Tcl is widely used in EDA automation in general - it's not just an Intel thing. Xilinx, Synopsys, Cadence, and Mentor all use Tcl extensively, for example.
The issue with languages is that memory, CPU, and disk in the early 1990s are still fairly expensive. You need a language that is small yet still complete. Even today, the only languages that really fit that bill are Scheme/Lisp, Tcl, and Forth.
The memory limitations releasing are why you see the "stringly-typed" scripting languages like Tcl, Perl, etc. from the late 1980s transition to "dynamically typed" languages in the 1990s like Python, VB, later Ruby, Javascript, etc.
Tk popped up because GUI development at the time was utter shit (web doesn't exist, VB6 doesn't exist, etc.). It is really hard to describe just how much better Tk was than anything else in the time frame.
This[0] vs (from memory w/o a computer atm…):
#!/bin/env wish
button .b
.b configure -text “push me” -action {puts “don’t push me!”}
pack .b
======
#include <Xm/Xm.h>
#include <Xm/PushB.h>
/* Prototype Callback function */
void pushed_fn(Widget, XtPointer, XmPushButtonCallbackStruct *);
main(int argc, char **argv)
{ Widget top_wid, button;
XtAppContext app;
top_wid = XtVaAppInitialize(&app, "Push", NULL, 0, &argc, argv, NULL, NULL);
button = XmCreatePushButton(top_wid, "Push_me", NULL, 0);
/* tell Xt to manage button */
XtManageChild(button);
/* attach fn to widget */
XtAddCallback(button, XmNactivateCallback, pushed_fn, NULL);
XtRealizeWidget(top_wid); /* display widget hierarchy */
XtAppMainLoop(app); /* enter processing loop */
}
void pushed_fn(Widget w, XtPointer client_data, XmPushButtonCallbackStruct *cbs)
{
printf("Don't Push Me!!\n");
}Big missed opportunity for Tcl was the lack of a solid version of Tk for classic Mac (30 years ago). Would have made early Python less essential.
Lua?
It's used in (and used for?) a lot of embedding:
Lua is quite a bit larger than Tcl. In addition, no two Lua installations can ever agree on which modules they require (which makes the actual Lua binary even bigger).
Set package.path and package.cpath correctly.
Go find the original tarball versions from 1990 (maybe you have to go to Usenet sources!). Tcl was small.
I wonder if TCL 2.1 will compile with modern gcc?
Better to start with Jim Tcl or Picol.
Even something like Tiny Tcl would be a better start (I think it fit in 64K).
Maybe Io or REBOL fall into this category as well...? Or Logo...