From
http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-...-tcl/240165482
A Quarter Century of Tcl
By Andrew Binstock, January 21, 2014
For 25 years, this unusual extension language has delivered magic.
Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of C++, once said with reference to criticisms of his language, "There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses." While Stroustrup is quick to point out that formulations of the type "there are only two of x" should be taken with a grain of salt; it's important to note that there truly are several other categories of languages.
For example, the small group of languages that are both used and widely loved. In general-purpose languages, I think Ruby comes very close to this ideal. In niche languages, Lua definitely reaches the mark. One tier down are languages that are mostly loved, but abide pockets of critics here and there. Python, for example.
To these three categories (criticized, not used, and loved), we should add a fourth category: languages that are little used today, but have had a significant effect on computing. Three of them come immediately to mind: Lisp, Smalltalk, and Tcl. The youngest of these is Tcl, or what was once called the "tool command language." This week, Tcl celebrates its 25th anniversary — that is, a quarter of a century since it was first implemented by John Ousterhout at Berkeley (its actual release would come a while later).
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