For example, you can delete or rename procedures on the fly, including built-in procedures. So you can rename a built-in like puts to something else, create your own puts procedure, and then call the old one (under its new name) in your new procedure (in case you wanted to override it to do some pre- or post-processing each time). You can even redefine procedures within themselves.
You can use variables in variable names (PHP does this as well).
The comment character # is a valid name for a variable or a procedure.
"Everything is a string" extends to even lists and code blocks.
Even though we've moved away from the hyperflexibility of languages like Tcl and Perl, they certainly served their purpose, and a lot of their better ideas were refined in their more orderly successors.
In the 1990s.
Fast forward 20 years and I found myself using it again, but it felt silly compared to the now-mature Python, Lua, PHP, and Ruby.
These days, maybe lua is a better choice, but I can see lua being more intimidating for smart, but less software-experienced people. "Everything is a string" might be more intuitive for them.
proc displayHackerNews {} {
set hn "Hacker News" ;#Fill the variable (hn) with the string "Hacker News"
puts $hn ;#output the variable ($hn) to terminal
} ;#end procedure
displayHackerNews ;#execute the procedure
displays: Hacker News
set hn ""
if { $hn eq "Hacker News" } { puts $hn } else {
set hn "Not Hacker News"
puts $hn
} ;#end if
set hn "Hacker News" ;#Set a variable
while { $hn eq "Hacker News" } {
puts "$hn" ;# print "Hacker News" to terminal in an infinite loop
} ;#end loop
package require Thread
set MyThreadID [thread::create {
puts "Hello from my new thread"
thread::wait
} ;#end code-to-run
] ;#end thread
set hn "Hacker News"
if { $hn eq "Hacker News" } {set switch "hn" } else { set switch "" }
switch $switch {
hn {
set MyThreadID [thread::create {
proc displayHackerNews {} {set hn "Hacker News" ; puts $hn} ;#end procedure
#set aCounter to zero, if aCounter is < 7 execute displayHackerNews procedure
for {set aCounter 0} {$aCounter < 7} {incr aCounter} { displayHackerNews }
thread::wait
} ;#end threaded-code
] ;#end thread
} ;#end switch-case
default {puts "It's still not hacker news"}
} ;#end switch
It's a nice language but to diss it that much, don't. It's a fun language to use and creates modern enhancements. I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who's confused about programming. Running remotely hosted X applications via novnc natively on most OS is tasty.
If one language that should be dropped is GOlang. Rust wins. It came from Google. Seriously, github links in source? Yes, looks smart and modern but is incredibly stupid. NO programming language should ever pull URL links for dependence. You wouldn't execute a random bash file on the internet to install a script would you? It's no difference.
I create a repo, heres link to repo, people install repo. I maliciously change the code to backdoor your box, you don't notice. Well done, You've compiled remote backdoor new version, none the wiser.
Who really reads the dependency code that that person has wrote?
My home page completely coded in PureTCL. No Databases, No JavaScript, no SSL and no bitching. http://fantasy.tf/
But it's a really neat exploration of a "what if" in programming languages.