Tcl (originally from "Tool Command Language", but conventionally rendered as "Tcl" rather than "TCL"; pronounced as "tickle" or "tee-cee-ell") is a scripting language created by John Ousterhout. Originally "born out of frustration"—according to the author—with programmers devising their own (poor quality) languages intended to be embedded into applications, Tcl gained acceptance on its own. It is commonly used for rapid prototyping, scripted applications, GUIs and testing. Tcl is used on embedded systems platforms, both in its full form and in several other small-footprinted versions. Tcl is also used for CGI scripting and as the scripting language for the Eggdrop bot.

The combination of Tcl and the Tk GUI toolkit is referred to as Tcl/Tk.

History

The Tcl programming language was created in the spring of 1988 by John Ousterhout while working at the University of California, Berkeley.

Date Event January 1990 Tcl announced beyond Berkeley (Winter USENIX). June 1990 Expect announced (Summer USENIX). January 1991 First announcement of Tk (Winter USENIX). June 1993 First Tcl/Tk conference (Berkeley). [table] geometry manager (forerunner of [grid]), [incr Tcl], TclDP and Groupkit, announced there. September 2002 Ninth Tcl/Tk conference (Vancouver). Announcement of starkit packaging system.

Tcl conferences and workshops are held in both the United States and Europe.