http://www.smilax.org/99 - "ParentheTcl (pronounced "parenTHETical," abbreviated "p7tcl" or "P7") is a safe language for writing fast, compiled extensions for Tcl."
The language seems to RS a curious mix of Tcl and C - variables are strongly typed, expression syntax in parentheses is part of the language. Vector elements are also marked by parentheses (unlike C, but Fortran had it so...) Example:
pproc (uni*)to_lower { (uni*)x } {
for {set (int)i 0} ($i< [len $x] ) {incr i} {
if ( 'A' <= $x($i) && $x($i) <= 'Z' ) {
set x($i) ($x($i) - 'A' + 'a')
}
}
set x
}Commands so defined are compiled (to C), and made available as Tcl commands.Commands so defined are compiled (to bytecode?), and made available as Tcl commands. Notice that all extensions to Tcl syntax are marked with Parentheses -- thus the name ParentheTcl.
AK Feb 15, 2005: From the description above it sounds as if this wants to be or is already for Tcl what Pyrex is for Python. AK Feb 15, 2005: From the description above it sounds as if this wants to be or is already for Tcl what Pyrex [L1 ] is for Python. (So, if Python has Pyrex, Tcl should have...T-Rex?)
MS Is this comparable in any sense to critcl? - RS: The general direction seems to be the same, but critcl embeds standard C in Tcl, and generates source code to make a DLL from, while P. uses a hybrid language of its own, and seems to require a runtime module (so maybe not compiled to machine code, but some intermediate code) - but that's very much like Tcl itself then, isn't it?