Re: What are the relative advantages of Python and Tcl?

Marc Wachowitz (mw@ipx2.rz.uni-mannheim.de)
12 Apr 1994 14:57:59 GMT

Ty Sarna (tsarna@endicor.com) wrote:
> This is stuff you pretty
> much _have to_ invent syntax for to make working with the tool
> comfortable, and you can either invent your own limited language (as
> sendmail does, as assemblers do, etc), or you can take an extensible
> language and add your syntax to it, producing a tool that's much more
> flexible. Neither Python nor Perl would be suitable choices for this
> kind of thing.

If you need both syntax extensions and complicated programs / data structures,
you might as well try elk, a scheme (kind of lisp) interpreter designed to be
used as extension language (elk means extension language kit). It has macros,
which make syntax extensions trivial as long as you are happy with the normal
set of tokens, which can then be structured by lists and arbitrary - supplied
by the macro writer - parsing code. Extending it with new data types/routines
is also possible.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* wonder everyday * nothing in particular * all is special *
Marc Wachowitz <mw@ipx2.rz.uni-mannheim.de>