Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!njin!limonce From: limonce@pilot.njin.net (Tom Limoncelli) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: Re: Tcl - Tool command language Message-ID: Date: 3 Mar 90 19:20:55 GMT References: <5213@sugar.hackercorp.com> <132344@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <363@stcvax.STORTEK.COM> Organization: Drew University/NJIN Lines: 46 Let me re-phrase what I said. The part about "small tools working together" still holds. AREXX and Tcl both provide that kind of thing. AREXX sits outside the applications and sends commands in. Tcl sits inside the applications and, when needed, can send a command to another Tcl-based application. With AREXX, you have one interpreter that executes commands. Certain commands are "sent" to programs that will do that function for that command. In other words, the more AREXX compat. applications you are running, the more commands get added to the interpreter. (Well, not directly added, but in a certain sense the vocabulary is enhanced.) Tcl becomes the script language for your application. It includes all the usual looping commands and everything that you expect. You then add new commands to it's language. For example, if you wanted a Tcl-based mail reader, you'd write the various components, and link in the Tcl module. ...and your code would start with a call to: Initialize-all-Tcl-stuff(); followed by a AddThisCommand("read", readroutine, HowManyParameters); and a AddThisCommand("create", createroutine, HowManyParametersForThis1); Now, this build-in interpreter has the ability to do use your routines too. So, one is better if you like central authority and one is better if you want your programs to be egalitarian. :-) They'll both get the same thing done. With sharable libraries they both take about the same amount of space (linear expansion) though I've been told that AREXX is a larger interpreter. -Tom -- Tom Limoncelli The computer industry should spend more time in front of tlimonce@drew.uucp their computers. Remember when "Look & Feel" tlimonce@drew.Bitnet was what you tried to do on a date? limonce@pilot.njin.net