Where Is Tcl Hiding?

In basements, gadgets, and embedded in a multitude of applications, where it is silently humming along, working for many people without them being aware of its presence. For example, as Perl is often called the “duct tape of the Internet”, Tcl can be seen as its foundation, running quietly in numerous Cisco routers and other network management tools from companies like Muonics, ByteSphere and iDirect, ensuring that your bytes get where they belong. Further, consider the multitude of chips in our computers and gadgets. Many of them developed using eCAD systems provided by Mentor Graphics and others. Tcl is embedded into these for automation, customization, GUIs, and testing, ensuring that all these gadgets work as intended. Have you gone to the movies lately? Several visual effects companies provide products which have Tcl inside for control, automation, flexibility. Not just for niche movies, but block busters as well. The Orc armies in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy were, for example, animated by Massive Software’s crowd-simulation and 3d animation tool, where Tcl is used to automate large repetitive tasks. Tcl is often mistakenly considered a niche language, but it pops up in a surprisingly large variety of niches. It’s one of the best kept secrets behind the success of many applications and devices.