>>>>> "Avleen" == Avleen Vig <lists-exim@???> writes:
Avleen> I've rarely touched Tcl, it's seems complicated like perl
Avleen> (which I have touched). I don't know which is more
Avleen> complicated.
They are complicated in different ways.
Perl has a bizarre, convoluted and barely-consistent syntax which
somehow usually manages to let you do the right thing without getting
in the way too much.
Tcl has an extremely simple and consistent syntax which nevertheless
still somehow manages to lay deathtraps for even the experienced Tcl
programmer, and which makes even simple things painful (consider that
the Tcl equivalent of "a = b + c" is "set a [expr {$b + $c}]").
Avleen> Any particular reason for Tcl?
Because it _is_ simple and consistent (especially when it comes to
things like quoting rules) and controllable (a configuration parser
can be implemented by defining commands for the configuration
constructs, deleting any Tcl commands considered harmful, and then
just executing the config file as a Tcl script).
I am not convinced that using Tcl as a configuration language is the
right approach, but I don't know of any other languages that would
come even close to being suitable. In particular, Tcl has the
Lisp-like property that code and data share the same structure, which
makes it easy to write code-generating code.
--
Andrew, Supernews
http://www.supernews.com
