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by na85 1783 days ago
My impression was that Tcl used to be very popular for that sort of thing, but that it was supplanted by Lua, Python, and JavaScript.

What makes Tcl compelling for those applications?

2 comments

Network effects. John Ousterhout invented tcl in part to script/implement the Magic VLSI layout tool. So it's not surprising it's spread to other EDA applications.
that I couldn't tell you. I'd personally pick lua (or damn near anything else) first. maybe just entrenched knowledge/tooling in certain industries monster codebases.
Personally, I'd pick Tcl long before Lua... but I'd pick almost anything before Lua; which I find frustrating to work with. There's a _lot_ of personal preference and "feeling" that goes into what each person likes in a language.