There's no shame in calling Tcl a toy. It provides a fun way to learn lispy concepts and it has helped teach many that a simple lanaguage can be powerful. But I think Salvatore was unwise even in 2006 when he said Tcl isn't a toy. He is clearly a hacker in the best sense and his writing's appreciation for Tcl shows his respect for its power and simplicity. He was not
the first, nor will he be the last, to sing such praises.
Sadly his apparent ignorance or lack of concern regarding Tcl's numerous flaws leads me to question his engineering maturity. For instance, nowhere did he warn of how simple typo errors in Tcl's variable names and interpolated strings leads to a layer of engineering hell beyond anything Dante imagined, a place I've been and vowed never to return.
If you really think you need to expose something like Tcl in your product, please think again. These days you would be better off with something like Javascript or Lua. I strongly suspect the Salvatore of 2012 would agree.
Two of the most powerful languages I know are also very simple. Lisp and Lua come to mind. While they can't compete with Python or Ruby in therms of libraries, their syntax is far simpler and more powerful than any other language I know. I wonder why they are also much less popular, especially given that both are relatively fast.
Sadly his apparent ignorance or lack of concern regarding Tcl's numerous flaws leads me to question his engineering maturity. For instance, nowhere did he warn of how simple typo errors in Tcl's variable names and interpolated strings leads to a layer of engineering hell beyond anything Dante imagined, a place I've been and vowed never to return.
If you really think you need to expose something like Tcl in your product, please think again. These days you would be better off with something like Javascript or Lua. I strongly suspect the Salvatore of 2012 would agree.