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by olakease 2906 days ago
I heard many times about tcl or tcl/tk. Never paid attention until today. I really liked the language but looks like kind of dead to me. Last tclkit version is 8 years old. I tried to compile a tcl/tk application to an executable file and most of the websites explaining the process pointed to broken links (other docs, executables, etc).

Is tcl/tk still alive?

7 comments

Tcl/Tk is very much alive, and actively maintained. See the check-in history at https://core.tcl.tk/tcl/timeline (Tcl) and https://core.tcl.tk/tk/timeline (Tk). There are annual conferences for developers and users - one in Munich this year (http://www.eurotcl.eu/) and another in Houston (https://www.tcl.tk/community/tcl2018/index.html).
It's still used in applications that just work and boringly continue to do so. Like the SQLite test suite or MacPorts or Expect. Eurocontrol also uses it for air traffic control.

https://wiki.tcl.tk/37389

Tcl/Tk doesn't have the cachet that newer programming languages do, but it certainly still works and is a pretty neat language, and now would be a great time to have a Tcl renaissance.
I'm pretty sure TclKits are still being regularly built, I guess you were looking in a wrong place.
I still deal with it in telecom. No one wants to abandon in-place hardware infrastructure that the business community still supports.
It's used a lot in the electronics industry for scripting testing and debugging.