Purpose: discuss ways of getting data into the [Tcl] [interpreter]
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There are many ways to get data into a Tcl interpreter for evaluation.

One of the most common ways is to edit a file, then to invoke a Tcl
based interpreter with the name of the file.  Tcl reads the file,
interpreting the results and producing output when required.

Developers used to a [GUI] development environment frequently ask if there are GUI based integrated development environments for Tcl.  There are a number of such products, with varying states of usefulness.  I
typically refer people to http://www.purl.org/net/tcl-faq/part4.html
to find the ones I have cataloged, but there are any number of
[Tcl Resource Catalogs] available.

Another way that some people enter Tcl [command]s, while experimenting,
is by invoking a Tcl interpreter without any input file.  This 
starts up a relatively simple interface where one can type in a command
at a time and the interpreter will display the results.

There are some minimal ''niceties'' available when doing this.

... talk about command line [history], abbreviated commands, [unknown] submitting unknown commands to the shell...

... talk about [tkconsole] ....

''DKF'' - Many developers (myself included) use [Emacs] under [X] which puts a nice line-editing facility around Tcl for us.  This is sufficiently good that we feel no need for more sophisticated command-line editing.  I've also tried several GUI editing tools, and none of them improved my productivity to the point where it overcame the annoyance of not being able to just delve in there directly and just hack the code to do what I want.  I type really quite quickly...  :^)

Tcler - But what about those who don't know, and don't want to know Emacs. Tcl is not alone on this minimal editing, a lot of languages have even less (like [Perl]), but the ones with even semi-featured editing (like [Python] which doesn't autocomplete but still) are much easier to experiment with, and tend to feel more friendlier somehow.

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[LV] I seem to recall that [tclsh] was originally intended as a sample of how to 
make use of tcl in a C program.  So, why not add things now?  For quite some time,
the primary libraries to add these types of features were [GNU] licensed, which
didn't fit the Tcl [license].

So, why not add these functions now?  I don't recall whether anyone has submitted
a [TIP] proposing to do this.  But if it were added, it would be a
configure time argument, since not everyone would have a library.

'''[DGP]''' - The caution here is that tclsh has two uses.  It can be used
as an interactive shell, but it can also be used as the engine that supports
script applications.  Any proposed improvements to interactivity support need
to be weighed against possible damage to tclsh's other (more important, IMHO)
function serving as a base for script applications.

The safest route, it seems to me, is to not try to improve the base
interactive features of tclsh itself, but to create and distribute with
Tcl a script application with good interactive features.

On this topic, [tkcon] is worth mentioning.
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[Category Discussion]