TPL - Tool Protocol Language.

''NB: this is not a description of a new language, but an essay on thinking about tcl in a different way.''

The world has many protocols for communicating between processes ('''IPC''').  Some are binary, some are ASCII.  I will call ASCII protocols for IPC ''protocol languages.''

Examples of ''protocol languages'' and ''binary protocols''

   * XML is used in XML RPC type IPC.
   * FCGI, SCGI, CGI have aspects of protocol languages, and some of binary protocols.
   * HTTP is used in [REpresentational State Transfer, REST]
   * [JSON] is used in [AJAX]
   * several data representation languages [YAML], ... 
   * XDR is a binary protocol used in SUN RPC
   * command-line protocol - used to invoke commands from a process, per the unix '''system()''' command, e.g.

Tcl (arguably) has many characteristics desirable in a ''protocol language'':

   * minimal syntax
   * readily parseable
   * omnipresence
   * well known and understood
   * flexible
   * expressive
   * long history of data-as-code and code-as-data
   * long history of use of [little languages]

The purpose of this page is to argue this assertion, to explore the truth of the foregoing assertion, to explore counterarguments, to deepen understanding of tcl as a protocol language, to explore prerequisites for its use in this role.

It seems to me [CMcC] that a cut-down tcl syntax, without special meaning attributed to {*}, $ and [] would serve well in this role.  Such a restricted syntax should be called TPL.

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