I haven't written any Tcl/Tk/Expect recently. It is interesting to know they are still being used, thanks for the updates. Expect was also quite useful for testing command-line applications. Even back then, RMS's arguments may or may not have applied to what he was doing, but our department got a lot of use out of Tcl for our sys admin work. We had many new-hires at the time, some without much CS background, and we found they could acquire and become productive in Tcl quickly, which was important in meeting our schedule.