Thread

1. fmajid · 1790722848 · focus · HN ↗

   I did some Tcl work a quarter century agi, but really if I were in the market for an extension glue language today, I'd reach for Lua first.

   1. kstrauser · 1790733440 · focus · HN ↗

      How come? I don't have enough experience with either to have a preference, but I'd love to hear the opinion of someone more familiar.

      1. rwbt · 1790743325 · focus · HN ↗

         Not the OP but Tcl comes with batteries included and more "full fledged". Lua is just so much more lightweight and so easy to just drop it in any codebase.

         The biggest reason to use Tcl even to this day is to write Tk GUI programs.

         1. kstrauser · 1790744155 · focus · HN ↗

            Interesting! Would that make a different choice for standalone use, then?
         2. bch · 1790750083 · focus · HN ↗

            > The biggest reason to use Tcl even to this day is to write Tk GUI programs.

            Well... Tcl on its own is good as a configuration language, creating DSLs, or as a scripting/extension interface, as well as a single common cross platform interface to filesystems, network sockets, and more - so I'd say "the biggest reason" depends on what you're working on...

      2. fmajid · 1790763807 · focus · HN ↗

         The everything is a string approach shows its limits quite quickly. Lua is also extremely performant, which is not always needed in a glue language, but still good to have.
   2. RHSeeger · 1790743381 · focus · HN ↗

      I like the concept of Lua, but I ran into enough issues with it's "everything is a table" design that I stopped using it.

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