Karl Lehenbauer, "TCL: The Tool Command Language - LISP for the Masses"
Channel: Houston FPUG
Date: 21/10/2021

Abstract: In 1991 TCL looked to me like LISP for the masses. It had a lot going for it. Minimal syntax. Really good with lists. At ease with recursion, yet better at manipulating text, in my opinion, which also I felt was really important. It seemed way more accessible for the journeyman programmer, whom I had found it difficult to get to engage with LISP.

An embeddable interpreter with a small footprint, TCL was intended to replace the myriad special purpose scripting languages that had proliferated in the 1980s with something that was capable, flexible, easy to learn, and free.

I was an early proponent of the language, contributed to its development, and used it extensively while building two successful, and one unsuccessful, businesses.

In this talk I’ll introduce TCL, talk about my hopes for it, how and why we used it, and attempt to illuminate where it succeeded, and where I think it has fallen short.


I intend to leave the participants with a basic understanding of the language, some of my a-little-bit-off-the-beaten-path precepts about what needs to be in a language for it to be successful, and useful, and appropriate for solving problems.