Tcl's syntax is small enough to fit in the working memory of a typical human. -- Cameron Laird
Summary
The syntax of Tcl scripts is minimal and elegant. Additional layers of complexity and power are achieved via commands, which either recursively repeat [[subst%|%some] or [[eval%|%all] of the Tcl script evaluation process.
Description
A Tcl script conforms to the 12 rules of script construction, and is processed in the following way:
- Exactly one level of substitution and/or evaluation occurs in each pass through the Tcl interpreter, no more and no less.
- Each character is scanned exactly once in each pass through the interpreter.
- Any well-formed list is also a well-formed command; if evaluated, each element of the list will become exactly one word of the command with no further substitutions.
- Commands such as such as [[subst] and [[eval], submit their arguments to the Tcl interpreter, which scans them again.
See:
- "args" == ARGH! Are they _really_ good for anything? ,Brent Welch ,comp.lang.tcl, 1994-02-01
See Also
- Dodekalogue
- Tcl Quoting
- BNF for Tcl
- A parser's monolog
- comment
- Comments in expressions
- Some suggestions, on how to do it.
- #
- An indentation syntax for Tcl
- Why is Tcl syntax so weird
- Syntax parsing in Tcl
- Glossary for Tcl syntax
- syntax
- Static syntax analysis