Version 10 of Don Cruickshank
Updated 2006-12-08 00:34:26
a.k.a. etdxc. [L1 ] I've worked in IT for over 20 years and since 1989 as a contract analyst/programmer/developer/etc. I've been developing in Tcl/Tk since the late 90s.
My experience is (mostly) in Unix and Microsoft evironments, largely with database development.
I live in the pretty city of Bristol in the south west of England, with my wonderful wife, three beautiful children, and strange cat.
Toys include dxcClips (available from www.download.com) and dxcChanges
2006/Dec/07 I've just been reading About Tcl and popularity and added some notes, but because I've been microwaving my red wine (it's xmas time again) I accidentally hit ESC (it happens... sometimes too often!) and I thought that it would be best adding my comments here instead.
About publishing Tcl books: Because Tcl is so easy to learn most coders would only need to buy one book to learn the fundamentals, and get their thinking 'straight'. The language would probably fit into the methodology they use without any shoehorning, it did mine. I can't see that a small number of new books will make an impact in the market place or successfully promote the language when compared with the sheer quantity of new books produced for the more popular languages. However, revisions of existing books to bring them up to date would certainly be useful.
I think the easiest way to get new users interested in the language is to publish useful quality programs widely, to use sites like www.download.com and www.tucows.com. A lot of freeware/shareware sites 'feed' off the bigger ones, so that within a half/year the software is almost global. If within published program the Splash screen/About window/Help notes/Credits page mentions the use of Tcl/Tk, with a reference to the wiki/c.l.t/home page, then word gets around. E-books attract a large number of downloads, as do complete copies of open source languages, language libraries and packages. If Tcl could be downloaded from these sites I'm sure interest would rise. If the version specific help.chm sould be downloaded when a new version is released. If new packages are announced via sites like www.download.com wouldn't that get the name around? I would bet things like the personal wiki would go down a treat. Some of the games/mail/ftp/WDs notebook/Newspoint programs are wasted by being kept within the world of 'The internets best kept secret'. Get it out there, but give credit back to the language. Add links to the dev home page, ActiveState, the wiki, and c.l.t. Rather than being hidden in obscurity - publish and be damned!
Rant over.