the core
+
+* Full coroutines
+
+* A threading model recognized as robust and easy to use
+
+
+If Lisp is a list processor, then Tcl is a string processor. All values are
+strings. A list is a string format. A procedure definition is a string
+format. To achieve performance, Tcl internally caches structured
+representations of these values. The list commands, for example, operate on
+the internal cached representation, and Tcl takes care of updating the string
+representation if it is ever actually needed in the script. The copy-on-write
+design of Tcl allows script authors can pass around large data values without
+actually incurring additional memory overhead. Procedures are automatically
+byte-compiled unless they use the more dynamic commands such as "uplevel",
+"upvar", and "trace".
+
+Tcl is a pleasure to program in. It will appeal to hacker types who find Lisp,
+Forth, or Smalltalk interesting, as well as to engineers and scientists who
+just want to get down to business with a tool that bends to their will. Its
+discipline of exposing all programmatic functionality as commands, including
+things like loops and mathematical operations that are usually baked into the
+syntax of other languages, allows it to fade into the background of whatever
+domain-specific functionality a project needs. It's syntax, which is even
+lighter that that of Lisp, just gets out of the way.
+
+
|