Re: [cobalt-developers] How do TCL works?

["Brian Curtis" <admin@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "John C. Bacon" <bacon@xxxxxxxxxxx>


> Who knows what you are trying to accomplish, but if you really want to use
> TCL here is some advice:
> 1. DON'T ruin it on your Cobalt products (for more reasons that you'll
ever
> know)
> 2. you WILL want to NOT use Apache
> 3. you WILL (almost) HAVE to use AOL Server (http://www.aolserver.com)
> 4. DON'T expect it to be an easy and efficient long term alternative to
CGI
> or PHP
> 5. TCL resources http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Tcl/
(as
> opposed to thousands of cgi or php)
> 6. last but never least.......business is business, it's never personal,
I'd
> give them two options
> a. do it the 'can-host' way, using your existing 'never needed TCL
before'
> capabilities
> b. tell them to go elsewhere...  let them drag someone else (not YOU)
down!

Now I have to disagree with the above statements.

First of all, instead of saying "DON'T DO THIS" and not give a reason,
explain why you feel the way you do about it.  Did you run into problems?
Did it crash your server?  Please do tell...

I have run mod_dtcl on an Apache/Linux combination w/o any problems what so
ever.  I also found Tcl to execute quite a bit faster (2-3 times on average)
than Perl/CGI scripts.  Plus it's a fairly easy scripting language to learn,
especially over something like Perl or C.  If you come from a Unix/Linux
background, you will most likely know about Tcl/Tk.  As with Perl and C, you
can take Tcl/Tk with you as a valuable tool if you go into *nix systems
administration.

There was also a big article on Tcl/Tk as a Web scripting language in last
month's 'Inside Web Development' journal.  Needless to say w/o plagiarizing
the entire article, it was praised highly as a "fast alternative that lets
you build dynamic, interactive Web pages".

For those that are interested, there are two server-side Apache extensions
that will execute Tcl script just like mod_php does for PHP:

Mod_dtcl : http://comanche.com.dtu.dk/dave/
Velocigen: http://www.binevolve.com/velocigen/

I haven't tried the latter.  It's a commercial Apache extension which claims
many things.  One of which is up to a 30x speed increase over normally
parsed Tcl scripts.  The only thing that scares me about it is the 'Contact
sales for pricing info' statement.  They do seem to allow you to download a
trial/demo version though.  The first one, mod_dtcl, plugs right into Apache
with almost no effort, and it's open source.

Lastly, I have to highly disagree with your last two statements.  You never
flat out tell a customer to 'go somewhere else'.  VERY bad business
practice.  Also, instead of giving the customer excuses (i.e. 'never needed
TCL before'), give them alternatives.  If you will never allow server-side
Tcl parsing, that's fine.  Explain to them why and then say, 'You can use a
browser plugin to execute your Tcl scripts client side', and also mention to
them the alternative server-side languages you do support (Perl, PHP, Miva,
etc.).

Again, you seem to have something personal again Tcl.  Try explaining the
problems you ran into instead of treating TCL like the plague.  You
instantly turn many people off to something that could very well make their
lives much easier.  Especially those who don't have oodles of time to learn
complex scripting languages.

BC