[MR]: Agile programming is a catch-all term encompassing a variety of methodologies and techniques, including [eXtreme Programming], Scrum, etc.  It's an area which has gained a lot of popularity in the last few years.

[Dynamic languages] are often favored by agile practitioners, though this is by no means universal (most agile development, as with most other development these days, is done in [Java]).  A prominent notion in most agile methods is the idea of [test-driven development], which relies extensively on automated [testing]; Tcl of course has a long heritage in that area.

Tcl, despite being a dynamic language, doesn't often come up in this context, though [Python] and [Ruby] are popular.  Many of the original ideas behind agile techniques have evolved via the [Smalltalk] community, and hence many practices (such as code [refactor]ing) emphasize object oriented techniques.  Tcl, for reasons that have been hashed out to death, is not considered a significant player when it comes to object oriented development.

One place to start finding more info is the Agile Alliance web site [http://www.agilealliance.org/].
Other references appear here [http://engcorp.com/acf/agile].


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[LV] Test driven development is so neat - I don't know why people are not
taught to program in that style more often.  Mark suggests that there's a Tcl heritage of this style.  It would be neat to put up a log of the way
this style of development worked, using Tcl, for some relatively simple
[Tcl/Tk] application some time...


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[Category Glossary]